Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for June 25, 2024

Last time Anne had the foresight to push to spend a call to the utility company. Smart move there.

You non-conformist Luddite!

Arlo = hard-core old school.

Usually, I just look out a window to see if there are lights in the other houses or not.

I come from a time when “conserving phone charges” meant keeping your long-distance calls under 10 minutes.

Are they back home?

The horrors!!!!

You absolute madman.

When you call to report an outage you get a recording. I sit and wait. If it’s in the daytime I grab my keys and go.

Just stick your head out the window and yell.

“Anthony! Anthony!”

OOPS, my bad. This isn’t Wednesday.

Since I’ve seen Janis have to consult her phone to determine what the weather is when she is standing outside, the concept of not using her phone and walking next door to gather information on whether or not the entire block is dark must be entirely lost on her.

My phone charger is plugged into the same power backup unit that runs the lights and computer. I usually don’t know when the power is out unless I hear the unit click.

In an emergency that’s what many of the Amish do, or at least the ones in Lawrence, TN do.

Not just thinking outside the box, but stomped the box flat.

Going next door was his second idea.

Time and plot are but trivial details in the world of A&J

Isn’t that where the single gal lives? Or is she down the street?

Arlo you Luddite!

Looks like their lights are on.

Eureka!

☝️ (ʘ ͜ʖ ʘ) ☀️

Just make the darned call. Seems like every time there’s a storm or squirrel related tragedy these days, people blow it up into the end of the world scenario. Thank you Covid! Yet, if it really was the “End of the world”, they’d be sadly ill prepared!

Once at an RV park the power went out and some woman started banging on people’s RVs asking them if their power was also out.

When our power goes out, the lights across the street are still on!! Different circuit!

I appreciate my power provider. They show you a map of all current outages, start time, estimated finish times and the mapped area affected.

Oh man, the concept!

Just call the utility company and report the outage. If other houses are out, they will tell you, Streetlights, sometimes, can be a good indicator.

Arlo you radical you, walking next door

Nevada energy has sent me a call and a text within 5 minutes of an outage. They also send updates and when the problem has been resolved. Whereas Cox, an internet provider can’t seem to notify anyone.

Brilliant…….and funny

Sounds like a plan.

Attaboy Arlo……

Seems like an awfully abrupt end to the “let’s move to the Coast” plot line.

I still visit with my neighbors outside, not often because we are all busy, but when we are out at the same time, we take time to visit and catch up.

We can sign up for text messages from the power company when the power goes out and comes back on.

I’d text a neighbor. If I have to call anyone I text them first to warn them.

wait…an’ an’… talk to your neighbor?!… GASP!

Looking out the window works really well. Several years ago during a northern Calif. storm our power was out for a week. After the week the storm was still raging but when I looked out the window I saw that our closest neighbor, 1/2mile away, had their lights on. The nearby church on the other side had their lights on. Called PG&E and asked why we didn’t have power and there response was that we did, no we didn’t. After about an hour a PG&E service truck pulled into the ranch and the worker apologized. They forgot that we had our own circuit breaker on the poll. Hey they’ve been up for most of a week, no problems, Thank You.

You can always charge the phones in the car.

As long as they know their neighbors and it isn’t after dark. Recent news about a young kid’s brother going to pick him up at friend’s home. Stopped at wrong address. Oops! Shot in the chest by paranoid homeowner- shoot first ask questions later. Another was teenagers going somewhere after dark, turned around in paranoid homeowner driveway out in the country, one dead.

Arlo, you can’t be serious. Talk to the neighbor in person? Outrageous.

And therein shall lie your whole dam reason for NOT moving in!!

Radical idea Arlo!

I got some great light bulbs that charge, as they are used, and when the power goes out, they usually either just stay on, or, come on when they detect an interruption in service.Those have really helped, during a blackout.

Overseas, power went out in the house. Main breaker was tripped. Turned off all the switches then slowly turned them back on one at a time. Every time I got to the kitchen, boom. (Great, fridge or stove?) Wife commented son had come running out of the kitchen like a bat out of hell. Yep. Fork in the toaster. Everything was fine after that, although I don’t think he ever asked for Pop-Tarts again.

so apparently they went back home.

Before our telephone company made us switch to digital service the one we thing we were always sure of was that it was extremely rare to lose telephone service no matter what else went down. Then we had to switch to digital service – so now, no electricity again, no phone service again – what an “improvement” in service.

We each have a cell phone, but his is pay as he goes so we only use mine for phone calls and it is not kept plugged in all the time to always be on a full charge as it is rarely used.

Email is checked on our computers and so needs electricity unless want to use up the battery in my laptop.

I really miss analog telephone service – it was so much more reliable!