You can still cook, the spark thing is just a convenience. You can use a match (just like the good old days).

Where you live, my guess is that you won't be super-hot so you won't need to escape the built up heat in the house. However, you might consider a movie or the library. The good thing about both places is that you can take your nap there, too!

Lots of options, such as going to a local mall and start taking pictures of everyone - see how long it takes for security to challenge you. Set up a picket in front of the power company's office demanding compensation (call the newspaper first to get a photographer and reporter on-site). Donate blood, that should take a couple of hours and you'll be doing good for your community.

Jim

What would I do?

I would garden until I needed a break.
Then I would read until I needed a break.
Then I would sit on my front porch and admire my garden and watch the birds.
If I still had time to spare, I would organize my clothes and shoes. By the time I got that done, I am sure that the electricity would be back on.

I would read, maybe do some chores I've been putting off (like going through the clothes stored in my attic), mow the lawn, and play the piano.

I would make hard boiled eggs and potato salad the day before and have them well cooled in the fridge for both breakfast and lunch; also might have some coldcuts for sandwiches and potato chips on hand (usually don't use those, but circumstances call for fast food! Peanut butter can also be handy in such circumstances.

I would probably make my coffee before 8:30, or settle for cold premade tea, juice, or soda water later on.

Shopping, movies, reading, going on a day trip, eating out, or sleeping in are all good plans for a day without electricity. An all-day shopping trip for upcoming holiday or other special event gifting is also a possibility.

It's a free day--make the most of it!

Oh, you really mean what would I do?

A lot would depend on the weather. Reading without artificial light might not be good. If it were to be cloudy, then not enough would come through windows. If it were to be cold, then many outdoor things would have to wait. I could mow and work in the garden, but that would use up only a couple of hours. And then I would be sweaty and have to shower in a bathroom without windows and unable to use the exhaust fan! Yikes - forget that.

I guess that I could go to the local senior center and work a jigsaw puzzle, but that would not take up the entire day. So many movies are outright not good (for my sensitive nature), I don't know if I would do that. The mall thing that I suggested earlier would be a lark.

Other goofy things, go to a shoe store and try on a couple hundred, then make sure that they went back into the wrong box. A large box store might tempt me to just walk around with a shopping cart, fill it up and then leave it; get another cart and do it again. Then I would possibly get to visit with the security folks. Sit in a car near the local school and see how long it would take for the local constabulary to come and visit. So many great things to do.

There was a time many years ago that a squirrel chewed through my phone line. I did get credit from the phone folks for that one day's outage.

Jim

We have fun! We love it when the electricity goes out. Probably because it's rare and always shortlived. So we just light some candles and roast tiny marshmallows on really long skewers over the flames. Probably because we live in a city that is small enough to get from one side to the other, because workers can get anywhere they're needed quickly, is why we never do without too long. We usually chat a bit too. Need to turn the lights off more often, now that I am thinking about it. Might have an audience with my son who is gone a lot lately. School activities! (grin)

Having gone through this a couple of times: pull every thermos out of the cupboard, make coffee/tea and have your breakfast early. Make sandwiches, put in fridge together with whatever you like eating cold, the opening to grab your food will not harm the rest of the items. For most housework you don't need electricity, cut it short, go for a walk and read, read, read.

A day without electricity and advance notice is easy. As Jim said, matched light the stove, and I have a nice gas-grill that can be put to work, weather permitting.
My problem is, I don't have running water without power, but always have some bottles filled and get the big jugs filled at the market - they have a generator as stand-by power.
Reading is not possible without electricity, but there are junk-drawers to sort out, always something to straighten.
Once we were 6 days without power, and that was quite an adventure.

There are a lot of good ideas here. I'll l make a plan for the day, using some of the ideas. Thanks for the replies.

It is not unusual for my neighborhood to have outages. We have tall Pine trees that often break during storms.Sometimes it's not from trees it;s the result of the storm itself. I think it's a helpless feeling, I feel uneasy at night. I make a point to keep my Nook charged and it has saved me several times.A problem I have with lack of power is not being able to open my garage door. I know it can be done without power but I don't have the strength.

gabriel, I never thought about the garage door, because we park in the driveway. You have a good point and a new thought.
Our garage door is old, and it is made of heavy wood. If need be, I don't think I could lift it manually.
I've noticed that many of our neighbors are replacing their old garage doors with very light weight, no paint, syntecttic (sp) garage doors. If/when I'd need a new garage door, that's the way I would go.
Reminds me of the story of one of our local news reader, explaining why he was late for for work, he said he could not open his garage door because the electric was out , and he could not get his car out of the garage.

snythetic, pretty close though (I knew what you meant!).

I had a thought. If I were in the same situation as you, I'd stay up fairly late and sleep in fairly late. Maybe. Or get up early and do the things eibren said, and then go back to bed/take a nap. It's a thought. I probably wouldn't change my habits though?

I'm already planning something similar for this weekend. I have to work two football games. One ends late on Friday. The other starts at 5:30AM on Saturday. I figure I'll go straight to bed on Friday, and get up as late as possible on Saturday (I live 15 minutes from football arena), only putting my hair under a hat, wash my face, and brush my teeth. That's it. I'm not doing what I'd normally do. I'll probably stop to get coffee WITH caffeine. I plan on going home after the game and sleeping all day. My best guss is I'll get 5.5 or 6 hours of sleep Friday night if all goes well. I hope we don't lose our football game Saturday. The last two were L 37 - 7 and L 41 - 3. Some pretty sound defeating :(

Am I reading that correctly Miss Robin? A 5:30 a.m. football game!
Why/who would schedule such an event at that time!

Jim

HA! My child's high school band's fund raiser is parking for events all over Nashville. This one is at a university. BUT, and here's the kicker (get it? A football pun?), we have to be there 4.5-5 hours before kickoff.

This is typical of all events. Like the Journey concert today the "Report time [is] 4:30pm", yet it doesn't start until 7:30. Less complicated than football, so not as early. Concerts don't have tailgate parties ;)