June 21, 2006
Dear Everyone:
This is going to be a very short Letter for several reasons.
The first is that I am really, really tired. A confluence of incidents this week has resulted in my working late every night. Bushed would be the word.
The second reason is that I have no power at home. Today, the first full day of Summer, is also officially the hottest day of the year (so far). We’re having one of those heat waves that come around from time to time. When I got home, a mere 45 minutes later than I should have, it was 104 degrees on the patio, 75 in the living room and 85 upstairs. That was with the air-conditioner going full blast.
Until the power went out just before 6:00. According to the power company’s telephone answering system, they are aware of the outage and estimate the power will return “approximately between 6:29 and 8:29”, which is their standard two-and-a-half hour window that kicks in any time there’s an outage. Check back from time to time to find out if they’ve extended the deadline.
This is one reason why I insist on having at least one “land line” in the house. This is a telephone that actually connects to the jack in the wall and will continue to work even when the power is out. Cordless phones don’t work during an outage. And yes, cell phones work as well. But the power company computer prefers that you call from a land line so it can confirm that you are calling from where you are. It will even offer to call you back when the power comes back on, but only to the same phone you called it from. I guess this is for people who can’t tell when all the lights and appliances come back on.
And I’m also lucky in that I keep a battery-powered fan in the trunk of my car. It’s sitting next to my laptop right now, keeping me marginally cooler than if I didn’t have it. If today is a taste of outages to come, I’m investing in more battery-powered fans.
I even have three UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) batteries into which I have plugged my TVs and VCRs. If the power is out for less than 45 minutes, the batteries continue to supply electricity to these appliances so you don’t have to reprogram them every time there’s a blip in the grid. When the power does go out, the UPS starts to beep. This is supposed to alert someone to come and power down the computer before the electricity goes out, possibly damaging the computer. Ironically, because my computer is a laptop, it has its own internal battery that’s supposed to last for an hour or two.
However, the three UPS units aren’t synchronized. They each march to the sound of their own beep. So through the house you hear: “Beep!” “Beep!” “BEEP!!!” (One is a different brand and has a louder beep. It’s also the one that keeps beeping – every five seconds – long after the other two have died.)
So here I am, typing in the growing darkness, listening to “BEEP!!!”, hoping the lights come on in time for me to reprogram everything and still to get to bed early.
Welcome to the first day of Summer.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |