One year ago today: October 10, 2023, a fat-cat playground.
Five years ago today: October 10, 2019, simplified plumbing.
Nine years ago today: October 10, 2015, a 70% chance.
Random years ago today: October 10, 2010, Just flu, no COVID.
No power for eight hours so far, we are running on Yeti power. The unit behaves well, though the customer reviews indicate I got a good unit. Basics only, one light, one fan, one computer. My scanner shows all other (WiFi) signals within range have been off the air since the power outage. The Yeti has proven its worth, but it was a hassle finding all the correct cables from behind the desk. The darkness includes downtown, so I may have to recharge the unit from the van. This wee unit is why we have any communication at all. The storm hit my place full force. And about six hours of it.
The worst off was the guy to the east, as he can’t do a lot of heavy work at the best of times. He recalled having a generator, so we went into his shed and found a brand new 3500W still in the shipping box. I dragged it out into the driveway to find I could not lift his gas can myself. Picture two guys who don’t know what they are doing, and we got the thing running once we figured out the off-on switch for the outlets also worked the ignition. We ran enough extension cords to fire up his fridge, kitchen lights, and TV. And a place to charge my Yeti. So I’m good until Friday morning.
In good news, reports from Sweden show they are expelling hundreds of Iraqis back to the desert. Pictures show no women, no children, and no old people. A prime indicator of Chinese economic health, luxury car sales, has plummeted. The Demtards are making a hopeless play for rural America, a last gasp wasted effort in a contest they should have conceded already. Georgia is actually going to enter 330,000 votes from dead people, basically saying to America they know it is illegal but they also dare anybody to lift a finger. They best hope not, as Trump has announced anybody who cheats is going to jail. Who is going to blink first?
Route 66.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Turns out this was just the start of our woes, meaning me and the neighbor. On this side everybody is okay. The lady across the way who is living in her cottage since her house burned down had her yard and driveway cleared before we got to our own. But on the east side, the guy is probably nearly 90 and forgetful. For example, that generator in his shed, did I mention it was still in the box after ten years? Let’s just say I learned a lot about generators in a short time. Like how it costs $25 in gasoline (two 4-gallon tanks) a day running at low demand speed, half again that if you power up the fridge and a hotplate. I learned that in Florida, if you buy a $500 generator, instead of worrying about having no electricity, you can worry about having no gasoline.
The papaya tree is gone. It did grow tall and spindly, not it’s firewood. Actually, it isn’t even that, I found the inside of the tree to be more of a reed or grass, and it had a cross section of ribs. This photo shows it just missed the edge of birdie paradise and now blocking the path to the back shed. The radio is now reporting the areas out of electricity but this time missing the estimates of how long each district will be out. All they will say is “after the weekend” which will put a lot of people into deep troubles.
This next photo shows downed limbs and branches blocking the pathway to my shed. Overall, I had some damage to my fences, otherwise just a mess which required half a day to rake up into piles. Two branches also fell on the neighbor’s fence, so I sawed that into pieces small enough for one man to drag to the curb. Plus he needed help moving the fridge to get at the cable and so on. Hauling heavy things around has not been my favorite for decades in a row.
The exercise drained me but we got everything safe and sound before dark. The delay on this day’s post was another quirk of the Yeti. I would have been baffled by the cause, but I larned from reading about rectifiers, you may recall how I discussed the difficulty of changing pulsing DC back into AC. Turns out computer power supplies are quite sensitive. Although the label on the Yeti says it is a true sine wave, it isn’t. Twice it locked up my power supply and the library is closed for the duration.
ADDENDUM
There is a lady posting about her family’s wonderful trip down Route 66, so I posted a counter-opinion of my experiences. My warnings were hard facts, be prepared for potholes, dead-ends, fake attractions, bad directions, and high prices. You know, the parts she left out. Things like signs saying “Route 66 Campgrounds” that were 30 miles off the track. Did she tear a strip off me, but I held my ground--quit with the flowery report, it is not true. Rout 66 is a rip-off.
The road goes through dozens of backwaters (all of which have been thoroughly looted), some of them nearly ghost towns, which post only the local street names, but worst were sections that were barricaded shut for repairs without a word on the Internet. You regularly got detoured back to the nearest Interstate and missed many of the places highlighted on the infinite number tourist brochures. The most expensive gas I ever bought was in the Mojave.
She really got on my case until I dared her to post her itinerary. She did. I added up the mileage. To go 670 miles on the segments she posted required over 1,000 miles of travel, most of it not on Route 66. I also posted that according to her own information, she took almost three months to make the trip, which hardly qualifies as a “family vacation”. She took down the post and disappeared. Good, you know how I loathe “travel tales” that don’t give a true impression.
