Your kids are revved up because school is closed, but you’re not so thrilled. Snow has you confined to your home office, but you can’t work because your power is out, your cell phone has sketchy reception indoors, and your cable internet connection stopped working sometime around midnight last night. What’s a frantic freelancer to do? Be prepared in advance.
Get a land-line number and an old-fashioned cord phone.
Sure, it’s the age of the mobile, so you might have ditched your AT&T connection to save $50 per month on a phone you no longer use. But in bad weather, reception might fail on your cell. And if you only have a wireless phone attached to your land-line, you’ll be out of luck when the power goes out.
Have a dial-up internet connection as a back-up.
When the cable is out, dialing up may be necessary. You can get a cheap dial-up service for $10 or less per month. It’s better to have it and not use it than be stuck in an emergency.
Have print-outs of your clients and contacts.
If your connection is down and your power is out, you won’t be able to access your online contact information. Keep a print-out of all important numbers, and keep the list updated. If you need to contact a client in an emergency to let him know you won’t be able to deliver, at least you’ll have the number handy.
How do you prepare yourself for such emergencies?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I was mortified yesterday when my electricity blinked off and on several times. Thank goodness my computer is ok!
These are all great rules to keep in mind and I think I follow them all except I don’t have dial up as a back up. I really should. I agree with the point you make there.
And… love your winning badge! Looks great–and it’s right at home where it belongs
Well, I’m guilty of not doing any of these things. Well, almost — I do have my important contacts stored on my iPod.
We don’t have either a land line or a dial-up account. However, Denver doesn’t actually have very man storms that take out power. There was one in 2003, and I think some people lost power during the big snows last Christmas, but I’ve lived here since 1986 and I can’t recall any other instances.
Occasionally (VERY occasionally) my cell phone will have weather-related service issues, but I make it a policy NOT to do business via phone anyway.
Not having many weather-related outages, it’s not as big a deal because I can easily go somewhere else for Internet access and power. There are a number of libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops in and around our area, the nearest being about 8 blocks away.
Amy,
I’ve nominated you for the Nice Matters Award. Find info in my post: http://www.writersnotes.net/nice-matters-award-a-bloggers-gift/ .
Take care!
Jeanne
Jeanne,
I already thanked you on your blog yesterday, but I wanted to thank you here also.
Katharine,
Sounds like you’re as prepared as you need to be if you don’t face the snow or ice storm issue.
I don’t drive, so in winter I don’t have the option of getting to another location to work very easily. In nice weather, I don’t mind walking to the train station cafe (the nearest place with wireless access) or taking the train to the library. But in cold icy weather, it’s not as nice of a walk.
Michele,
I always panic when my electricity starts to go out, because one thing I’m guilty of is working on several documents at once and not always saving as often as I should. When my laptop battery is fully charged, the blinking power doesn’t worry me as much. One thing I probably should do is buy another battery.
Amy,
We don’t get ice storms in Denver, so I’ve never experienced that particular joy. Where Michael grew up they got them all the time, though, so he’s told me about that. It doesn’t sound like I’m missing much. :o)
Power outages aside, I probably should splurge on another battery, too — though keeping both of them charged sounds like a bit of a headache. :o)
Katharine,
One of the women I work for lives in Pennsylvania, and apparently when they got their last ice storm she was pretty much trapped in her home for several days.
Luckily for me, I don’t have the need to leave my apartment much. But I did realize the other day that the new cell phone I got in the spring doesn’t work well in snow. I have trouble getting reception in my apartment as it is, so I’m really not pleased.
I did find out the hard way last time my power was out that I needed a phone with a cord.
The extra battery thing is something I’ve avoided for a while, because I have another computer I could use if I had to. But if I’m ever in the middle of something that I haven’t transfered to my thumb drive yet before the power goes out, that could be a problem.
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