EMP Party

Photo by Dan Roycroft via Gordon Jewett and Rhonda Sandau Wedding Photos.

Via Gunlaws.Com newsletter, h/t: AnotherArmChairCritic

Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid and all the lights went out during a storm? The eerie quiet, flashlights and candles, keeping the fridge closed, relating to each other without a TV or radio? Wasn't that cool?

You can enjoy those good times again with a Power-Out Party. Much less intense than spending a day without your cell phone or with your car in the shop, a Power-Out Party is a practical way to have a great time with friends, and get back in touch with values you may have lost. Have lost.

Pick a time before sunset, like 4 p.m. Invite people to your house. Tell them no battery watches, portable electronics, nothing if it runs on power, including batteries. They'll grumble, but the good ones will go along.

Gather all your never-off household battery devices (clocks especially), put them in a box, put the box in your vehicle, and drive the vehicle off site. After everyone arrives, throw the main breaker. Yes, you'll be afraid to do it. But the world will not end. Are you too much of a sheep to try it?

The unnerving quiet! Who knew how much noise all those pilot-lighted transformers and geegaws make! What conversations! People can't get over the sublime stillness, the utter sense of peace and rest, the ability to speak uninterrupted by every contrivance of modern life.

You of course thought ahead and made candles ready as night falls (matches need no power and so are acceptable, fun, and smell nice), and coolers (also powerless) filled in advance keep libations handy (the fridge door is taped shut to prevent 100 force-of habit attempts to open it). Acoustic instruments suddenly take front and center. Board games and cards have more magic than usual. Charades by candlelight! And you end up with an experience you won't soon forget.

It gives you perspective, if you have the nerve to try it. You're an American. You can do this.

Dinner on the Deck at Rio Azul via Rio Azul Mozambique.

Postscript: Swear off your computer and phone for one single day, and watch as you make every pile of paper and junk in your place disappear.