Now that my place finally has power again after eight days and I can be home in my own space I guess I should think about Next Time. Since surely there's going to be more extreme weather and extended outages and stuff. Gotta bottle up the pessimism and depression and look forward to future suffering.

So the little gas stove I bought to travel with worked well. The only downside is that while the butane fuel cylinders aren't expensive or impossible to find, they're not an on-shelves item. Like I can order a case through Home Depot for not a whole lot and ship it to a store for pickup. So... I should do that. Because it was very lucky for me that I wasn't under a boil water notice since I underestimated Beryl (like... a lot of people, apparently) and didn't fill up my camping jugs beforehand. And one canister probably would've run out trying to boil a gallon.

Also I could go ahead and expand my disaster pantry foods. Get some boil-in-a-bag stuff or like. Rice-a-roni packages I could slice some spam or chunk chicken or tinned fish into. Make sure I'm stocked up on instant noodles. One pot or pan meals that'll be easy to make on my porch.

Next note: power. There were some neighborhood cooling and charging centers I could've availed myself of. Might also finally go look at a little travelling solar panel and battery unit. Not super sure where I would set the panel up though, since I'm in an apartment that doesn't end up with a lot of direct sun. Beneath an open window? Hanging between the glass and my blinds? Try to hide it on top of my car? Just sit outside to watch it?

Related note: Comfort. I was just planning on overnight trips and my little recharge-your-phone packs can run a USB-powered fan until things even out. But maybe I should get one of those battery powered tent fans that run off AAs or D cells or something. One of the killer factors after Beryl was that there was no wind in the days after. No chance of setting up some kind of cross-breeze through my apartment and not worth opening a window in my bedroom until it was cooler outside (and we're talking 80 degrees outside vs 82 at my thermostat). So a battery fan to move air over me would've helped.

For things that did work I'm still a fan of combination flashlights and lanterns like this model I have. You get the best of both worlds with directed light and the ability to illuminate a room with the lantern mode. For that specific model the light's a little too blue to be comfortable in lamp mode but it's still wholly serviceable and convenient. Very lightweight too. And my two little popup tables made cooking outside easy. And my strategically large gunpla backlog gave me stuff to do.