I'm still in the dark. It's been 26 hours since our power went out on Thursday August 14 at 4:14 pm. I was at work at the time and just thought it was a regular black out. Then I started hearing rumblings that all of Ontario was affected. And then, the northeastern United States as well. Can you believe that? It was quite an interesting day actually. Here's how it played out for me:

4:14: heard the news
4:14 - 4:45: talking to a co-worker about my customer meeting for friday (trying to prepare for it)
4:45 - 5:10: surfing the net at work trying to find out more info about the blackout after hearing from my dad about the magnitude
5:15: left the office (with less than a quarter tank of gas - i'll tell you that story in a bit...)
5:20: as I was driving, I thought "I don't have enough gas to make it home in stop and go traffic - that will take about 2 or 3 hours cause the roads are so crazy cause everyone is frantic and left work early. So I decided to drive to the Esso station to fill up my gas. I got to the gas station (after 20 minutes for what should be a 2 minute drive) and pulled up to a pump only to realize (cause I'm an idiot and didn't clue in earlier) that the pumps weren't working.
5:40 - 6:10: there were about 20 cars just parked under the shade at the gas station and all of the occupants (including me) were just chilling in the shade talking with each other and hanging out. Most of those people actually didn't have gas so they were even worse off. I at least had about 1/4 tank.
6:10: spoke to my parents again and then called Kristian on the pay phone (cause my cell phone wasn't working cause the Networks were over run). Kristian wasn't home but I spoke with his cousin (who just arrived from Trinidad one day before). She told me I could come over and chill there till Kris got home cause he was expected home in 30 minutes.
6:15: I got in my car and drove to Kris' place on side streets. I avoided most traffic which was good and the drive only took about 15 minutes. Along the way, I passed many good samaritans directing traffic in the streets. It was totally awesome and I really wanted to do that. Everyone was honking at the them and saying thanks, people were giving them water and hats. It was a really cool sight.
6:30: I arrived at Kris' and chilled with his cousin until he called
7:00: We drove to Streetsville GO station to pick up Kristian who got off the train and walked to a side street to meet us.
7:15: to Sobey's to try and pick up food for a BBQ but they weren't selling anything
7:20: back to Kris' and we raided his freezer. All the meat we could find (pork chops, chicken breasts, steaks, hot dogs) - we thawed all of it and started marinating. Also did some veggies, corn and beans.
7:30: Kris' sister arrives
7:40: Kris' parents arrive.
8:00: we start grilling.
8:30 - 9:30: we ate such a feast. The food was awesome. The funny thing is that the second we were done cooking, the gas in his bbq tank finished. We were praying that we would have enough gas and we totally did. So that worked out really well.
9:30: went for a walk in Kris' neighbourhood searching for some fire wood cause we wanted to make a little bonfire in Kris' bbq. Everyone in his neighbourhood was out chilling and kids were playing. It was realy cool to see the sense of community.
9:50: Kris built a bonfire and we played some cards (I was the a-hole too many times)
10:15: went to the park to chill and look at the stars, etc (Damn, it was such a clear night and the moon was so big and bright. It was absolutely perfect and I totally wish there was no light pollution like that more often)
11:00: I decided it was time to leave and go back to Scarborough. The lights were still out and it was going to be an interesting drive. I was just hoping I had enough gas to get me there. Along the way, cops were directing traffic at busy intersections, some lights were back on but for the most part - it was darkness. I noticed a lot of office buildings had full power (guess they have their own generators or something. But that is damn annoying and what a waste of electricity. They are unoccupied over night yet every floor has to be lit up.
11:35: Along the way home, I was at Bayview and my gas warning light went on. I was so close so I kep going with my fingers crossed. I pulled into my driveway at 11:50 and was fine. I probably have a tablespoon of gas left but it's all good - I got home AND I didn't have to abandon my car on the highway.
12:30: I was in bed after taking a shower and just sitting and doing nothing for a little while.

What a memorable day...

Today, I woke up at 7:00 am only to find that the power was not back. I didn't have any gas so I couldn't go to work to my appointment. Also, Premier Ernie Eves declared a state of emergency in the province of Ontario and Mayor Mel Lastman was pleading with citizens not to leave home if they didn't need to. I called my customer and rescheduled the appointment.

It's now 6:00 pm and I still don' thave power. That is about 26 hours that we have been with out. I am at a parents friends place right now with my 'rents. We came for tea this afternoon and I've just been chilling.

Tonight, I'm supposed to go out downtown but not sure if that is a viable plan anymore. The power is not totally on yet in all of downtown and now with the "rolling blackouts" people with power now may be affected later. This whole "rolling blackout" concept is really annoying cause it hasn't rolled to parts of Scarborough, North York or Etobicoke yet. Whereas, parts of downtown Toronto, Mississauga, Markham, Richmond Hill all have full power. What is even more frustrating with that is the people who have power have their AC on, are probably watching loads of TV and/or on the computer (something I'm doing right now) when the city is asking them to do none of those things and conserve electricity. The problem is that if too much is used again - there will be an overhaul on the grid and we could lose power again. So they are going to be doing rolling blackouts for the next couple days to ensure everyone has power. My beef though is that places like Mississauga have had power since 1:00 am last night. What about us? I hope I am not ranting but I am interested to find out how they choose who gets power and who doesn't. This is just my theory right now but it seems that all the "richer" areas have had power a lot more/longer than the "dredges" of Toronto like Scarborough and Etobicoke. I can't substantiate this at all...but it's just a theory at this time.

Some cool observations though have been that kids are outside playing. It's funny cause callers into radio stations have said they had no idea there were so many kids living on their streets. What does that say? Basically the generation of kids these days is inside all the time watching TV and playing video games. Gone are the days of playing outside and having fun with your friends. Hopefully an event like this changes that. Also, the line-ups for gas today have been ridiculous. Some stations have been fortunate (or unfortunate) to re-open and as a result, there have been lines of 60 or 70 cars (up to 3 hour waits) for gas. It boggles my mind because all of these people have to have gas (in case of an emergency). My Protege is sitting on the driveway with no gas but I am fortunate to have another car to use... I'll go tonight and fill up my gas when it's not as crowded.

In New York - there were all sorts of people sleeping on the streets last night because it was just too hot to do anything else. People in Toronto and New York had to escape the subway as well cause the trains stopped running. Although there was all this good stuff going on, there was some crime (looting, fires, etc) in Toronto, NYC and Detroit but there definitely wasn't as much as was expected.

All in all...an incredible ordeal and an incredible day. There really were interesting things that came out of it in the end. The power of people and the kindness exhibited by most was fantastic. It really speaks volume to the way crisis can bring people together.

My one suggestion for governments is to turn the power off every now and then for an evening. Last night (cause the weather was perfect as well) was absoulutely beautiful.