I survived the great blackout in San Diego! If you haven’t heard about the recent electricity blackout, you can check out more about it here. People say it was a historic moment for the West coast. I have to agree with that statement!
I was driving back from some errands for work when it happened. I’m cruising through downtown San Diego and all of a sudden all the street lights were killed. Not even flashing, like they were all out completely! No big deal, I thought. I kept driving and driving and at this point I was pretty far away from downtown and the street lights were still out. When I finally got to work some of my coworkers told me what happened. They said the major grid in San Diego was killed and over a million people were without power!
As it turned out, it wasn’t just us here in San Diego. I guess parts of Mexico and Arizona lost power also. When we’ve lost power in the past it’s taken quite a few hours to get it back. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach and knew that it would be at least a day before the power came back on.
It was a surreal experience going home. All gas stations closed, restaurants clearing out their food, and every retail store without lights. I ended up driving around that night and was shocked at the quietness and lack of electricity around San Diego.
Later that night, I heard that Target was open so I thought I would go and check it out. You would not believe the long lines and what people were buying. I swear there was a line that wrapped around the store and people had carts full of candles and dry foods. It was shocking. It also reminded me that Americans are terrible about disaster preparedness.
As a lesson, I’ll be starting my own emergency preparedness kit and writing an article on it in the near future. It’s an important topic that everyone should be familiar with.
Now, what would a blackout be without some of my favorite links of the week! As usual, here are my top ten favorite articles of the week from around the Yakezie community. Enjoy!
Bowling leagues are dang expensive over at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
5 simple ways to take advantage of low interest credit cards over at Faithful With a Few
9 things to do when you retire over at Free from Broke
Is cash still king? I’m starting to have my doubts over at Life and my Finances
Leaving kids at home when school shopping? over at Everyday Tips and Thoughts
Pros and cons of cashback credit cards over at Live Real, Now
Homework spaces and places over at The Centsible Life
Rich people are going to hell over at Punch Debt in the Face
I bet against america. I’m not patriotic? over at Darwin’s Money
Katy Perry and personal finance: maxing out those credit cards over at Squirrelers
It’s been a busy week and have had friends and family visit me here in San Diego, so it’s been quiet on the staff writing front. Here are the few I wrote this week:
Wedding budgets: slash expenses with these 5 tips over at Christian PF
Mint.com Review over at Deliver Away Debt
Carnivals I was featured in this week-
Carnival of Wealth Fall Edition
Carnival of Financial Planning #198
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