Big San Diego Blackout 2011

How could I forget the Big San Diego Blackout of 2011?!
Ah, 2 years later and I reminisce over this incredible day.
The Good:
My neighbor cholo entrepeneur was selling Jesus, Virgencita and other prominent saints candles $ 5 each. For all your lighting and spiritual needs!
I got to drink beer and talk with my friends making actual eye contact over the candlelight.
We got some beer and munchies on sale.
Nobody had their faces buried in a glowing rectangles.
Impormptu glow-​in-​the-​dark parties in the park!
The Bad:
After a few hours we were kindda over it and wanted our glowing rectanbles back.
No ATMs no cash for more beer!
Traffic.
The Ugly:
Before leaving home I had to drive all the kids in our after school program home since trolleys weren’t running and that’s how 99% of the kids at the school I worked at get to and from school. I had the group of kids that lives in El Cajon. So I was stuck in traffic, somebody almost peed in the van, and didn’t get back until 7:00pm.

Well… if I have to give only one star, I guess this is where it should be. Please keep in mind that this was my first experience with a Big San Diego Blackout. I will gladly readjust my rating upon future visits.
San Diego is such a friendly town — there were no riots. People BBQ’d out on their front lawns and talked with their neighbors. Children did not play their Nintendos, Wiis or Facebook but rather played with each other out on the streets.
Went to Target (they had a generator and were open) to buy propane and ice. They were out… but my friend picked up some wine and a really cute pair of shoes.
Little Italy was SUCH a disappointment… so crowded, with people walking about, sampling food the restaurants were selling right out on the streets, drinking free beer on the streets (after all, what were the police going to do?), making pizza and everyone so amicable.

Funny! The San Diego Blackout on Thursday September 8, 2011 was one of those «where were you when it happened?» events. Your whole experience with this blackout depended on what you were doing when it happened and if you knew it was coming.
Personally, I was already off work and taking a nap on the couch with the TV on in the background around 4pm. I only knew anything happened because the TV turned off and I got a few texts from my peeps who were still working. I didn’t have to drive home or buy anything.
After prepping our apartment for when we return, we went to a friends house for a blackout BBQ. Brought some frozen chicken to grill, some snacks to munch on and of course the alcohol. It was fun to hang out with friends sans Internet & cell phones, although most of us were constantly checking to see if we got service or could find any news.
Everyone is predicting that there will be a surge of babies born in 9 months… but it was too damn hot and the power was off for less than a day (and less than 12 hours for most of us). I think the birth rate will be the same… Silly power outage.
A great reminder for all of us San Diegans to update (or even make) our Emergency Preparedness Kits! Make sure to have cash, candles, battery operated flashlights or candles and lots of nonperishable food. Time to get on it!

Dude, where’s my candlesticks? This solar powered flashlight thing isn’t working out. I need to stock up on my survivalist gear.
At least my local liquor store stayed open so we could stock up on tasty snacks and refreshing beverages. It’s nice that there wasn’t any price gouging or other shenanigans going on around here.
In retrospect, seeing utes’ pushing shopping carts of beer down the block with their open containers was funny. The temporary loss of electricity, goods, and services wasn’t the greatest, but gettin’ lewse in the dark was fun.

We were leaving the Linda Vista Farmers’ Market when it all went down…
Pros:
~Super Fresh Munchies (Peanut Butter Hummus, 3 Layer Pesto Dip, Jalapeño Lime Cilantro Hummus with pita chips)
~Cool ocean breeze
~ Utilizing the kids’ light sabers from SeaWorld
~Birthday Cake scented candles
Cons:
~No cell phone service= No Facebook
~Mosquitos
~I am not one for camping i.e. ‘roughing it’
~I hate the Amish
I would try the Blackout again, given proper notice & ample supply of beer.

PROS:
–Occured during my time at school and cancelled the rest of the classes. So happy because I had an Algebra test that evening and I definitely didn’t do enough studying the night before.
–Had enough gas to make it home.
–Didn’t have to work the following Friday
–Had two flashlights and some extra batteries on standby.
CONS:
–Had to occur during the heat of the day (4:00 p.m.)
–Took me nearly TWO HOURS to get from Miramar College to my home in La Mesa
–Cell Phone reception was very spotty for the first couple of hours
–Couldn’t sleep well at all. Even with all of the windows open it was still hotter than Hell. I swear I saw The Devil laughing at me as I was suffering through the unbearable heat with no A/​C or fan.
Electricity was restored at my place around 3:00 in the morning. Never again will I take an air conditioner for granted. Now I know how life was like in the 1800s.

Dance dance da-​da-​dancing in the dark!
So I must say, my 23^rd birthday involved many, many more candles (and a capella dance parties featuring Dev) than I had anticipated. I also enjoyed star-​gazing like I was in Yosemite. Oh, what inconvenient fun!

Would’ve been five stars, but the power came back on too soon, and I had to go to work on Friday — booo!
Big props to Bobby at OB Quik Stop for staying open and allowing us to get some Subway for dinner!

As blackouts go, this one was kinda lame. It happened while I was in class at SDSU. I had been reading on twitter that power was out everywhere but we still had power and my professor was still boring… I mean teaching our class. Finally we got our turn and campus was evacuated. After almost 2 hours in my car sitting in traffic I finally made it home. Once I had a beer the evening instantly got better!
I’d give the Blackout another try, maybe on a day where it isn’t excruciatingly hot outside. And maybe not on the first NFL game of the season. Maybe we can do this again in a month or so?

CONS:
–chaotic and dangerous out in the street with no traffic lights.
–it sucks esp. after I just did my grocery shopping and groceries in my trunk! and then the traffic!
–my cellphone signal was terrible I couldn’t FB!
–my ice cream were all half-​melted!
PROS:
–I beat my boyfriend in Connect Four 2x which I’ve never done with the lights on! LOL
–we had to eat all the melted ice cream, yahoo!
All in all, I don’t like Black-​outs. Good thing Oceanside were the first ones with power restored past 9pm so we slept sweetly that night *winks*

This is under arts & entertainment? Seriously? Pretty sure many people waiting hours in traffic to get home and running out of gas in the process wasn’t entertaining. Nor were the unfortunate situations for the old folks having to go to the hospital to make sure their oxygen tanks continued to work and didn’t do something nasty like… oh, I don’t know… blow up?
Still, on the good side, it was an opportunity to see that people in the San Diego Country area will act pretty decent to each other when under duress. And it was a good test to see how prepared we all were when it comes to an emergency. I know my stock of batteries needs to be improved on, as well as getting a store of matches and a battery operated fan. It was also neat to see the pretty sky at night with all the bright starts, including one shooting star (not telling you what I wished for, but c’moooooon Lotto!) and it wasn’t the most terrible thing in the world to be «unplugged» from it.

Loved it.
Was a nice mini-​vacation to a simpler time, and the best day I’ve had in awhile.

unplugged — the reUNION tour …
light traffic on the cruise down PCH from CARLSBAD to ENCINITAS. stopped at UNION TAP for PROSCIUTTO FLATBREAD and a SPICY PEAR martini. glad i almost always have a little cash on hand. folding green comes in handy when ATM’s and credit cards are AWOL. pretty mellow crowd with every body sipping something cold and frosty and riding out the situation.
light traffic on the cruise up the coast home.
often smugly claim to be a LUDDITE at heart (look NED LUDD up – that’s why GOD invented WICKIPEDIA) and found out that that might actually be true. was kinda nice not spending an evening enveloped in a steady stream of white noise, staring mindlessly at my giant flatscreen (or even the small one since the wife has the NFL and MLB apps). missed PACKERS v SAINTS and was mercifully spared another nine innings of PADRES disappoint (unlike last night suffering thru their giving up a late game lead and then not being able to get GUZMAN home in the ninth after he doubled).
candles (mostly LED’s — i’m not that much of a LUDDITE) and the kids in bed early made for a cozy evening.
they only hard part was getting to the office friday and realizing i had an extra couple hours of work. kids were pretty excited about the ad lib vacation day from school — mom not so much.

Good wake up call !!!
The apartment will be fragrant for daysss b/​c of all the candles

Negative stars for not happening on Friday instead, being stuck at work, and the massive traffic. But bonus points for finding a local brewery by work that was open so we could drink a bunch of beer and get drunk! It was a bizarre day, and if the weather wasn’t so effing hot, I might have given this 4 stars. Maybe.

Besides the horrendous traffic I was stuck in… this blackout turned out to be pretty exciting!
So here goes my story…
As I leave Costco my gas light turns on… uh oh! No AC for me. So I sit in an hour of traffic to get to Mission Valley and end up pullin over and parking on the street to avoid running out of gas. I end up being able to walk faster than the cars…
Next is pool time! The whole neighborhood was there! We ended up BBQing quesadillas and drinking wine by the pool.
The we walked all over the neighborhood to Target which has just closed… oh well. We had to laugh at the people waiting in that effing RIDICULOUS line!
After our adventure we hunker down inside with our candles, candy, wine, and shitty movie on the laptop.
All in all… we had a fabulous time :)
PS: Make sure next time to coordinate the candle scents… pineapple tropical does not mix with kitchen spice…

Leave it up to us Unilocalers to review a blackout!
This blackout was stupid. None of us ever expected it to happen. The only candles I had were Christmas scented. And the only store I could find open in my side of Mission Valley as the Sports Authority. I have to give them kudos for being open, giving great deals on flashlights, and letting people watch the football game.
It was hot. Very, very hot. And I was supposed to have people over for dinner, so I had a lot of food. Luckily someone in our complex started up the BBQ so I was able to cook some of it out there. But still. Nothing was open that we knew of, phones weren’t working, and traffic was just insane. It would have been quicker to walk downtown from Mission Valley than to drive there if I needed to get there for some reason.
Schools were closed today. Well, except for my pathetic school. What does that tell you? Greed at its finest.
Glad everyone has their power back. This will be a night that I won’t ever forget. And I’m going to buy regular candles this weekend, not just Christmas tree or sugar cookie scented ones.

I had a blast!
Pizza. Beer on ice. Wine in glass. Friends on couches.

That’s waycist!
If all I had to do was go to bed for the power to come back on, I would have done it a lot sooner.
On the bright side (seewhatididthere), I finally had a chance to use the scented candles I got from Marshall’s two Christmases ago.

Pros
–Beer drinking in the street
–A reason to use the flashlight app on my phone
–Blackout parties
−7−11 liquidation sales
–A reason to talk to those neighbors you’ve never met
Cons
–People literally go nuts without electronics
–Hot as balls
–Everyone still had to work the next day
–Stuck in traffic for 2 hours
–No ATM’s equals no cash equals you’re fucked if you want to buy anything.