At 4:15pm I had just finished posting a note to some loser on Fark telling him his interpretation of the First Amendment was all wrong.  I hit 'Submit', redisplayed the thread, re-read my well crafted flame and then --pop--.  All the power went out.  Now that's not unusual where I live.  The wiring in this apartment is old and the power goes out quite frequently only to come back on again in 15 minutes.  So I went outside to check the mail thinking that by the time I got back upstairs the juice would be flowing again.  But it wasn't.  It was only 4:30 and it was already maddening not being able to turn on my computer. 

Stars called me and she said the power was out there too and in fact, the power was out from NYC to Detroit.  What the hell?  I don't even have a battery-powered radio so I just laid on the couch until I fell asleep.  The apartment is so dark without lights that I couldn't even read or take a bath.  So at 6:30 Stars got home and as I was waking I was thinking surely the power is back on now?  But no.  Crap.  No radio, no Internet, can't open the fridge.  Can't do JACK SQUAT! 

Stars' friend was coming over from Toronto and when she did we all decided to get the boot out of the apartment because it was pitch black and we didn't have any candles.  So we jumped in the car which made me happy because now we have radio and A/C.  Great.  It was pretty spooky because everything was closed and there were no traffic signals working anywhere.  Poor Sabit was on top of his store with a shotgun! 

One thing I didn't realize about power outages is that when the power goes out, the Highway Traffic Act immediately becomes invalid.  People were scooting through intersections instead of treating them as four way stops.  Apparently even the street signs change because we saw one guy going the wrong way on Bay. 

We were driving around trying to find a place to eat.  The only thing I could think of that might be open is Smitty's.  Smitty is probably the best hot dog vendor in North America.  He's been on CNN, CTV, CityTV, blah blah blah.  His hot dogs are like nothing you've ever had and he's got the best toppings EVER!  I'm talking wine sauce, strips of bacon, 13 different mustards, (he goes to the States once a month to buy them all because they're not available here) homemade relish and anything else you can think of.  I really should do an article on the guy.  Anyway he wasn't there.  So we drove around some more and saw that people were parked in the lot in front of Little Caesar's.  What was happening was that people saw people were parked there so they were going in the lot.  Then other people saw that, figured they were open and then they drove in themselves.   But they were stone closed too.  Looking across the street I saw that all the Magic nerds were standing outside the Comic Connection.  lol.  I guess their cards were locked inside and they couldn't leave.  Mind you, the power had now been off for THREE HOURS!  And they were still standing there.

Driving through Westdale we saw people were walking out of the Pita Pit.  We asked one guy if they were open and he said they were but they were 'all out.'  WTF?  So we went in.  They were open and selling pitas because they had a gas griddle.  Luckily we all had cash.  It was ice cream they were out of, mainly because they had been giving it away for free.  So all three of us ate our pitas in the dark wondering how long the mayo had been left  unrefrigerated.  Then we figured that if they were giving out ice cream free then others might be as well.

We went across the street to the one variety store in Hamilton that was still open and found they did have ice cream but it was a buck a cup.  It was still a good deal so we bought some and some other things like bottled water and chocolate bars. 

Back on the street it was starting to get dark so we went back to the apartment.  Stars' friend had left for Toronto again and the street by this time was absolutely pitch black.  We had little flashlights so that helped.  Stars and I decided to try to walk to my dad's but after a block we gave up.  It was just too creepy.  Other people were out with flashlights as well.  Besides, I had earlier walked to my dad's but since I couldn't buzz his apartment it was kind of pointless.

I taped two Maglite penlights to my glasses. 
They worked perfectly in helping me see and this photo of me wearing them was just gravy.

The next few hours were spent telephoning people because that's all we could do.  Stars wanted to drive to her dad's but I shot her down because we had no idea what was happening downtown in the way of looting and whatnot and I didn't want to take the chance.  Although it was tempting because her dad has one of those ultra-cool windup radios which, oddly enough, I had just been drooling over when the lights went out.

The view of the street outside the apartment around 11:00.  Seriously.

Finally at around midnight the power came back and I never felt better.  All in all, it was pretty exciting.  Although it goes to show you how sick and fat Canadians are because when I walked over to my dad's I saw that the park was FILLED with people playing badminton, playing on the swings, playing guitar or whatever.  I've never seen that before.  What?  The only time we'll go outside is when our PS2s aren't working?  And hey, I admit, I'm as guilty as anyone. 

Oh and one more thing.  I hope those hippies are happy about how they've been able to keep nuclear power down for so long.  I'm sure that windmill in Toronto was helping and all but I WANT NUCLEAR POWER and LOTS OF IT!  It's crazy.

Click here to see the movie I made commemorating this great event. (Quicktime)