Black Screen of Death

I know I live in the Sticks, but really ... power outages in Oregon in the late afternoon?

While merrily searching through gunblogger.com this evening for some other blogger's good ideas that I could steal borrow expand upon for my own selfish purposes commentary, I was amazed when my local power grid went down.   At ten minutes before seven in the evening.

Reboot, computer does a CheckDigit ... and two minutes it died again.
(Resume CheckDigit all over again ... some files fixed, reindexed, whatever; it's a computer thing, I wouldn't understand.)

So my question is ... how does the local power grid get so inundated with user demands that it crashes momentarily?

I mean, it's about the time when people are turning off their air conditioners, isn't it?



But it's also the time of day when they are turning on their stoves too cook dinner.  That's what was happening in my house, with one burner turned on low.

There's no likelihood that I'll ever understand this tragic phenomenon .. and it is tragic.  Have you ever had to sit in front of your computer screen and watch the white letters on the black screen whirl through the count of files it has checked?  You almost pray for something wrong to show up, if only to justify your ennui.

But I just want to know WHEN WILL IT STOP!  I understand power outages during severe weather (which we experience here 3 or 4 times a year when strong winds are knocking down power lines .... can't they use stronger wires?) but this here business of dropping my computer during a sunny summer's evening with 2 mph breezes and Robins singing in the tree outside my window?

That has to stop!

Five years ago, a bluebird flew into a power substation in my neighborhood and blew   the whole grid.  It also blew up my computer.  Since God supposedly notes the falling of a single sparrow, I'll accept that of a cruel and capricious God who doesn't like me very much.

But I will not accept arbitrary power surges during a mild summer's evening as "An Act Of God".