At about 16:11 Eastern, yesterday, the lights went out.  Everywhere.

Ok, not everywhere, technically speaking.  But most of Ontario and big chunks of the northeastern US.

My power didn’t return until shortly after 0800 this morning and then it went out for two hours shortly after noon.  There are rotating blackouts for much of Ontario.  Apparently, there’s only enough power for about 50% of Ottawa.

Went for a ride yesterday evening and met up with a friend at Mooney’s Bay.  I rode home with her after dark and we passed a group of people dismantling a sign outside the former OBE headquarters at the corner of O’Connor and Gilmour.  “This is our sign.  Go find your own,” they said to us.

We moved along quickly.

After dropping her off at her place, I made my way home and of course the batteries in my headlight died.  Riding along Somerset with no street lights and no headlight was an exciting experience.  Fortunately, it was uneventful, too.

I called the voicemail system at work and found a broadcast message that said the buildings were closed “until further notice”.  So I ventured out to find somewhere that was open and had batteries.  My first stop was a convenience store which had milk, but no batteries.

My stop at Home Depot on Baseline was more rewarding.  It was fully powered and you’d never know that there was a major power failure in progress.  People were in there buying gardening supplies, paint and what not.

My third stop was at the Canadian Tire store on Carling.  Though they didn’t have any power, their store was open in what one employee said was a public relations exercise.  You could show up and wait for an employee to take you around the store looking for whatever you wanted.  I picked up some chemical light sticks and headed home.