Times are not easy these days. It happens that you live, work, and one day you come home, and you get a “Hello. I’m Blackout. Today will be a lot of fun. Come in, why are you silent?”
I will tell you a little, I will share with readers my vision of a blackout, I will talk about what would be done when there are no benefits of civilization, when the light, water, Internet, mobile communication are turned off – everything that is associated with civilized modern life. My text “What to Do During a Blackout. Top 10 Ideas” was written during one of these blackouts. I sat in complete darkness and just wrote.
No survival
This text will not be about survival, about WHAT should be done during a blackout. This is a slightly different story. Here we will talk about WHAT you would do, WHAT to fill your free time with, how to arrange your evening, day, night. How to overcome this period of time so that it is fun, maybe useful, maybe somewhat unusual and most importantly – safe.
We will survive somewhere in another article. Here we will mainly have fun, look for ways to reduce the time that the blackout gave us.
Although it becomes somewhat difficult to rejoice during a war, a blackout is not necessarily about war. It can happen in any part of the world, at any time.
Period of the day. Morning. Lunch. Evening. Night
The nature of the class, venue, duration and mood will directly depend on what part of the day the lights are turned off, when you do not have access to all the civilization benefits. I think there is no need to tell you that the absence of light, water, and the Internet during the day is experienced in a completely different way than in the dark.
So let’s go little by little from early morning until late at night to feel the taste of each of these periods and try on possible options for spending time.
Morning blackout
In the morning, the lack of light and other amenities of civilized life can cause considerable despair. If the blackout occurred in winter, then early morning is darkness and the same night. Classes are approximately the same as at night, in the evening, when it’s already dark.
Morning power outages can be rated as a 4 on a five-point scale. It is inconvenient, uncomfortable, drives you into disrepute from the very morning. It’s as if a new day has begun, you wake up, fresh, get some sleep – but there is no light and no Internet.
Lunch blackout. There is no light during the day
It is already light outside, everything is fine and everyone can be seen. So the number of safe and interesting activities increases significantly. Here you can afford to be comfortably outside, go somewhere, look at others and show yourself.
In general, a daytime blackout causes the least amount of trouble and discomfort. This is especially felt on a sunny day. You can just go outside and walk like that until sunset, and then think and choose what to do next.
Evening lights off
The sun is rolling over the horizon, but you can still see a little. A lantern is not needed yet, but it is already clear that night is falling on the city and something needs to be thought about. What to do next. There is no electricity, no internet. People howl from boredom, looking for something to do. This is where they will need my article. Let’s read on to know what to do during a blackout.
Blackout closer to night
It got dark. The black night’s embrace definitely squeezes everything around, scoops it up, sucks it in, absorbs, doesn’t let go. Late evening, night – the most amazing times during a blackout, they are special, and I will talk about what to do during this period.
When it got dark, you had to be careful
Darkness both beckons and kills. She especially does not like those who underestimate her power, who disdainfully walk through the darkness of the de-energized city, thinking that he is the boss here and everything is possible. No, in the dark time of the day, the main thing is darkness and it is better to respect it, so that it does not get worse than it already is.
Walk
As civilization dissolves into blackout, it’s time to remember that the body can move through space.
Moving is one of our differences from rocks.
Therefore, I advise everyone who is not a stone to try getting out into the fresh air, stretch the bones, and feel the movement freedom.
A morning walk will be useful for waking up more effectively. In winter, in early spring, such exercise will quickly bring you out of the sleepy abyss.
If the lights are turned off during the day, it will be good to remember what it is like to walk down the street, and also to look at others, how they are going through these troubles.
The last time it was dark during the blackout. I walked in the gloom and could not see, but I could hear people, hear their thoughts, feel their joy at being brought out into the fresh air in this way.
I will not say much about the fact that walking has a positive effect on the body and health. We look at this process more in terms of entertainment and the variety of things that would happen during a blackout.
A night walk is a special type of leisure, it has certain features and caveats. When it gets dark, it is better to have personal protective equipment and a flashlight with you. If there is an opportunity to go not alone, but in the company of someone, then use it.
There are fewer people at night, a city plunged into total darkness is an unusual phenomenon that is not often seen in life. For example, I really like to walk at night and I really miss it for the ninth month in a row, because in Ukraine we have a curfew from 11:00 p.m. But in winter, it gets dark already at 6 p.m., so it can be said that it is almost night and when there is a total blackout in the city, there is almost no difference.
Go Visit
You can go for a walk combined with some business. Visiting is a great option, especially for those who have not seen you for a long time and do not even expect a visit.
I assure you, it will be an unforgettable experience. one of the options of what to do during a blackout, which does not require superpowers to implement.
You can also visit with a specific purpose. For example, to experience a blackout together, because it’s scary yourself, or because you want to do something interesting with others.
It is possible that guests will visit you as well. Then meet with bread, salt and candles.
Walk in familiar places
A walk along the routes you know is the perfect option for when you just want to get some fresh air and stretch your bones. This works especially well in the dark period, familiar places look completely different, now they are surrounded by darkness and breathe the unknown at you from every corner.
Route to the market, shop
This option works only when the benefits of civilization are turned off during the day. It’s time to buy something interesting or something you forgot last time. But keep in mind that a blackout means non-working terminals and ATMs, you will need cash (if you haven’t forgotten what it is at all).
To work during a power outage
This is an obvious and very simple option, but it is worth mentioning. Because some think that in blackout there is no work. There are quite a few. Don’t you believe it? Go to work and check for yourself. I’m sure you’ll be surprised to find something unusual in the workplace when there’s a power outage in town. And it doesn’t matter if your work is related to electricity, water or the Internet.
The main goal is to come to work, and what will happen next is not so important. The mission is accomplished, the plan is at least done.
Many people do working at work. And that’s normal.
It is more logical not to work in the dark.
So don’t work.
If you don’t want to.
Don’t even go for this job. Because there are still a lot of other activities that can be tasted when everything is turned off.
What to do during a blackout? Playing musical instruments!
This option will immediately come to the minds of musicians, because it is very obvious. Everything is silent, the world is waiting for a performance, the environment simply has no choice. These are ideal conditions for declaring yourself, showing the world your talent, introducing yourself, coming out of the shadows into … complete darkness.
Have you had a blackout and can you play an instrument? Dear, take it in your hands (mouth, feet etc) and start, use the moment that life gives you.
Although this silence is attractive, sensuous, dreamy and a bit sarcastic, don’t mind – tear it to shreds, fill this gloom with a good game on the guitar, bayan, violin, drums, flute.
It is possible that you will be joined by other musicians in the area. The chance of this will increase if you go outside, to the yard.
When to play music in blackout
You can play musical instruments at any time.
There are no limits to creativity, especially during the power outage period. Morning, afternoon or evening – it doesn’t matter to a musician
He just grabs his instrument and starts giving art around.
In the morning, it allows you to wake up, to rise above these indignities, to become above this mess and the lack of a comfortable life.
Some people from the environment may not like the music. Especially if it is night or morning before sunrise. Before proceeding to active combat procedures with your neighbors, try to find out what kind of music they are interested in, what they like. Perhaps it was the repertoire that annoyed them at three in the morning, not the playing time.
If it is not possible to come to an agreement and it is still a matter of loud performance, then you would go all out and offer another musical instrument, if there is one.
– Don’t like guitar? Let me play the drums for you then!
– Don’t you like drums too?
– Well, I still have a bagpipe and a piano.
– Why am I out of my mind? No, I don’t want to rush. And I don’t want to sleep. And to the hospital too.
– Why so much aggression, bruh?
– Don’t touch my ukulele! My grandmother gave it to me!
– When did you manage to go to the cinema with her?
– Hey! It was painful!
– Ok, I understood, enough of my legs! This is unethical!
– “Music is not yours”, I heard! Let’s choose another option. Here in the article there is much more to invent and do.
– Enough! Stop bruh! Please…
What to Do During a Blackout? Singing songs!
A little beaten, a little bruised by the neighbor’s shoes, but you still persuaded him that it was not an artistic pastime and began to sing. At first it didn’t work out very well, but after the second drink it went well.
Singing songs is not carrying sacks. It’s simple and fun. Especially when it’s dark around.
A song is a flame that warms the soul
You may not warm up your breakfast with a song, but the heart beats more often and more confidently in unison with melodious Ukrainian folk rhymes.
You could and should sing songs in times when there is no light. This activity should be implemented during the period of a possible blackout. Because if you haven’t sung in total darkness, when else will you?
Whoever is used to it, knows how to sing, has to sing. Because good singing is a treasure, especially in a power outage.
The song is pouring,
darkness cuts…
Another couplet…
Minus orcs.
Reading
Reading by candlelight is not fun worthy of the best of you. First of all, those who usually don’t do this get the book. Because there is nothing else to do. Especially in the dark.
You sit quietly, immerse yourself in the story world, think, dream, fight, make love somewhere over there with the heroes of the book, and not here, where there is nothing but the thin light of a candle.
Books acquire a special flavor during the blackout period. They become closer, more intimate, the characters burst out of the pages, engage in active dialogue and want the light not to be turned on until the very end, because they know that then the reader will leave them again until the next turn off…
Reading by candlelight is a rite that few will repeat under normal conditions. Who would deliberately turn off the lights so that they could barely see the letters and still read?
Reading, even for those who regularly spend time with books, during the blackout turns into an emotional process colored with more contrasting colors.
It reads differently in complete silence.
It is easier to read by candlelight.
When there is no light, no Internet – the concentration is at its highest. Everything superfluous disappears. Only you and the main characters of the work remain. It remains only to choose a good book, and not some crap that is better to burn instead of a candle.
You could and should read without light
This process should be experienced by everyone who does not shy away from paper books, who likes to savor the story and whom the darkness is just an excuse to be closer to their favorite characters for.
Especially for me, reading is a common phenomenon when the lights are turned off. I do this regularly and even wait a little for the lights to be turned off in the evening.
Live communication
This is one of the leisure options that is at once the most obvious, the simplest, and the scariest.
Just imagine – live communication. Read again and word by word.
Well, how do you like the sound?
Not scary?
If not, welcome to the club, buddy.
Live communication is becoming less and less. Our attention was finally consumed by gadgets, daily worries, worries, etc. And when all this goes to a new level, when only the phone can help in a blackout and then only as a flashlight – it’s new sensations, it’s a new life, it’s a new priceless experience.
My last blackout I watched people go out into the street. How they hung around the shops and just talked to each other. Phones, which before the blackout were our “interlocutors”, turned into ordinary sources of light in order to SEE your interlocutor.
Live communication during a blackout is a special entertainment. It’s not even as much entertainment as an exam. Because many people do not like communication from birth. And here comes such a chance. Grab him.
In addition, live communication when turning off the lights and mobile communication helps to keep in touch with the world. You have nowhere else to get information, only word of mouth.
People with cars will be invaluable here. They can go for a ride and take you where you need to go, and bring news from other locations.
Everything is like in the old days, when visitors were asked throughout the village about the places he came from, what he saw, what he heard.
Cleaning, housework
Someone may disagree, arguing that nothing is visible and what kind of cleaning can we be talking about. But finding a source of light is not so difficult. Even with one candle, you can easily sweep the floor, wipe it, arrange the furniture properly or clean the closet with clothes.
Cleaning and any household chores are the first things to do during a blackout. Because when they turn on the light and everything else, then again there will be an immersion in this universe of endless “there is no time”, “I don’t want”, “I will do it tomorrow”.
We clean as soon as the blackout begins
And it is not discussed.
Thoughts, questions
I’ll be honest, it was an activity one got me during the last blackout. I lit a few candles, lay down on the mattress in the corridor and immersed myself in the study of this endless silence and perfect darkness.
Blackout is exactly the time when nothing distracts. This is the time to both: ask questions and answer them. Especially questions that have been troubling the mind for a long time.
Of course, this action is not for everyone. Because everyone reacts differently to such significant changes and has their own world, where there may be no physical opportunity for reflection, you will be distracted or frightened by something.
But as an option for a person asking such a question “What to do during a power outage”, this is option one that can come in handy.
Revising your paradigm
This action is a logical previous subdivision continuation. By asking questions about your worldview, you will get a more honest answer during a blackout.
Are you satisfied with everything? Are you happy in your space where you live?
Are you getting joy from your life? Would you like to change something in your life?
Everything that shapes you may become the center of attention. Ask yourself these questions alone with a blackout. It will be silent, listening carefully to every movement of your thought.
Revising the paradigm is a difficult process, but in the absence of distractions it may be a relevant and quite interesting experiment.
Future planning
We continue do thinking, reasoning, and planning. The future is not far off. It happens every moment when the present becomes the past and the recent future second becomes the present state.
This flow cannot be stopped.
The future will happen no matter what and acts more as a space for planning than a clear and understandable structure.
We do not know what will happen in the future, but we can consider options for the development of events when this future becomes our present, our now.
The blackout has come.
All civilization has disappeared.
You don’t know what will happen next, but you have to know what paths you have, what options you have.
Here you can move from both a rational and an intuitive point of view.
It will not be superfluous to think about the future, which, for example, will bring a long blackout.
What will you do if there is no electricity or communication for a month or two? Think about it.
What will you do if power outages happen every two weeks?
What will you do during the next blackout?
Such planning will keep you in good shape and will not allow you to get too discouraged.
Planning calms and adds clarity to your actions
This point will not suit many. Simply because people do not like to engage in thinking, and even more so, thinking about the next moment.
But my task is to provide a choice, and what exactly you will do is your personal matter.
Help
During a blackout, many people need help. It can be a different help. But if everything is fine with you, if you have no urgent problems, if none of the listed items have worked for you and you want to be more convincing in this power outage, then please – help whoever needs it.
This is relevant when you have the following:
- a generator that produces electricity;
- money;
- flashlights;
- batteries or accumulators;
- food;
- car:
- good health.
Just go outside and search.
Go out and offer yourself, shout that you have that and that, attract everyone who wants to be your guest.
Of course, having the things listed above, most likely a person will already understand how valuable he is in a blackout. But not everyone understands how others need this help.
You have taken care of your own safety, you have everything. This is great. But these things can save someone’s life, just cheer someone up or give them confidence in the future.
Help even when you have nothing.
It’s simple. And it works.
Games
Of course, I will not list all possible games here, nor will I write how stupid it would be to play when blackout on a mobile phone instead of saving battery power.
First of all, these are interactive games. Those which can be played in complete darkness or do not require lighting.
You can play both in the company and by yourself. This is actually a matter of imagination and the availability of these games, as well as the presence of the company.
You can even invent a game on the go. For example, how do you like the title “What to Do During a Blackout”?
Hobby
You have a hobby, so you won’t have any questions about what to do in the blackout, because the answer has been found itself. This is the perfect time for your hobby.
Of course this doesn’t work if your hobby is somehow dependent on electricity, internet or water, because here I have some bad news for you. If so, then here is an opportunity to consider other options from this large list in this article, or to look for a new hobby that does not depend on the modern benefits of civilization.
New horizons
In general, a blackout is a great opportunity to learn something new in your life, to look beyond your comfort zone, beyond the edge of ordinary life.
If you perceive it as a challenge, it will be easier to survive it. Especially since the duration of the power outage is often unpredictable and you can prepare in advance, plan what exactly you will do.
You will need this article as a reminder and a hint
The difficulties offered to a person by turning off electricity, the Internet, and mobile communication are a test on the path of adaptation, it is an evolutionary tool that does not allow Homo sapiens to completely forget who they are and what they need first of all to survive.
A blackout is a test of endurance and strength, it is the study of new territories, learning about oneself and the environment in difficult conditions, it is a crisis that will inevitably lead to the development of a smart person and the savagery of the hopeless.
The assets of civilization left the cities and towns and went for a walk on the outskirts of the Earth, giving them time to be alone, to feel independent, free. They will return. It is not yet clear when exactly, but it will happen. If not, then you can start exploring new horizons right here and now.
Start doing something you have never done in your life
It doesn’t matter how old you are, who you are, what you do for a living, what your mood is.
Blackout is an exam that can be turned into an interesting experience by becoming a part of it, its cell, dissolving in it thanks to the activities described above in this article.
More Data About Power Outage
If you want to better prepare for turning off the power, we recommend watching this video:
If you don’t like watching videos, or you’d rather read now, read this article, which explains everything very well and has valuable tips for quality survival in the absence of the benefits of civilization.
Conclusions
The listed leisure options are only a hint, a signpost on the road to a happy future.
You always have the opportunity to search for suitable actions yourself.
You can combine them, unite them with each other, experiment, discover new things in yourself and the environment.
Blackout is not a sentence. You can live with it, experience it, grind it, love it.
