Picture of the Day
(President Bush jokes with FBI graduate T.A. Staderman II, who received the physical training award, during a graduation ceremony for FBI Special Agents Oct 30 in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak))
posted by mikevotes at
8:32 AM
8 Comments:
Unrelated personal note:
Day 11 with no phone or public utilities. Just a small generator. We shut it off at night to save fuel. Then, in the mornings, I go outside and spend a few minutes pulling the cord and farting around with the choke to get it going again.
My car was broken into last week (I may have already mentioned this). Passenger side window smashed; GPS stolen. Drove home in below freezing temps.
We were hit with two, back-to-back, 10in-plus snowstorms. I broke two sheer pins on the snow blower. One of them last night at 10pm... didn't replace it yet.
My well pump seems to be going. The little generator can barely keep up when the well pump kicks in. I'll have to rewire the generator today.
I still haven't done my Christmas shopping.
I'm fighting depression.
On the bright side, no one's sick. No one's died. And in less than a month Barack Obama will be the president of the United States.... officially.
By
-epm, at 10:38 AM
Ooooohhh.... You're still not back up. I'm really sorry. I hope you do get back up soon.
Having recently been through the long blackout after the hurricane, I'm very sympathetic.
What I can tell you is that the power will come back on, and within a relatively short time, you'll forget this reality as you snap back into a routine.
(I didn't have a generator, and we had hot humid instead of cold, but the same basic issues. One plus that I do hear is that you don't have 4 hour gas lines or food issues like we did, but you also have the cold.
Hang in. It'll change, and before you know it, you'll have forgotten it.)
By
mikevotes, at 1:55 PM
To a hurricane "survivor" I must sound a bit of a whiner! LOL.
If I was on my own it might even be a bit of a fun adventure, but with a wife and two kids to worry about (and keep peace among!) it's different.
I now have a deep, deep appreciation for the value of potable water! My biggest concern about losing the generator is losing my water supply. Heat is secondary, to me anyway.
I know I have it pretty good. As far as crises go, my suffering is a blip. Still, throw in the stolen GPS, broken car window, and now the heater fan stopped working in my car... add in the busted sheer pins on the snow blow in the pitch dark and the water pump starting to show signs of ailing... Well, some times I just start feelin' like Karma's bitch slappin' me a bit.
By
-epm, at 2:08 PM
No, not at all. I know exactly where you are, and where I live, the symptoms are almost exactly what you're going through substituting humid heat for cold and leaves and branches for snow. It's about the same.
It's immediately/closely/personally bad because suddenly everything is so much harder than normal. There's so much more effort to get just anything done that it wears out your mood.
And, from experience I'm telling ya', power comes back on, life quickly goes back to normal, and in almost no time you go right back to where you were.
By
mikevotes, at 2:18 PM
"... and in almost no time you go right back to where you were."
That's what I'm afraid of. During the past 11 days we've watched virtually no TV. It's been kind of nice. More reading and hitting the sack earlier.
By
-epm, at 3:04 PM
Oh yeah. You'll go right back.
By
mikevotes, at 3:07 PM
To EPM - I hear that you're keeping things going for kids and wife as well. One thing I've discovered is that you/I/we have the power to declare that Christmas comes a day or a week later than the calendar date! Maybe you can get the family to agree to have Christmas (dinner and gifts) on New Years Day...or later if need be. My family is all spread out and one year I declared my birthday to last for 3 months so I could celebrate it in several different places. Crazy, but it helps lift the guilt of missing some arbitrary target date. Here's wishing you NO MORE bad surprises!
By
Anonymous, at 9:56 PM
MArciale, plus you get after Christmas store prices which are bound to be good.
By
mikevotes, at 7:45 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home