Sunday, January 03, 2010

Outages

We were awakened not once but three times in the wee smalls yesterday morning... i.e., 0300 hrs... when our power went off.  People who live in normal circumstances routinely sleep through power outages but those of us who live in RVs don't... we can't.  Our propane systems begin shrieking at us when the power comes back on... the system has an alarm that activates when the system faults and power failures qualify.  So, we drug our tired sleepy ass out of bed three times to re-set the system, but on the third event we simply shut the system down and went back to bed, only because I waited about 15 minutes for the power to come back... and it didn't.  Well... come to find out I could still be waiting for power to be restored:
An estimated 1,800 Portales residents woke to cold and dark homes after a power outage early Saturday morning.
Xcel Energy crews had restored power to most homes by 5 p.m.
Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves said a substation overload cut off power about 3 a.m. and repair crews had to wait for parts to fix the problem.

...

“Police told us that the power might be back on by noon,” said Cynthia Clark, one of those staying at the temporary shelter. “But later the police said they will let us know when the power comes back on.”
 It looks like we dodged a major bullet.  A power outage in winter can be life threatening and there may still be some people without power as I type.  Thank The Deity At Hand we're a lil bit warmer than normal this weekend.

―:☺:―
 
The TSA announced that for the last hour of the flight no passenger can use the toilets or have anything on his lap — not a laptop, not a blanket, not a stewardess, not even a paperback book. I can’t wait for the first lawsuit after an infidel flight attendant confiscates a litigious imam’s Koran as they’re coming into LAX.
You’re still free to read a paperback if you’re flying from Paris to Sydney, or Stockholm to Beijing, or Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow. But not to LAX or JFK. The TSA were responding as bonehead bureaucracies do: Don’t just stand there, do something. And every time the TSA does something, you’ll have to stand there, longer and longer, suffering ever more pointless indignities.
There's much more, of course, in the full article.  Steyn takes down Janet Incompetano (his words, heh), The One, and all the various bureaucracies charged with "keeping us safe" in a fine, fine manner.  I'm thinking of ending each and every post/link/item of this nature with a "Do ya miss Dubya yet?" tag line.  I know I sure do...  I think Chuck Asay may, as well.

6 comments:

  1. Glad I don't fly anymore. Can't imagine trying to keep my children entertained for the final hour of a flight.

    sorry about your power outage, glad it's back on now.

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  2. I'm supposed to fly out to Pittsburgh soon, and I'm reconsidering in favor of renting a 4WD SUV and driving. I just DON'T wanna fly these days. Shorter: I hear ya, Jenny.

    re: Our power outage... it was damned cold when I finally rolled out yesterday morning, on account of becuz I'd shut the propane and thus the furnace down!

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  3. Between the time and aggravation getting thru security and then the wait if it's bad weather -- sometimes it is a toss up to drive or fly.

    I have power, thank goodness, but the heat is out. (Fan motor to the heat pump is now being replaced!)

    So, big high of 21 today, with 30 mph winds --- have 2 heaters on and the oven. Still cold!

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  4. My heat pump has an emergency mode. A red light comes on. What that does is turn the furnace into a plain old gas burner. It's too cold for the heat pump anyway. Mine seems to want to give it a try every once in awhile, so the emergency mode works good at shutting that off.

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  5. Kath: I hope you're up and running by now. It's COLD in your neck o' the woods. As if I needed to tell ya that...

    Anon: Heat pumps are good things, generally speaking.

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  6. Flying - ick. I've never enjoyed it even back in the late 70s/early 80s when it was supposedly fun to fly.

    These days - if I can't get there by car, bus, train or car service - I'm not going.

    There is no place so special or important that I need to fly to reach it.

    Glad we didn't lose power yesterday - it hit 16 degrees and stayed there all day long. With the fierce winds I'm sure it was below zero out there. Not that we found out - we stayed indoors watching Season 1 of "Sons of Anarchy" - I highly recommend, btw.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.