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BS: Worst part of a power outage is...
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Subject: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 11 Sep 10 - 06:06 AM ... not being able to do the morning paper crossword puzzle while I was... ah... well... doing that other morning thing. I think this outage has been caused by Crappy Tire (Canadian Tire) as they have their Eliminator 800 Power Box on sale this week for $120. I have one so I can type this. Might get another one so I can do the crossword. I have two at Mum's. One for a lamp and one for the TV in her living room. Poor old dear made tea with hot water from the tap... wouldn't let me fire up the Coleman stove. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: maeve Date: 11 Sep 10 - 07:14 AM Worst part of a power outage is... when the power returns, bringing back the noise. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Rapparee Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:12 AM I find the worst part to be lack of power. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Ed T Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:38 AM Marriage often leads to a lack of power |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Bill D Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:42 AM resetting 15-20 digital clocks and appliances.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:43 AM Oh, yeah... the VCR. Thanks Bill. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: VirginiaTam Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:45 AM flash light -- new EverReady batteries $2.00 wood stove fired up -- cord wood $70.00 can of Campbell's tomato soup 47 cents with coupon throwing away the manual can opener when you bought the $20 electric can opener --- PRICELESS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Bobert Date: 11 Sep 10 - 12:12 PM No water, I'd have to say... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 11 Sep 10 - 12:19 PM Good one, VT. I took a spin after daybreak. I was curious because the last outage was the same block. Not far from my house, a pole had sheared off about a foot under the crossarm. Odd. Just glad it happened now instead of in February. Tricky job but the lads had power restored in less than seven hours after the loss of power. Actually, the worst partof a power outage is that SO many motorists do not know the rules of the road when traffic lights are off. At the first intersection with traffic lights out along a main road, an RCMP had his cruiser parked away from traffic, with the light show turned on, and was standing at the rear of the cruiser. The frustration on his face told the tale. Some people on the main road were flying through the intersection as if they had a green light and some people on the feeder roads were stopped and dumfounded. Even when the cop was waving at them, some paid no attention or were paying too much attention to the traffic. At one point, a driver sat motionless for about 45 seconds while EVERY other vehicle was stopped... 7 lanes of traffic stopped. The cop was waving but she just kept looking at the traffic. I was closest to her so I honked my horn and she looked at me. I pointed at her and motioned for her to go... four times. I looked at the cop and he waved thanks and shook his head in disbelief. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: kendall Date: 11 Sep 10 - 12:59 PM Tending the generator. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: SINSULL Date: 11 Sep 10 - 01:02 PM No hot water. So sorry gnu. At least it's not the dead of winter. Give Mom a hug for me. SINS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Little Hawk Date: 11 Sep 10 - 01:31 PM On the one hand, there's the lack of running water. On the other hand, there's the excess of water that will occur soon in the basement if the sump pump is off for too long! ;-) And that brings to mind the generator. Which is usually rather hard to start, partly because you can't quite remember the routine for startup since the last time you used it, besides which it's quite balky. When you do start it, it makes a godawful noise. The dog doesn't like it, so he starts barking, adding to the din. Then there is the lack of lighting, which can make things tricky after dark, specially when you're trying to find the flashlight and the dog is getting under your feet. When you do find it (the flashlight, not the dog), the batteries turn out to be dead. So you must search for more batteries or light some candles. Where ARE those goddamn matches! #%%#%!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 11 Sep 10 - 01:31 PM When we are without power, we still have water. So for me, I'd have to say that the worst part of a long outage is being cold. There have been times that we have been without power in winter for several days. It's miserable! One time it got so bad that we actually went into the office and watched 'Caddy Shack' on the computer to pass away the evening. Desperate, eh? Now we have a kerosene heater and some kerosene in the basement,but we haven't had an outage since. I'm kind of afraid to use it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Little Hawk Date: 11 Sep 10 - 01:32 PM Oh, and then there's freezing in the cold, of course.... ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Donuel Date: 11 Sep 10 - 01:54 PM ...is having to run an extention cord to the car's marine inverter for enough electricity to run the furnace blower, refrigerator, a few lights and a small TV. get a $300 inverter and power your house with your car. ITs quiet and better than nothing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: open mike Date: 11 Sep 10 - 02:54 PM food in the fridge and freezer spoiling... at my previous house there was gravity flow water... just had to keep it running enough so it would not freeze in the winter gas stove for cooking, wood stove for heating (and cooking) which also had a thermo siphon loop thru it so water was heated when ever the stove was hot..plus a solar collector to heat water on sunny days and a propane on-demand (tankless) water heater for days when neither the sun or the woodstove was providing warmth... and solar panels with enough juice to power lights and music and computer... so power outages were not as much of a hassle as for those who require power for pumping water, running heaters, or pellet stoves or furnaces I hope to have a 3 way fridge eventually...that will run on 12 volt when the sun is shining, 110 when it is not and propane when the other sources are not available..amazing to think you can COOL with a flame....have they invented a propane air conditioner yet??! now if the propane tank is out and the sun is not shining, this complicates the issue during a power outage....and I might just live in the r.v. for a while... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 11 Sep 10 - 03:37 PM leeneia... do NOT run a kerosene heater inside the house. Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you if you don't have enough oxygen being drawn in from outdoors. If you do, the heater isn't worth much. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 11 Sep 10 - 03:39 PM LH... ya gotta run yer genie about once a week for at least ten minutes. Iffin ya don't, it'll be hard to start when ya need it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Wesley S Date: 11 Sep 10 - 04:07 PM With the power out you just might lose all your meat. I mean your meat could go bad. It could spoil. So if the electricity goes out - use it as quick as you can. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: open mike Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:02 AM big pots of soup to use food and keep it from spoiling... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:53 AM Oh No! I don't want to lose my meat! Sorry.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Slag Date: 12 Sep 10 - 04:07 AM The BEST part, if it is at night, is grabbing the telescope for some prime dark sky observing! But it is usually the storm that has downed a line somewhere so that doesn't happened very often. The bad? All of the above (no generator) and continually flipping switches and expecting lights, camera, action to occur. Worse than an addiction. PG&E owns us. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Little Hawk Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:18 PM gnu - Yeah, I bet you're right about that. (sigh) One more thing to worry about. I find that a shot of "Liquid Fire" in the air intake helps it kickstart. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:37 PM Keeping warm in winter here in the 'true north'. It has happened more than once but too seldom to throw money at it. On her rural place, a daughter has a gasoline generator large enough to keep everything going in the house. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Richard Bridge Date: 12 Sep 10 - 11:34 PM Wel, here in South East England long power cuts are rare but the Hoo peninsular is probably as bad as anywhere in SE England. We have had two days without power. Two things are a worry for me. The freezers since my generator is not big enough to run them, and the computers without which I cannot work (or therefore earn). I have in the past run one computer off a generator and it was OK until without thinking I fired up a laser printer, the generator overloaded and spiked and something fried every drive in the computer. A friend later managed to get most of the data off the big drive using it as a slave in one of his computers - but that nearly ate all the data in his computer too. I have a friend with a 7KVA generator and a huge UPS and he keeps promising to sell them to me when he moves, but he hasn't sold his house yet... and that was nearly four years ago. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,BobL Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:15 AM A car battery & inverter would power my old solid fuel central heating's water pump fine. The replacement gas fired boiler has spark ignition... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Richard Bridge Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:48 AM Heating is not an issue for me since I have a large-ish log burner |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 13 Sep 10 - 07:22 AM Being in hysterics with laughter if someone trips over or bumps their head, sorry that's just me! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 13 Sep 10 - 07:51 AM I was in charge of re/building sevearl large buidings at a ferry terminal. An emergency generator was not in the design or in the budget but I was asked to "find a way" to get one (the room and electrical services were included in the passenger buiding and the generator would be wheeled and able to be moved to the main dock to allow operation of the bridges upon ferry arrival). At a meeting on site, I asked if the power was that unreliable. The head of terminal maintenance, a Newfoundlander, spoke up. "Well, around here, a bad forecast would knock out the power." A good laugh was had by all. I contacted the power comapany for a history of outages, did a cost-benefit analysis for dock and passenger building downtime, showed the suits that the generator would save them and the public money and was refused. Dunno if they ever got one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:37 PM A bit of a power kerfufle here in Calgary last night. A strong power surge caused an outage in a large building here. The building houses good quality apartments, a medical laboratory with X-ray equipment, etc., an MRI Clinic, and several doctor's offices among others. The surge caused lightbulbs to burst and killed plugged-in equipment, overriding most surge protectors. Fire and Safety personnel evacuated everyone from the building; they cannot return until checks are completed over the next 3-4 days. They are being housed in hotels and empty apartments. Seemingly some major wiring is fried as well as major appliances. The city electrical department has admitted responsibility; they installed two new circuit breaker systems and the current somehow bypassed them (don't know the details and not sure exactly what happened yet). Damages will be in the millions. Insurance adjustors are working with tenants and the electrical utility. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Ebbie Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:40 PM "Being in hysterics with laughter if someone trips over or bumps their head, sorry that's just me!" Patsy That's OK only if you have the same reaction when it happens to you! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: frogprince Date: 13 Sep 10 - 10:11 PM I thin the worst part might be trying to remember what we did to keep warm when the power was out when we were younger. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: open mike Date: 13 Sep 10 - 11:48 PM hmm....does the birth rate spike 9 months after a power outage?? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 14 Sep 10 - 05:32 AM >"Being in hysterics with laughter if someone trips over or bumps their head, sorry that's just me!" Patsy That's OK only if you have the same reaction when it happens to you!< Ebbie, Sorry, what I omitted to add was within the close family only not other people. I would not dream of laughing at anyone's elses mishap outside the family. It's just our sense of humour (a bad Bristolian trait). Patsy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:02 PM "The worst part of a power outage is . . ." The labor, nine months later. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 14 Sep 10 - 12:52 PM For those of us who don't own emergency generators, the worst part of an extended power outage is having to listen to other people's generators. (Please note that I'm not commenting on generator ownership in general. If I lived far enough north that winter power outages meant the possibility of frozen pipes or frozen body parts, I'd own one. But I live in the southeast where generators are mainly used to keep air conditioners and televisions going in the wake if hurricanes. Come on, folks, can't ya live without the TV and A/C for a week?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: gnu Date: 14 Sep 10 - 02:23 PM No TV or AC... Mum can't. And, no lights for a person living alone and nearly blind is frightening. BWL... don't get old. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Ed T Date: 14 Sep 10 - 05:55 PM The power companies get less money...'cause the power is out. Don't smile, you will pay for it in increased rates in the end. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Joybell Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:06 PM We lost power for a whole weekend recently. I was about to complain about all the problems it caused us -- out here in the middle of nowhere without a generator -- until I read about all of you. It's nice and warm here and we've got a little camp stove. The water pump doesn't work but the tank's just outside the back door. Happily, when we get our power bill we might get a bit of money. Seems the power company gave a promise to fix outages within a certain time. Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:28 AM My mum usually gets out an old primus stove to heat up soup, water or beans, candles for light and usually goes on to say that compared to 'the blitz' this is nothing compared. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:43 AM I'm wondering about getting a generator that will use the same fuel as the oil boiler. If we have a power outage we only have water that is left in the pressurised tank as we have a borehole. Our woodburner is not connected up to the chimney at present and needs replacing anyway. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,Patsy, should be working Date: 15 Sep 10 - 09:26 AM On this night I decided to get a meal from the local well-known Harry Ramsden Fish and Chip shop/restaurant with a good reputation for convenience, it was only around the corner from the house. There was a huge queue in there filled right up to the door with people just wanting a ready meal, late workers etc. Although the chip shop was good the waiting time was a nightmare generally. A few had been served and a lot of people's were in the middle of being fried. It was at it's busiest time and all the lights suddenly went out, the fryers went out of operation the assistants couldn't do anything and the fact that the fat was still hot was a bit of a safety issue. Then in the dark they had to try to give the all the people back their money, and I am talking expensive chips, it was pandemonium. Lots of Harry Ramsdens have gone from different counties now, the only one I know still running is the one in Plymouth and I think in the North of England this disaster put the final nail in the coffin for ours, it was already losing money and threatening to go. I really felt sorry for staff working there because they had been treated so shabbily as it was and on top of that a lot of monies worth of food had been wasted. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: GUEST,Neil D Date: 15 Sep 10 - 10:05 AM The worst part of a power outage is when you get cut off in the mi |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Penny S. Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:40 PM My freezer books advise not opening the freezer during a cut. The logic is that it is well insulated, and can probably make it through the usual length of loss of power. If you start eating the meat, you accelerate the decay of the stuff you haven't eaten yet. Read the manual. My father had insurance which came with the freezer, and was supposed to cover if the machine broke down. It turned out it only covered by giving vouchers for a cheap frozen food shop, and did not cover all the home frozen stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Worst part of a power outage is... From: Don Firth Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:54 PM Not being able to find the condoms in the dark? Don Firth P. S. Maybe accounts for the sudden surge in birth rate nine months later. . . . |
