Powering Down

 

Broadcasting from my car, 2020

Well, Old Man Winter (or whatever this thing is called*) is attacking Greenwich this morning.

However, it's not feet of snow. It's rain -- lots of rain (and maybe ice) -- along with wind. The wind, of course, could bring on power outages.

Thus, I'm writing early while we still have power.

*I refuse to use those Weather Channel-approved winter storm names. Look, I love the Weather Channel and watch it far more than I watch any news channel, but the names are silly, no matter how much they try to convince me of them. They are, to me, hokum (simply because hokum is a great word).

As for the power scenario, well, much like my broadcasts (and, literally, my life) I do have the ability to fake it to make it. "What-ifs" roll around my skull all the time.

"What if we lose power and I need internet?" 

So long as cell towers aren't down I can relocate somewhere and work off my phone's hotspot. Or go somewhere that has power and internet and use theirs, of course. 

Never rule out the idea of, say, being out at home and me relocating to WGCH (assuming they have power). It wouldn't be the first time I've slept there!

But, yeah, I'm always thinking about a workaround and am happy that, as of now, I don't have to use it.

It will always remind me of that crazy tropical storm (Isaias) that walloped up in Aug 2020. We lost power around 2 p.m. that day and I was certain I'd not do "Doubleheader" but an exchange with Bob Small at WGCH convinced me to do the show if possible.

Look, radio is meant to be live and local. Now, there was no way I was getting to Greenwich that day, but if I could go live from somewhere, that's what is best for our audience, and I'm connected enough that I could make the content local. 

However, cell signals were bad and the internet was out at home. So I needed to figure something out.

If you don't remember, I loaded up my car with equipment and drove to nearby Baldwin Place (Somers) to see if I could find a good place to connect. Initially, I was going to try to sit in the parking lot of the Somers Commons Shopping Center but the cell signal was just not acceptable. Turned out, of course, that the local cell towers had paid a toll in the storm.

I drove up the hill on US 6, back in Mahopac where a McDonald's is. If they had power, they might have free Wi-fi.

Oh, you might also recall that we were in the middle of a pandemic in Aug 2020 so strolling into a McDonald's, buying a cup of coffee and some French fries to make sure you're a customer, and plopping down at a table wasn't realistic to say the least. Nor would it be allowed.

I pulled into the parking lot and hoped to ping from my car. It didn't work but what did work was just enough cell service to survive.

So I did the show from my car.

At that point, content isn't the most important thing. Oh, I could try to report about power outages and things that I've seen and heard but, in this case, it's being on the air in case something happens that needs to be reported.

I did the show, packed up, and went back home. 

Oh, but I also had to get us dinner. 

And, for the love of this silly Project 365 streak, I went back out and wrote a quick post.

We were often quite fortunate in that we got power back reasonably during an outage since a substation was just up the hill from the house. Power came back on not long after and we got on with our lives. We were out for roughly eight hours.

A power outage, actually, can be good for the soul. Not that I want one. But it can force us to read, converse, and get creative even in ways to simply be active.

Again: I don't want to lose power. I suppose I'm just trying to find a silver lining.

So, to play it safe, I'm composing nice and early.

Written and posted by 9:45 a.m.

Let's call that a win.