Back On The Air
That Ike's One Mean Mofo...
Two days off "working from home" is all The Man would allow... I'm back at the office where I've got access to phone lines and the Interwebs for the first time since things got frisky early Saturday morning.
Thanks to Army of Mom for passing along the update on what condition my condition was in.
To recap: Lost power & water Saturday about 3 a.m., and that SOB Ike blew like a toothless 'ho at a New Jersey truckstop on payday.
Lots of tree branches down in the yard, but none bigger than a couple of inches in diameter. We lost a section of fence on two sides, but it was 20+ years old and needed replacing anyway. The best part is the neighbors we share it with will be paying half the replacement cost!
Power's still out all over town, and it's tough to find gas or food without a two hour wait in line. I'd kill for a Sonic cheeseburger right now. Eating Chef Boyardee out of a can lost its appeal about halfway through the first can. I debated going and picking up a case of MRE's from one of the Distribution Points this morning, but they suck worse than canned ravioli, and I've got plenty of supplies left. Better to leave them for folks that really need them.
Want some hints for riding out a hurricane in style?
1) Plan ahead. Buy a closetful of non-perishables and flats of water back in May, and leave them the fuck alone! Keep a shelf in your freezer full of bottled water. Move the frozen bottles to the fridge when the storm hits, and add new bottles to freezer to freeze before the power goes out.
2) Get your trees topped every so often. It wasn't cheap to have a tree guy come thin out the big oak out front and the pecan in back, but the lack of 1600 lbs of shattered squirrel-infested lumber piercing my roof decking makes it all worthwhile.
3) Buy a generator! A Troy-Bilt 3500 watt genny cost $400, and two 5 gallon jerrycans of gas cost whatever gas costs these days, plus a $8 bottle of Sta-Bil. The Briggs & Stratton engine started literally on the first pull out of the box after setup, and the genny ran 11 hours on about 3 gallons of gas. I didn't have to do a mad scramble to find ice, and had the fridge, two fans and two lamps running constantly, and also kept the cell phones charged and every so often I could plug in the portable TV to see what was going on outside our neighborhood. Also, don't put it inside your house or garage!
4) Never never never let yourself get talked into VOIP or any other phone service that requires running the phone line through a powered cable modem. I'm going back to a POTS line as soon as those assholes at Comcast get things back up and running. I'd quit now, but I can't even call them to cancel...
5) Get to know your neighbors before the storm hits. They're more likely to help you pull crap out of your yard if you know then on a first-name basis! The flip side is, go help them pull crap out of their yard, too!
More later, gotta do some work. Don't let me forget tell the squirrel story.
Two days off "working from home" is all The Man would allow... I'm back at the office where I've got access to phone lines and the Interwebs for the first time since things got frisky early Saturday morning.
Thanks to Army of Mom for passing along the update on what condition my condition was in.
To recap: Lost power & water Saturday about 3 a.m., and that SOB Ike blew like a toothless 'ho at a New Jersey truckstop on payday.
Lots of tree branches down in the yard, but none bigger than a couple of inches in diameter. We lost a section of fence on two sides, but it was 20+ years old and needed replacing anyway. The best part is the neighbors we share it with will be paying half the replacement cost!
Power's still out all over town, and it's tough to find gas or food without a two hour wait in line. I'd kill for a Sonic cheeseburger right now. Eating Chef Boyardee out of a can lost its appeal about halfway through the first can. I debated going and picking up a case of MRE's from one of the Distribution Points this morning, but they suck worse than canned ravioli, and I've got plenty of supplies left. Better to leave them for folks that really need them.
Want some hints for riding out a hurricane in style?
1) Plan ahead. Buy a closetful of non-perishables and flats of water back in May, and leave them the fuck alone! Keep a shelf in your freezer full of bottled water. Move the frozen bottles to the fridge when the storm hits, and add new bottles to freezer to freeze before the power goes out.
2) Get your trees topped every so often. It wasn't cheap to have a tree guy come thin out the big oak out front and the pecan in back, but the lack of 1600 lbs of shattered squirrel-infested lumber piercing my roof decking makes it all worthwhile.
3) Buy a generator! A Troy-Bilt 3500 watt genny cost $400, and two 5 gallon jerrycans of gas cost whatever gas costs these days, plus a $8 bottle of Sta-Bil. The Briggs & Stratton engine started literally on the first pull out of the box after setup, and the genny ran 11 hours on about 3 gallons of gas. I didn't have to do a mad scramble to find ice, and had the fridge, two fans and two lamps running constantly, and also kept the cell phones charged and every so often I could plug in the portable TV to see what was going on outside our neighborhood. Also, don't put it inside your house or garage!
4) Never never never let yourself get talked into VOIP or any other phone service that requires running the phone line through a powered cable modem. I'm going back to a POTS line as soon as those assholes at Comcast get things back up and running. I'd quit now, but I can't even call them to cancel...
5) Get to know your neighbors before the storm hits. They're more likely to help you pull crap out of your yard if you know then on a first-name basis! The flip side is, go help them pull crap out of their yard, too!
More later, gotta do some work. Don't let me forget tell the squirrel story.
posted by El Capitan | 10:37 AM
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