Phew, is it hot! I plugged my home town's zip code into weather.com at noon, and it came back saying the heat index was 109F. At 3pm, it had risen to 117F, although the air temperature was only 97F. It was actually cooler in Manhattan.

Our office building's Facilities sent out an email, explaining why it was taking several elevators out of service, and dimming the lights in the lobby, as energy conservation measures to comply with Mayor Bloomberg's request. The email proceeded to give us tips to conserve energy, saying we should jack our thermostats up to 78 from 72, and run major appliances such as dishwashers early in the morning or late at night.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but whether I run my diswasher at 8pm or 11:30pm isn't going to make a bit of difference to the demand on ConEd's grid. Wrong state, wrong utility company. I'm not on ConEd's grid. In fact, during the blackout of August 2003 that affected parts of Canada, MI, OH, PA, NJ, NY and much of New England, my next door neighbor reported that our power only went out for five minutes.

Of course, getting home from Manhattan was rather rough that evening. After looking out my office window and seeing the death throes of two nearby power plants spewing thick, black smoke like you might expect from a oil refinery fire, it was obvious that the power wasn't going to come back on anytime soon. People unplugged their computers and began trudging down the nearest fire stairs.

A coworker and I walked a mile and a half to the WFC to catch a ferry. The line was at least four blocks long by the time we arrived, but people in neighboring highrise apartments were really good about coming out to refill our water bottles for free. People on line were more than willing to toss a buck at the water ladies, but they didn't want any money. There were impromptu block parties in SoHo and other neighborhoods as people with spoiling food hauled out their barbeques and set up shop on the sidewalks. One homeless guy was out directing traffic at the corner of University and 9th. He was having a grand old time.

My ferry dropped me off at a pier in Hoboken that I never knew existed, all the way at the north end of town. Apparently there were too many people already at the Hoboken ferry/bus/train terminal, so no more ferries were dropping off people at the regular ferry pier. That meant another mile trek all the way to the south end of town, only to be given a lot of misinformation by NJ Transit, as it tried to figure out how to handle the situation during the next couple of hours.

Finally it sent in a lot of extra buses to shuttle us to a handful of major stations along the various train lines. I heard one bus driver yell "Summit," and vaulted over a concrete barrier to sprint for it. I got one of the last seats on the bus. Frankly, I didn't care if I gave them a cheap thrill with an underwear flash when I vaulted in a breezy short skirt. I was never going to see any of those people again.

The bus driver was unfamiliar with the route, but had been given directions. One joker in the very back of the bus yelled "I-78. West!" It was pretty funny. The driver managed to find I-78, and we were on our way. By the time we got to Newark, it was obvious the power was on. Office buildings were lit like Christmas trees. That was a great thing to see.

Two women on the bus sitting behind me and standing next to me had recently moved to my town, but drive to a different town than Summit to catch the train. One of them finally got through on her cell phone to her husband, who said the lights were on in our town. I offered them a ride to the train station at which they were parked, which they accepted. We never exchanged names, and I've never seen either of them since. At least they managed to get back to their cars. We got home around 9:30 pm, easily five hours after the power blew.

Others in my office had stories about walking across the East River bridges to Brooklyn and Queens. After that, our employer issued backpacks stocked with emergency supplies to every employee. Probably the most interesting item in the kit is the hand-crank powered AM/FM/SW radio and flashlight combo. Other than that, it consists of the sort of things you might bring on a camping trip, minus the Coleman stove, lantern, and Pioneer Ware. We've never had to use these kits, but I sure feel like a Boy Scout with one sitting in the corner of my office!