I'd have thought you'd be a solar kinda guy . . . Jordan
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You would think, huh?
But my particular section of the Berkeley grid is three blocks from campus, which is completely protected from any of the brown outs. And even more hypocritical and inconsistant of me, my building has been remodeled so many times, that my particular apartment has electricity but no meter!
Anyway, from experiences living in Mexico (Guadalajara `52) as a kid, I discovered the wonders of kenosene lamps. I used to have one next to my bed since my room had no electric outlet. I had to go hike down to a charcoal and kenosene dealer at the end of our block and get a jug filled with juice. There were a fair number of places on our block that didn't have any electricity and nobody had gas.
I am pretty sure you don't have to go back to 1800 to find that having light at night is still a big issue for a lot of humanity. But Brad and Larry's Enronism ain't the solution.
Chuck Grimes