No juice, no go

Charged
Toronto, ON
July 2013
Thematic. Technological. Here.

Once upon a time, when the power went out, folks simply found something else to do. I'm just old enough (shudder) that I remember typing my very first term papers in elementary school on a manual typewriter. If Hydro Quebec decided to have a bad day, I either moved the typewriter closer to the window or found a candle and kept working.

Today, everything kinda stops dead when the juice stops flowing. While battery-powered devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops will indeed keep working for as long as they can hold a charge, the networks that give them life often aren't much use during a power failure. So while you can certainly play Angry Birds, you may have to keep your new high score to yourself until the rest of the world is back in the world of the powered.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but most of us nevertheless wander around like bumbling morons as soon as the lights go out.

All this over-the-top technological dependence is rather amusing to watch until you find yourself approaching a traffic light-controlled intersection only to realize you're surrounded by brain-addled automatons who don't understand that darkened lights mean it's now a four-way stop. Too busy playing Angry Birds at the wheel, I guess.

Your turn: What do you do when the power goes out?