All About When The Lights Go Out -

I apologize for how quiet it’s been on the blog. With Lise out this week I’ve been working my tail off to fill her big shoes. (Not that I have a tail, nor does Lise have big feet. These are just expressions, mind you.)

BUT we do have some big news! It’s just that I can’t tell you quite yet because I think Thomas may want to tell you himself.

(UPDATE: Yes, he did!)

BUT I will say that it has to do with preparing for winter storms on the coast (hey, weren’t we just talking about that?). And so – on that stormy theme – I want to share with you some important tips for power blackouts.

Here are just a few of the more intriguing tips from the list:

If you have an electric garage door opener, find out where the manual release lever is located and learn how to operate it.
If you use a generator, connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator. Do not connect a generator to a home’s electrical system.
Keep your car fuel tank at least half full because gas stations rely on electricity to power their pumps.
A car battery also can be used with a wheelchair but will not last as long as a wheelchair’s deep-cycle battery.

P.S. On another power outage-related note, I want to give a shout out to PGE who sent safety tips out to all their customers and posted a basic emergency checklist on their website without any prompting from us.

photo via flickr user Joe Gatling