Posted by JayC on December 16, 2008, 3:42 pm
If you heard about the epic ice storm up here in New England, I was
right in the middle with all services down for several days. We'd
been out of power since Thursday at both houses, and just got it back
last night at both places (w/in a couple hours of each other, by some
amazing coincidence). Just to really make it messy, my wife had
surgery to remove a growth from inside a bone at her shoulder w/ graft
from her pelvis. The surgery went great, and the growth turned out to
be a benign cyst, so that was a relief, but I had to bring her home on
Friday to a powerless house, with outside temperatures dropping
rapidly. By Saturday morning, my house was at 51 inside and falling,
so I knew I had to do something fast - either get my wife out of there
or somehow get heat. Of course, there were no hotel rooms w/in 100
miles, and I'd have to go to New Jersey to find a generator. To make
matters even worse, the rental place was down to the low 40s inside -
the tenants had already fled, but the house was in serious danger of
freezing and blowing up pipes - it was only in the teens outside, and
falling to close to zero low that night. I went on a search-n-destroy
mission and after 200 driving miles in beg-borrow-steal mode, I
managed to borrow a 5kW generator. Of course, it hadn't been run for
a couple of years, and didn't respond at all to the first round of
yanking the pull-cord. I did a quickie tear-down, cleanup, and gas
change, and quickly got it running (see - a real-world use for
dirtbike wrenching experience). I cranked up my furnace for a couple
of hours, then tore off to the other place and (after an absolutely
epic battle between me and the 50-year-old boiler...which generated a
cloud of obscenities that is still floating somewhere over Michigan)
gave it roughly 4-hours of energy (~a half-million BTUs) to stand off
the expected zero-degree night. Luckily we had a break with the
weather and things warmed up after Saturday, so I'd been keeping my
house livable, and running back and forth to the rental place, giving
infusions of energy for a few hours at a time. Courtesy of the
generator, I got water and heat (and coffee) but no hot water, so I
could keep my house close to normal temperature, but nobody bathed
after Thursday, and I recently realized that I only managed to find
time to eat twice from then until last night, when we finally got
power back. The rental house was literally at the epicenter of the
storm - there are still trees and wires down on some main roads - it
looks like a nuclear bomb went off. I hit a downed wire across my
windshield at 50MPH on Saturday night - still hanging there and
unmarked three full days after the storm. Every single tree on my
property is shattered. I fully expected to not get power back for at
least a week there, but by some miracle, got it back yesterday night
as well. The ordeal is finally over, and I expect to find out that
I've gone completely gray once the remaining blonde/brown grows out.
OTOH, I lost 7 pounds ;).
Didn't do no riding, but spent a lot of time playing with small-
displacement motors...
JayC
Posted by XR650L_Dave on December 16, 2008, 4:11 pm
> If you heard about the epic ice storm up here in New England, I was
> right in the middle with all services down for several days. We'd
> been out of power since Thursday at both houses, and just got it back
> last night at both places (w/in a couple hours of each other, by some
> amazing coincidence). Just to really make it messy, my wife had
> surgery to remove a growth from inside a bone at her shoulder w/ graft
> from her pelvis. The surgery went great, and the growth turned out to
> be a benign cyst, so that was a relief, but I had to bring her home on
> Friday to a powerless house, with outside temperatures dropping
> rapidly. By Saturday morning, my house was at 51 inside and falling,
> so I knew I had to do something fast - either get my wife out of there
> or somehow get heat. Of course, there were no hotel rooms w/in 100
> miles, and I'd have to go to New Jersey to find a generator. To make
> matters even worse, the rental place was down to the low 40s inside -
> the tenants had already fled, but the house was in serious danger of
> freezing and blowing up pipes - it was only in the teens outside, and
> falling to close to zero low that night. I went on a search-n-destroy
> mission and after 200 driving miles in beg-borrow-steal mode, I
> managed to borrow a 5kW generator. Of course, it hadn't been run for
> a couple of years, and didn't respond at all to the first round of
> yanking the pull-cord. I did a quickie tear-down, cleanup, and gas
> change, and quickly got it running (see - a real-world use for
> dirtbike wrenching experience). I cranked up my furnace for a couple
> of hours, then tore off to the other place and (after an absolutely
> epic battle between me and the 50-year-old boiler...which generated a
> cloud of obscenities that is still floating somewhere over Michigan)
> gave it roughly 4-hours of energy (~a half-million BTUs) to stand off
> the expected zero-degree night. Luckily we had a break with the
> weather and things warmed up after Saturday, so I'd been keeping my
> house livable, and running back and forth to the rental place, giving
> infusions of energy for a few hours at a time. Courtesy of the
> generator, I got water and heat (and coffee) but no hot water, so I
> could keep my house close to normal temperature, but nobody bathed
> after Thursday, and I recently realized that I only managed to find
> time to eat twice from then until last night, when we finally got
> power back. The rental house was literally at the epicenter of the
> storm - there are still trees and wires down on some main roads - it
> looks like a nuclear bomb went off. I hit a downed wire across my
> windshield at 50MPH on Saturday night - still hanging there and
> unmarked three full days after the storm. Every single tree on my
> property is shattered. I fully expected to not get power back for at
> least a week there, but by some miracle, got it back yesterday night
> as well. The ordeal is finally over, and I expect to find out that
> I've gone completely gray once the remaining blonde/brown grows out.
> OTOH, I lost 7 pounds ;).
> Didn't do no riding, but spent a lot of time playing with small-
> displacement motors...
> JayC
Was figuring you were powerless (in the e-tricity sense) and did not
expect to hear from you so soon.
Sounds like good news all around, except for the yard cleanup.
NY had a snowstorm while the leaves were on the trees years ago,
results were similar. Power was off at my parents house for longer
than yours was, roads were passable only because of guys with
chainsaws cutting tunnels through the trees, the whole 9 yards.
Dave
Posted by oldfart on December 16, 2008, 4:50 pm
My condolances to all of you who endured the weather hardships on the
east coast. NH had half of all power out. We are jus waiting for the
snow to melt here in California and then we are going riding.
OF
Posted by SloCalSpode on December 16, 2008, 6:57 pm
You might be waiting a long time. Maybe you
should think about unpacking the skis and
head up to Mammoth for a couple days.
The conditions, once the storm clears, should
be epic.
I am looking forward to some spring skiing up
your way around April-May. Once the leg heals
that is. It has been 3 years since I have been
on the boards. Ski or Snow boards.
Enjoy the white stuff. All we got down here is
mud.
SloCalSpode
---------------------------------------------------
oldfart wrote:
> We are jus waiting for the
> snow to melt here in California and then we are going riding.
> OF
Posted by The Real Bev on December 16, 2008, 10:57 pm
SloCalSpode wrote:
> You might be waiting a long time. Maybe you
> should think about unpacking the skis and
> head up to Mammoth for a couple days.
> The conditions, once the storm clears, should
> be epic.
> I am looking forward to some spring skiing up
> your way around April-May. Once the leg heals
> that is. It has been 3 years since I have been
> on the boards. Ski or Snow boards.
> Enjoy the white stuff. All we got down here is
> mud.
Snow at Big Bear. Only the main runs open and according to the webcam
it's pretty crowded (and will be worse on the weekend), but by January
it ought to be wonderful.
http://www.snowsummit.com/snow-summit-snow-report.php#conditions
--
Cheers, Bev
=============================================================
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice,
but in practice there is.
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> right in the middle with all services down for several days. We'd
> been out of power since Thursday at both houses, and just got it back
> last night at both places (w/in a couple hours of each other, by some
> amazing coincidence). Just to really make it messy, my wife had
> surgery to remove a growth from inside a bone at her shoulder w/ graft
> from her pelvis. The surgery went great, and the growth turned out to
> be a benign cyst, so that was a relief, but I had to bring her home on
> Friday to a powerless house, with outside temperatures dropping
> rapidly. By Saturday morning, my house was at 51 inside and falling,
> so I knew I had to do something fast - either get my wife out of there
> or somehow get heat. Of course, there were no hotel rooms w/in 100
> miles, and I'd have to go to New Jersey to find a generator. To make
> matters even worse, the rental place was down to the low 40s inside -
> the tenants had already fled, but the house was in serious danger of
> freezing and blowing up pipes - it was only in the teens outside, and
> falling to close to zero low that night. I went on a search-n-destroy
> mission and after 200 driving miles in beg-borrow-steal mode, I
> managed to borrow a 5kW generator. Of course, it hadn't been run for
> a couple of years, and didn't respond at all to the first round of
> yanking the pull-cord. I did a quickie tear-down, cleanup, and gas
> change, and quickly got it running (see - a real-world use for
> dirtbike wrenching experience). I cranked up my furnace for a couple
> of hours, then tore off to the other place and (after an absolutely
> epic battle between me and the 50-year-old boiler...which generated a
> cloud of obscenities that is still floating somewhere over Michigan)
> gave it roughly 4-hours of energy (~a half-million BTUs) to stand off
> the expected zero-degree night. Luckily we had a break with the
> weather and things warmed up after Saturday, so I'd been keeping my
> house livable, and running back and forth to the rental place, giving
> infusions of energy for a few hours at a time. Courtesy of the
> generator, I got water and heat (and coffee) but no hot water, so I
> could keep my house close to normal temperature, but nobody bathed
> after Thursday, and I recently realized that I only managed to find
> time to eat twice from then until last night, when we finally got
> power back. The rental house was literally at the epicenter of the
> storm - there are still trees and wires down on some main roads - it
> looks like a nuclear bomb went off. I hit a downed wire across my
> windshield at 50MPH on Saturday night - still hanging there and
> unmarked three full days after the storm. Every single tree on my
> property is shattered. I fully expected to not get power back for at
> least a week there, but by some miracle, got it back yesterday night
> as well. The ordeal is finally over, and I expect to find out that
> I've gone completely gray once the remaining blonde/brown grows out.
> OTOH, I lost 7 pounds ;).
> Didn't do no riding, but spent a lot of time playing with small-
> displacement motors...
> JayC