Today the power went out in my building a few minutes after I sat down at my desk to write for what I hoped would be a glorious 3-4 hour stretch of uninterrupted deep worktime.

Took 3 hours to restore it.

So much for that plan. 

I go to great lengths to arrange the rest of my life to accommodate those blocked-off hours of worktime, so that was not fun.

At least I'm not on deadline and wasn't on a Zoom call when it happened, so there's that.

Another unexplained 4-hour power outage hit my building today.

At least today I got lots of writing done at my desk before the outage hit.

This sort of thing is nothing new. The building has had one issue after another. Just a few examples from a long list:

- Last year there was a burst pipe that flooded my entire storage room and I had to haul everything in it to the dump.
- One apartment in the building has strange plumbing issues that recur so frequently that the owner can't sell the place. 
- There's an ongoing electrical issue with the installation of the mini-splits that's still unresolved after several years.

I've lived in the building for 17 years now. Really hope I can move out someday.

Given the consistency of blackouts lately, it’s worth considering a battery backup power surge protector. Gives you roughly 20 minutes for desktop to save and back things up.
(This one is the APC BE425M  and is roughly the size of a toaster. It retails for less than $100)

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Ever morning a reason to protect your set up from blackouts like this. Your time is valuable.

Thanks for the rec. Fortunately I didn't lose much work at all, and my current surge protector is pretty good (but doesn't have a battery like this one).

The most frustrating thing is the loss of my best work hours. I make many sacrifices elsewhere in my life to free up that precious writing time and protect it from interruptions, so it feels like a double hit when the time is lost for reasons beyond my control.

aspiring everything. architect. building /buildings. icbk.me/huugo.fc

Curious. Do you think the power problems are specific to your building or more general to your area?

I always wondered who was responsible for something like those “weird plumbing problems”. Seems like the condo board should prioritize resale of units as it makes prices go up.

It was built in 1951, so it's almost 75 years old now. Around 2006 it was renovated extensively and the condos were marketed as "luxury" at that time... lol.