It's thunderstorm season down here in sunny Atlanta, Georgia. The clouds pile up almost daily, threatening to rain down and ruin the big hair the south has come to be known for. But the frequent rain has taught me a few things: I should always stash an umbrella in my bag, and it's important to keep power cords with you at all times.

In the course of a normal day, my iPhone will go from 100 percent power down to less than 10 percent for the drive home. That's thanks to a daily regimen of Angry Birds, streaming Pandora and a copious amount of texting.

But last week was miserable. The rainy drive home was just fine; I knew that I had enough juice to make an emergency call if needed. But I arrived home to—gasp!—an apartment without power. And a phone without battery. And an exhausted laptop. There was nothing. to. do.

Alright, we were just fine. I started to read a book by candlelight, and we eventually grabbed a few drinks at the pub downstairs to wait out the power outage. But as connected as we are these days, It would have been nice to relax with a fully-charged iPhone and a massively unread Google Reader. Oh, and Angry Birds. I could have painlessly killed a few hours with that.

The lesson? Check the weather and charge your gear! If it even looks like there might be the kind of storm that trips a breaker or pulls down a power line, heed the warning and power up your phone or laptop. You might need them for entertainment or—more importantly—to make an emergency call.

(Images: Flickr member wZa HK licensed for use under Creative Commons, Flickr member umpcportal.com licensed for use under Creative Commons)