Mono Monday : : Lines

I confess I cheated on today's post which was taken on Saturday as we crossed the Carquinez Bridge. It seemed more appropriate for the challenge than our trip to REI to get solar powered lamps, battery powered headlamps and a bathtub plug that actually keeps the water in. It was sort of fun, as we were reminded of many happy days of backpacking, but our real reason for going there was less fun. We have been warned again that our power may be turned off to prevent PG&E's equipment from catching fire.*

We haven't even had time to decide if we want to get a generator and if so, which one. We're telling ourselves that we'll just pretend we're backpacking, but I just hope we don't have to resort to eating the Backpacker'sPantry Chain Mai Coconut Curry recommended by a young man in REI.

We had to go to three hardware stores to find a bathtub stopper. Apparently we aren't the only ones whose tub didn't hold water overnight. Neither does our toilet tank, but we haven't had time to get a plumber in to fix it. A lady in the third hardware store told us about freezing liter bottles of water and placing them in the fridge if the power goes off. It will keep the fridge cold and perhaps prevent us from having to throw away what little food we have had a chance to put in there since the last power outage.

I'd better go now and see if PG&E has improved their website in the last ten days. Last time it crashed when they called everybody and told them to go there and find out if their power was going to be turned off. Receiving the exact same message (with a different 13 character code) does not inspire confidence...



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