Despite my wife warning me to not go shopping today, I decided to leave the house to look for a Logitech h800 wireless headset. I checked Best Buy’s website and saw that they had the headset in stock. (I wanted to get it locally in case I needed to return it.)

After a quick trip to Costco (it wasn’t too bad despite being this time of year) and Target, I headed to Best Buy. Parking was easy and then I went into the store to find the headset. It was a complete zoo, so I started looking for the headset. First I saw headsets in the PC area. They had some Logitech wireless headsets there, but not the h800. So I went to the mobile phone area and there were more headsets, but not the h800. Onto mp3 players to find more headsets, but not the h800.

So, I asked a sales person and he said to check over by the home stereo area as I had said “wireless headphones”. Nope, not there. Someone else suggested gaming. There were headsets, but not the h800. By this time, I was about to lose my mind. I tried to use Best Buy’s mobile website to verify that the store had it, but the Find in Store option kept spinning and didn’t show me results.

I went to one of the cash registers (they have them scattered throughout the store) and asked the guy behind the counter to look it up. He looked it up and the computer said they had 7 of them. He went into the back (I thought I’d never see him again) and when he came back maybe 10 minutes later, he said that they were unloading a truck and that they were probably in the shipment. However, he didn’t stop there and asked someone else who said that they wouldn’t have them listed in the computer unless they were already unloaded. The very helpful guy went with me looking for it. First was gaming to double check, then he said “let’s try wireless mice”. Presto, the headset was next to the wireless mice. I’m not sure I would have been able to find them without help. I profusely thanked the man and went on my way to pay.

So Best Buy has headsets in no less than 6 different locations in the store! I’m not sure that anyone there would have been able to find it on the first try. This was an exercise in frustration and a valuable lesson; shop online, it’s easier and faster!

When I went to walk my dog this evening, I found a present at the end of my driveway.

With neighbors like these, who needs enemies? I did clean it up after I got back, but I find it very rude that some people don’t pick up after their dogs.

(My wife thinks it could be from a coyote, but I don’t think so. We live near a canyon, so it is a possibility.)

As anyone in San Diego knows, last Thursday there was a major power outage that covered the entire county of San Diego. When the power went out, I didn’t think much of it as it was hot and I thought it was just a rolling blackout. I was on my way out the door to pick up flowers for my wife for our 10th wedding anniversary. While not very romantic, I was off to Costco to get the flowers; after all these years, my wife knows where I get flowers and likes them nonetheless. It took me about 45 minutes round trip to make it to Costco; the store, like just about every store was closed. On the way home, I decided to take a shortcut through a parking lot as I didn’t want to deal with another traffic light that was out. On my way through it, I saw people going into Albertsons, so I stopped and went in to see if I could get flowers.

Right inside, I saw people loading up on ice, so I grabbed 2 bags, then decided to grab 2 more. The store ran their registers on a generator, so they were raking in the dough. I paid by credit card and was on my way; I wanted to preserve cash just in case.

When I got home, I started thinking if we were prepared. I dumped the ice in the fridge and managed to save most of the contents. My wife and son arrived home awhile later; it took them almost 2 hours to come home from SeaWorld; normally a 25 minute trip.

It was still quite warm outside and we made the decision that we were going to camp outside since the temperature in our house was too high to be tolerable. With flashlights and candles, we were pretty much set for the night. My wife slapped together a dinner using our supply of canned tuna and some salad fixings.

While the power was only off for about 10 hours (it came back on about 1:45 am), it really got me thinking about a real disaster. The news touted that San Diego was pretty well prepared; however, I think the gridlock shows that we still have a lot to do in order to be prepared. Personally, we weren’t too bad off; we have a gas grill ready for cooking, we have food, a can opener, batteries, flashlights, etc. The only things that I think we need to do better is get on a schedule of restocking supplies such as batteries, water, first aid supplies, and food. We have a pool and chlorine, so water wasn’t going to be an issue. I have bottles of water, but due to them being in plastic, I need to make sure we replenish them.

The one major thing I didn’t have was a portable radio. I used my car’s radio to listen as well as followed @KPBSNews. Cell coverage was spotty as cell sites were pretty much clogged.

So, what have I learned? I’ve ordered a solar powered, hand cranked radio (the reviews on them are so mixed, I just have to take a chance). I’m going to pick up additional bottles of water and have setup a calendar where I’ve started to put a schedule of when things need to be replaced.

Can San Diego survive a major earthquake? I’m not sure. It was kind of scary as I had no idea how long the power would be out; we’re so reliant on power and technology that without it, people kind of go crazy. Maybe this will serve as a wake up call for everyone, including me.

Yesterday, I was interviewed about the spring storm that was going to happen today. I found it pretty humorous that any storm in San Diego especially a spring “storm”, makes the news. Today the “storm” hit and it dumped so much rain that by 4 pm, the ground was just about dry and it was sunny! I went for a run and mistakenly wore a long sleeved shirt; it was far too warm for it even though the spring storm was supposed to bring cold air.

Why does weather in San Diego make news? People in other parts of the country laugh at us when we complain at the weather and the local news just make things worse by reporting ridiculous stories calling what we got a storm.

While I do complain about the weather, I do it jokingly and have used it to gently poke fun at my co-workers in other parts of the country.

Back in January, I posted about being a weather wimp. Today I was contacted by the local CBS affiliate about the entry wanting to know if I’d be interviewed about the big storm coming. I didn’t even know that a storm was coming, but I agreed to be interviewed. We did the interview over Skype as they wanted it for today’s news. Unfortunately, the only piece of the interview that made the news was one quote on their website and a split second shot of my blog. I guess the people that lived on Rainswept Way were more interesting than my rant!