Divergent Thinking

I had an interesting divergent thinking challenge last week.

The power went out while I was working from home, as it has too many times recently, and the cable and phone went out too.

I assumed the cable was out because the power was out, but the cable company sent a message that they were working on the problem, and the power company didn't. It was particularly annoying because I was messaging my team at the time. 

I looked around and assessed my resources. I had a cell phone at 20%. After about 20 minutes I remembered that I also have an electric car. 

I thought these thoughts:

"Hey, I could use the Mini to charge up my cellular phone." I momentarily paused when I realized I'd have to struggle to get the garage door open without the power, then I realized no, no deadly exhaust with the electric car.

And then, "Well, if my phone is charging I could use my cell phone as a wifi hotspot and get the internet on my iPad." (The mini is a hotspot too, somehow. I see it sometimes on my list, but sometimes I don't. It didn't matter; I could link my iPad to my phone and get the internet, anyway.)

When the iPad connected to the internet, I started typing. Then I had my next genius idea: instead of sitting in the driver's seat and reaching over to type on the iPad  passenger's seat, I could join my iPad on the passenger's side.

That blew things wide open, and I took my work laptop and hooked up to the phone wifi hotspot, and that actually worked, and I joined a zoom call from the garage of my house with no cable broadband or power.

Sadly, I didn't get the audio synced in the Zoom call before the power came back on in the house, and then twenty minutes after the Zoom call ended the cable came back.

I kind of want to test out the whole thing while the power is on.

Comments

[KC]

That is brilliant. Good work. And hooray for not dying from exhaust fumes!

(now just don't think you can charge your car while the power is out...)

[theQueen]

KC - I keep that thing charged up at 100%, even if I've just returned from a five mile drive.

[KC]

This seems like a good practice! With dual payoff as you can use your car as a battery during power outages *and* you're always ready for a road trip. Well, a petite road trip, anyway.

(I assume that the power were out and if a situation were dire, your garage door could be opened manually? Ours can be opened manually if the thingy goes wrong, anyway, but it is pretty heavy.)

[TheQueen]

KC - yep, too heavy. I remember the dark days before garage door openers.