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Black (Squirrel) Out

Having dark thoughts when the power goes out . . .
20190617 blksq walton

I was following the news story about the massive blackout in Argentina and wondering if it was a cyber-attack on their power system. After all, the United States had just boasted that they had infected the Russian electrical system with malware – in retaliation for the Russians doing the same to the North American grid. Was one of these so-called superpowers giving us a demonstration in Argentina? Or maybe it was the Chinese or the Indians? Huawei? I thought maybe I was getting a little paranoid until the power went out – again – here in Thibeault Terrace.

I was sitting here in my study in partial darkness hoping that auto-save was working because I had just typed a couple of new paragraphs in my novel when the lights went out. The only light was coming in my window – brilliant sunshine. Now if I had solar panels I could have kept on typing on my computer, unaware that another black squirrel had just tripped a transformer. If a person were off-the-grid you wouldn’t have to worry about squirrels, wind blowing limbs onto the wires, too many pigeons sitting on a line, or somebody driving their car into a hydro pole. Or Russians attacking the grid.

I’ll bet there were people in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay who were wishing they were off the grid yesterday. Having your own power generator can be a good thing when you have medical issues or a freezer full of foodstuff. Solar panels and wind turbines for your house might be good insurance for authors typing on their computers but there is a limit to being off the grid when the power goes out. Your home may be an island of light in a sea of darkness, but what happens in the rest of the world without power?

Surely some food stores have power backup that will last a day or two. Hospitals have generators as I hope the water pumping station does. Gas stations and traffic signals, not so much. Can you imagine the havoc at intersections where we used to have lights regulating when to stop, almost stop, and go? In a town where some drivers still struggle with 4-way stops and a roundabout, you can imagine the confusion without signal lights.

And horror of horrors, what happens when there is no power to recharge your cell phone? No more Twitters from the Prez about the the Mayor of London! You can understand why the threat of a cyber-attack on power grids is such a powerful threat.  One does not need nuclear weapons to bring a country to its knees – just some good hackers and their malware. The US, or was it the Mossad, did shut down Iran’s nuclear program with software a few years ago – it could happen again.

One begins to wonder if the more powerful and sophisticated we become if we are becoming more vulnerable. I mean, a black squirrel can shut us down for fifteen or twenty minutes – what if hordes of black squirrels made a concerted attack on our grid in demand for more peanuts? Just something else to worry about.

And about the recycling of pizza boxes. Al at the City says we can recycle them. Just don’t put the boxes out too early where the smell of pizza might attract bears or raccoons. Apparently raccoons will even go for Hawaiian pizza.





Bill Walton

About the Author: Bill Walton

Retired from City of North Bay in 2000. Writer, poet, columnist
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