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I wouldn't have thought that

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By ObviousTroll (Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 08:44:15 PM EST) a thunderstorm full of centipedes (all tags)

being without power would be such a grueling experience.

So, short entry, because I'm a burn out.

Tuesday night, SWHTL and I are in the martial arts emporium, which is only about 50 yards from and, indeed, faces, our house.

Over about 10 minutes, the sky went black, then lightning hit the pole and the lights went out. We kept having class, because, what else are you gonna do?

10 more minutes, and our son comes over to find out why we haven't rushed home. Turns out we should be rushing home because son and daughter have decided that what they needed to do was light about a bajillion candles. So I step out just as someone dropped an ocean on us.

It was amazing. I mean, you hear metaphors and all about hard rain but, really, they don't really convey the effect. White water rafting on my face? Maybe. I get to the house, dry off, and the rain stops, that fast. Step outside and every tree in the neighborhood has been stomped flat. Not knocked over, not lost some branches - they look as if a giant was playing hopscotch and the trees were the board.

Power was out from then till now.

Feel free to imagine all sorts of defrosting meat, emergency ice, trips to the MIL's to transfer food, hot sweaty nights, etc., etc.

I'm glad I'm not my cow-orker, though. He has no power and his water comes from a well.

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I wouldn't have thought that | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

I feel your pain by yankeehack (4.00 / 2) #1 Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 09:56:48 PM EST

LO and I endured a hot sweaty Tuesday night. I lighted some candles, LO groused about how hard it must have been in the olden days without TV, radio and the Internet and I was playing around with my cell phone - and the batteries were draining quite fast. LO located, of all things, a lighted sword. We cannibalized some batteries from her other nearly forgotten toys to keep that running - and the lighted sword kept us safe on Tuesday night.

Yesterday, I get all ready for work without power - get LO to camp which too was without power and then transverse a few newly made 4 way intersections, branches down, etc. Pass by an ice place on 30 which all of a sudden was really popular. Anyway, get to work and find out there's no power there - and was told to return home and call in later in the morning to see if the power was restored. As it turns out, I had a day off.

Talking to others, they were out anywhere from 15 to 27 hours. My folks just got power back this evening.

Oh and Miker2, who lives a mile away from me. His lights were out for maybe an hour on Tuesday night. That's all.
****
Never make someone your priority when you're their option.

: Yeah, it was a real hit or miss thing by ObviousTroll (2.00 / 0) #6 Fri Jul 21, 2006 at 08:02:26 AM EST

Mostly "hit" out here in Phoenixville, but it still seemed like there was one building or business per block that still had power.
We live right along French Creek¹ and the power lines used to follow it. "Used" being the key word - I've never seen a line broken in so many places. They replaced it with a new line that's as thick as your wrist that comes in through a different set of trees. :-/
¹ For you furrin types, French Creek is so named because back in olden times the silly buggers liked to march up and down it instead of, you know, using the nicely paved suburban streets.

--
Faith, and the possibility of weaponized kissing?
[ Parent ]

Power by ucblockhead (4.00 / 2) #2 Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 10:41:33 PM EST

Last time I was out for multiple days it was because the city refused to sign off on work done after a blown transformer. The last refusal was because a grounding rod was pounded 5 2/3 feet into the ground instead of 6 feet. This occurred on a Friday afternoon, just before the inspecters broke for the weekend. Anger levels are left as an exercise for the reader.
----
_{ウセーバラケダ}

Yeouch!! by reza (2.00 / 0) #3 Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 10:47:53 PM EST

I'm sorry to hear of your weather woes! What part of the world/country are you in?

I'm in Northern IL and 3 nights ago we barely had a wind and it knocked down a good portion of the tree in my backyard. Yesterday, we got 2 of the trees cut down-- in time to miss some pretty big storms last night.

Glad it wasn't worse!

:-)
Reza

" Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind do not matter, and those who matter do not mind!" Dr. Seuss

: South East Pennsylvania. by ObviousTroll (2.00 / 0) #7 Fri Jul 21, 2006 at 08:06:36 AM EST

Which makes this storm especially weird - we hear about the midwest's storms all the time, but Penn's Woods are too hilly - usually they break up the storms before they get that big.
My son and I were wondering about whether or not lightning had struck all the trees - he established that it was wind because there weren't any burn marks on the trees. Then we wondered about tornados, but the damage was so wide spread that theory doesn't apply either (and tornadoes are even more rare in Pa. than big thunderstorms.)

--
Faith, and the possibility of weaponized kissing?
[ Parent ]

ah, life without running water by clover kicker (4.00 / 1) #4 Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 10:55:40 PM EST

I've never liked low-flow toilets, but after a couple of days filling the tank with a bucket they start to sound better.

Most of my electrical problems have been because of snowstorms, so I've got basicly unlimited water. snow + woodstove = easy water. I keep 20 litres of potable water at all times, just in case.

If the power went off right now it would be annoying as fuck, but at least it would be easier to get to the store and buy water.

No power for a week by wiredog (4.00 / 1) #5 Fri Jul 21, 2006 at 07:27:03 AM EST

When Hurricane Isabel hit the DC area a few years back I lived without power for a week. Ice/dry ice to keep the fridge/freezer cool enough. Cooking on the grill. Lukewarm showers (not cold because the water, in summer, is never even cool).

Tell your kids that "It builds character! Our Heroic Ancestors lived this way for their Entire Lives! You don't know how good you've got it!" Etc, etc, etc.

RE:"hot sweaty nights," So you and SWHTL are following CBBs relationship advice during the outage? Guess there's not much else to do when the power's out, is there.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

Heh. by ObviousTroll (2.00 / 0) #8 Fri Jul 21, 2006 at 08:19:22 AM EST

No, "hot sweaty nights" == "don't touch me, you're too sweaty."

Believe it or not, we couldn't get dry ice. PECO said too many people were out of power, they couldn't provide dry ice to all of us. The supermarkets were on the job with pallets of regular ice - but that's not quite cold enough to keep meat frozen, so yesterday morning we transfered 5 months worth of meat to the MILs. Almost everything was still frozen, except about 40 hot dogs and some steaks. Time for a cook out!

It was funny watching the 9 year old try to figure out some way she could watch television.

--
Faith, and the possibility of weaponized kissing?
[ Parent ]

: No dry ice by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #9 Mon Jul 24, 2006 at 07:47:29 AM EST

The DC area ran out pretty quick after Hurricane Isabel.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
[ Parent ]

I wouldn't have thought that | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback