I was reading about the worst wind storm in the Seattle area since 1993, in the Evansville Courier & Press. The Associated Press article noted that residents could have no power for a week, due to the downed power lines and other infrastructure damage. One million people currently have lost power. This article made me think a bit about what would happen if there were really long term power losses across the nation. Even when the power grid went down on the East coast a few years back, it didn't seem like people were out of power that long considering the circumstances. We are so dependent on our power grid that one wonders what most people would do if power losses were a month long. I'm not sure what the likelihood of this ever happening is, but it does make you think how our power grid dependence could in essence, hold our modern lifestyle hostage. Wouldn't it be great to be able to still heat your home and run basic appliances using the sun or wind, even if your home normally did use the power grid? Whenever I look at different retailer websites now, I am amazed how many of them have equipment to begin trying out solar or wind power. Why haven't I bought anything yet? Even I'm not so sure sometimes. I think it's overwhelming to know where to start. Yet, if these types of outages continue, I would bet that many more people, including me, would be more apt to try say, a solar water heater. We need to make small steps to rid ourselves of the complete power grid dependence.