It’s been a few days since I’ve flipped my page, and it’s not because of power problems here in California. So far, we haven’t been directly affected by those, though I dread seeing my next month’s PG&E bill, especially the gas side of the bill.

Instead, we spent a computer-free weekend, thanks to IBM. More specifically, thanks to IMS. Diane works on tools to support IMS development, and so she was invited to the IMS Version 7 celebration on Saturday night at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And since the celebration ran till midnight, they also provided a room at the Doubletree Hotel in Monterey. And they even let her bring me as a guest!

A good time was had by all (or at least by us); Jeffrey spent the night at a friend’s house, and he liked that, too. But by the time we got home on Sunday and caught up with errands and the newspaper, I didn’t feel like turning on the computer. Instead, we talked and watched part of The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which was a better use of our time.

I also finished The Amber Spyglass, the third and final volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I had a hard time putting it down to go to Monterey, but I did — and then as soon as we got home on Sunday, I sat down and finished the book. I strongly recommend it — but, even though it’s billed as a children’s book, I wouldn’t recommend it for a pre-teenager.

Now to read what all of you have written over the past few days….

PG&E has updated their web site to indicate that “if no outage block appears on your bill, you are in outage block 50.” They also say that outage blocks are subject to change without notice due to operational conditions.

Or, to put it another way, the lights may yet go out at home.

Diane Reese notes that:

They do say on the PG&E webpage that if no other designator appears on your bill, you are in Outage Block 50. Wonder if that means “a protected block, wherever it might happen to occur”? If so, we’re in one, too (but Charlie’s office is not).

I would swear that the bit about Outage Block 50 wasn’t on the PG&E web page on Tuesday (nor the part about outage blocks being changeable on short notice), but it’s certainly there now. My suspicion is that there were complaints about people not being in any outage block (yesterday I heard a KCBS reporter telling the audience how to find the outage block notation on their bill and commenting that “if you don’t see one listed, you’re money!”), so they invented Outage Block 50. But if the rolling blackouts go from block 1 to block 14 and then restart, block 50 may not be affected directly.