BLACKOUT
(Monday) We lost power for about an hour this evening. The blackout was contained in a one mile radius around our house. All the air-conditioners and fans came to a sudden halt and people were drinking lots of beer in their front yards with their neighbors. No one seemed in the least bit concerned. We had about a two-minute power outage throughout Turlock at about 8 a.m. this morning. Who knows if the incidents are at all related.

Some of you are wondering why this is a big deal. It's only significant in that we rarely have power problems in Turlock. This is the longest we've lost power since we moved here 9 years ago. Even when California was doing the brownout thing last year we had stable power. A little problem like this reminds us that overall we really do have great service through TID -- our local publicly owned utility -- proof that government can work.