When we were in Cuba, we experienced several flickers in the electricity. We had a longer period without the mysterious juice last summer right at home. In Cuba, we got so that when there was suddenly darkness, we would just freeze for 20 or 30 seconds, and it all came back. Often, there would be a repetition or two and then, back to normal.
It does seem miraculous to have wires that make our microwave, our lamps, our computers, our phones, our power tools and our vacuum cleaners all work. How does the electricity know which to do?
I have written before about Estes Park, Colorado, where Stanley of the Stanley Steamer automobile supplied electricity to the town. It says on the building housing the equipment that when they started using the stuff, nobody thought there would be a demand for electricity 24 hours a day!
We are moving toward more electrically powered automobiles. We have electrically powered trains. Books like "Power Hungry" by Robert Bryce try to show that the power packed in fossil fuels is more than electricity can match and that humans will have to do without some of the speed and ease they are used to when we have no more fossil fuels. We'll see.
