Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 27, 2021

Awww, there’s plenty of time for that. I wonder if they have a Whoopie Candle? 8^ )

I know “kick back” means “relax”, but I don’t understand why. Kicking is an energetic process, and kicking in retaliation doesn’t sound at all relaxing.

I can’t imagine anyone not having flashlights, candles, and even oil lamps ready.

Your phone, Janis, your phone! Oh, she’s got it! Dang! Using battery tho! Candles it is.

Lost power for a few hours just yesterday. It was daytime and the power was not out long enough for the house to get cold. When that happens I fire up the portable generator and plug in some extension cords to run lights and the wood-pellet stove.

She’s always got her phone close at hand…

and I’m pretty sure Arlo has his.

Yeah, it uses a little bit of battery, but not much in the time it takes to find candles or flashlights.

Personally, I bought about 5 small flashlight lanterns at a discount store a few years ago…

You pull up the top and it has two mini fluorescent-style bulbs, very bright.

$1.99 apiece, and they each take 4 AA batteries, which last for hours.

I know where they all are, even in the dark…

and a stash of extra batteries.

One by my computer chair, one in the kitchen, etc.

It “helps” I suppose that my place is tiny…

but still… I haven’t lit a candle during an outage in years.

Flashlights are brighter and much safer.

No flame or CO2.

The first thing to do when the power goes out is to eat all the ice cream, you don’t want it to go to waste! Anything else is just minor, not important.

Cats and candles are a dangerous mix.

When I got home from work, our power was out. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the temperature was a little bit warmer. Things get mighty cold when it’s only 10 degrees.

I’ve trained myself to yell really really loud so my neighbors can hear me in the darkness.

The power goes out so often where I live that we have a whole-house generator, fed by a 500 gallon propane tank. It will run for weeks, if needed. That way our outages only last 15 seconds – and I have the computers on battery backups. Not romantic or nostalgic, but highly effective.

I have three battery powered flashlights, one “permanent” light, and a box of Sabbath candles. They get more use than they should in a first-world country.

Just have to feel your way around, Janis. Heh heh.

I have a question for y’all. What is your over-under on how many times you walk into a room and “flip on the light switch” when the power is out?

Red sky at night means Arlo’s delight. Light a few candles in the bedroom, Arlo.

I’d tell him to use batteryless flashlights like we have but there’d be too many interruptions to crank the handle if he wanted to keep the lights on.

We dont have any candles or matches any more. Batteries are dead. Oh I have a light on my phone. Welcome to the neo-mdoern era.

I just bought a USB-Chargeable keychain flashlight with two brightness settings. It touts the “bright” setting as powerful enough to temporarily blind an attacker. As well as several strategically-placed battery flashlights, I have one that you shake that will then give you a number of seconds of good light.

Salutes to the colorist for the third panel. Lovely, and all the more for its transcient nature.

I still try to go in to a room and flip on the lights…only to say “oh crap”

These two are about the age of my in-laws, and that generation ALWAYS has matches somewhere!

A Billy Joel kind of comic. “A bottle of red, a bottle of white.”

I have a landline as there isn’t cell service in this area. I keep a flashlight in every room including the garage, have 6 oil lamps. If the power is out longer I have 3 Coleman lanterns, also have a wood stove. The one thing I don’t have is a cell phone with a light, LOL

What mobile phone does not have a light?

So Janis: yeah, the blackout is fun for about half an hour, during sunset. Then it is about 6 pm. Things get boring REAL fast, and the night goes on….and on……by the second night, you are dreading the upcoming boredom of the blackout. By the third night……

They are actually using the proper stemware!

Candles are too dangerous, where are the battery powered flashlights?

I’ve got a small solar light that hangs out next to the south window so it charges daily. It’s not very tall, has its own stand and when lit is very bright. The charge lasts a long time—much longer than it would take to get out the candles in the dining room. In all the years I’ve had it, it has never needed a replacement battery. But our power comes in underground. In the 40+ years we have been in this house, we have rarely lost it for more than a few hours—12 hours during Hurricane Isabel, and for 3 days after the the 2012 derecho (during a 99+degree heat wave.)

time to go in the bedroom and practice you brail.

For decades couples have been able to find creative entertainment when there’s no light…

Surely they have flash lights or lanterns

I took it to mean that they should have gotten them out while there was still enough light to see & find them.

Problem is that sunset is at 5:00 when we’re on standard time.

I lived two blocks from a hospital for 26 years. The longest outage was probably an hour. Evidently our block was part of the emergency grid set up around the hospital so it always had backup power. Same for my sister and the nursing home across the street from her.

I love today’s strip. Had a great visit with my adult son last time we had an extended outage. We’re all set for a “cold weather” outage (we live in the southeast), but tropical storm Zeta in October showed we didn’t have refrigeration for the medications that require it. I’ll be getting a generator and probably a dorm fridge before warm weather returns.

Am I the only one who noticed that they have both the appropriate wine glasses for red and for white?

We used to keep getting those small free flashlights from Harbor Freight and have them stowed in the house and cars. When we went through Sandy a few years back we each walked around the house with one in a pocket. Second day after we decided to go for a walk and see what was going on. Unusual for this are we live within walking distance of stores. We had headed, by chance, south, and ended up at the main cross road – husband noticed people walking with supermarket bags coming from the supermarket 3 blocks away, so of course we had to go. The store was not selling cold items as the cases had not had electricity for too long, but they were selling the other items and we joined the other looking at canned soups and such. I had trouble seeing to the back of the shelves in the dim light- and without even thinking, pulled the little flashlight out – one woman was so impressed. (Now the free lights are not flashlights and bigger and heavier.)

We have other flashlights. We have candles. We had bought an electric lantern to use while setting up our RV and then realized it attracted every bug in the RV park so now we keep home for emergencies – it has a rechargeable pack to use in it or it take batteries. Along with plugging in all our laptops and cell phones (as mentioned elsewhere – even old ones) to charge, the pack is put in to charge. He also bought some rechargeable packs which can be reused to recharge cell – they also get plugged in. All currently plugged in until this 3 day storm is gone. We have one oil lamp, but rarely use it.

It is the furnace going off which is THE problem with no electricity. No furnace means not only no heat, but water pipes freezing and bursting and big dollars which we don’t have to fix them.

Lastly (I promise) -

We live a one car driveway from the house next door on either side. If we on driveway and they were in their backyard they probably would not hear us due to the road noise of the cars passing by.