September 09, 2011

Blackout Lifted...

For those of you here in Southern California, welcome back from the darkness. Yesterday afternoon we experienced a massive power outage that stretched from Yuma, AZ to the coast; and up and down the coast from Orange County to Ensenada, Mexico. I was just getting ready to post on this blog when the power went out. Really. I swear.

To be completely honest, for me, the lack of power was amazing! First of all, I don't have air-conditioning. The 100+ degree weather was brutal, but the knowledge that nobody else had AC felt like a cool breeze. Secondly, my house does not have an elevator. No chance of getting stuck on my stairs! Thirdly, I was able to convince the kids out in the cul-de-sac to stop their noisy squirt gun battle and return to their homes immediately. I'm sure their parents appreciated my instructions to open their freezers every five minutes to make sure they weren't defrosting.

It wasn't all a bed of roses. Warnings were posted on twitter by San Diego Gas & Electric (thankfully my iPhone had a full charge) that the power would not be restored for at least 24 hours, and customers should immediately enact their Family Emergency Plans. Our emergency plan consisted of cooking hot dogs on the BBQ and quickly drinking all the beer in the fridge before it got warm. That was the extent of our plan, so I was looking for something to keep me entertained.

I tried to think of what people did before electricity. Aside from painting on cave walls and succumbing to the bubonic plague, I couldn't think of anything. It was starting to get dark, so I lit some candles and pulled out a box of baseball cards that needed sorting. I imagined a young man back in the middle ages doing the exact same thing. (Well, not exactly! He would be sorting soccer cards.) 

I got about half way through the box of junk wax treasures when I hit some real gems! Apparently, I had stashed some of my vintage Star Wars cards along with the baseball stuff. I rushed downstairs to scan the cards, but was disappointed to find that my scanner doesn't work without power. I had to wait until now to show you these amazing finds:

1962 Boba Fett Special

1970 Grand Moff Tarkin Booklet

1971 Greedo/Han Solo Tattoos (Graded 6!!!)


Power was restored early this morning, less than 12 hours after it went out... I wish I wouldn't have finished all those beers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When did SW come out? What's the story behind these cards?

PunkRockPaint said...

I made them. That's what I do. I make fake cards, then make up stories about finding 'em.

I failed to mention that during the blackout I was stuck on an escalator for over four hours. Horrific.

Matthew Glidden said...

With that double Solo / Greedo tattoo, at least there's no question of who was graded first.