1. Be more diligent about oiling the hinges in the chimney flue. It was a royal bitch to get it open.
2. Batteries in the primary emergency lantern were dead. Spares had been used for something else and not replaced. That was just plain unacceptable.
3. Propane bottles for camp stove. They'd been in the same spot for years, until they were moved a few months ago. Where to? Took a while to remember, didn't it? Meanwhile, padding around in basement looking for them in the dark (because the above-mentioned lantern wasn't working) taught us another lesson, namely if you're going to be in the basement barefoot, do a better job of keeping stray pistol brass policed up. Stepping on that .45 case hurt like a bitch, didn't it? So keep basement cleaner, wear a shoe down there when it's dark, and don't move emergency supplies unless you make an effort to re-train yourself as to their new location.
Otherwise, This exercise was graded "Fully Successful".
Bonus points for having gone grocery shopping the day before, and for having bought a few dried foods just for an "eventual" outage just like this one. So "Yay me!" for that. The tea and instant chicken noodle soup were a nice morale booster. Now get more.
Showing posts with label power failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power failure. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Back on-line!
So Friday, we got this snow...heavy, wet snow, about six inches worth on my deck. Neat to see--and Al Gore and all of his "Global warming" disciples can kiss my ass--but it knocked out the power and the internet here at the Lair.
Now the power was restored Saturday night, so that was no real problem. Murphy and I just spent the intervening time sitting in front of the fireplace, me linking ammunition or reading a book and him growling at the popping logs. The house was lit by Coleman lanterns which are kept on hand for just such an event, and food was cooked and tea was brewed on a matching Coleman stove. Even the toilets remained functional courtesy of the water in the outside rain barrel. In short, we had everything but a hot shower, microwave popcorn and the internet, so life was good for this guy and his dog.
Well the power came back, but not the internet. Why? Because I have Comcast and they suck. But understanding the nature of the problem, I gave them some slack...right up until I got the automated call last night telling me that service to the area had been restored and discovered that mine was still out.
So I called them, and after sitting on hold for twenty minutes and being cycled through several layers of "you'can't-bypass-this" voicemail lectures and prompts, I eventually spoke to an airhead named Sherice who insisted on patronizing me and treating me as if I was her best friend in the world AND six years old. Sherice sympathized with me and pretended that she really, really cared that I'd been off-line for four days already, with no way to pay bills, check e-mail, send out resumes, buy gun stuff or read blogs. She tried--and failed--to reset my connection from their end. Then she cheerfully explained that a technician would have to come here and set me up for a service call on Thursday.
At this point, I came a bit unglued and told her politely but firmly that Thursday was not acceptable to me and that I expected it to be restored immediately by whatever means were required on their end. Sherice kept telling me oh, so cheerfully, that she could not get anyone out here any sooner. I stopped her after about the third repeat of this claim and told her that she was saying "can't" when what she really meant was "won't". This one brought her up short and probably took her right off of that little page of answers to things that customers say that I suspect that she was reciting from. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"You CAN send someone here tomorrow," I explained. "You just won't. There is a difference."
She again denied that she could send anyone tomorrow, and I stopped her again. "Do you have technicians working tomorrow? There's actually people there, right? No holiday or labor strike, right? Then you actually could send one over here tomorrow if you chose to. So the word is 'won't'."
She again told me that she couldn't send anyone.
I then suggested that if the president of Comcast's home internet went out, someone would be sent right over to his house, probably in the middle of the night. He probably doesn't even pay for his internet but I pay for mine, so have someone over here in the morning or I will have a competitor's truck over here installing their equipment and your guy can just pick up the router when he shows up on Thursday.
This also did not work. But it got Sherice onto another track. "I'm really sorry for your inconvenience..." she started. This time I just cut her off cold. "It's not an inconvenience, Sherice. It's a significant disruption of my affairs, but it's also a failure on your part to provide a service that we contracted for and which you're being paid to provide. This is not my problem, it's yours, and you need to fix it. Now."
“Oh, you'll get a credit for the time that you weren't able to connect,” she said, still sounding cheerful.
"I don't want a credit. I want the service that I'm paying for. You need to deliver that service."
"Well I'm sorry for the inconvenience..." she said again. She was obviously reading from her script again. The one that probably says "Always sound cheerful" at the top of each page.
I finally lost patience with Sherice. "May I speak to a grown-up now, please?"
"I'm sorry. There's none here right now," she said (cheerfully).
"Yeah, no shit," I said, hanging up the phone.
Today I called back. This time, after the same voice mail jerk-around, I was connected to Kiara. Kiara was similarly patronizing and artificially cheerful, but before I unloaded on her, I sat down and cooperated as she ran the same diagnostics and tests from her end that Sherice had allegedly run last night. This time, the system reset and everything magically began to work again. I'm back on-line. Finally.
Sherice, if you should ever read this, please know that you're a fucking idiot.
So...how was YOUR week-end?
PS--Thanks to Comcast, I missed a Colt Argentine Model 1927 .45 that went at auction last night for a ridiculously low $476.00. I'd have gone higher but I was knocked out of the last day's bidding. Thanks, Comcast, you assholes!
Now the power was restored Saturday night, so that was no real problem. Murphy and I just spent the intervening time sitting in front of the fireplace, me linking ammunition or reading a book and him growling at the popping logs. The house was lit by Coleman lanterns which are kept on hand for just such an event, and food was cooked and tea was brewed on a matching Coleman stove. Even the toilets remained functional courtesy of the water in the outside rain barrel. In short, we had everything but a hot shower, microwave popcorn and the internet, so life was good for this guy and his dog.
Well the power came back, but not the internet. Why? Because I have Comcast and they suck. But understanding the nature of the problem, I gave them some slack...right up until I got the automated call last night telling me that service to the area had been restored and discovered that mine was still out.
So I called them, and after sitting on hold for twenty minutes and being cycled through several layers of "you'can't-bypass-this" voicemail lectures and prompts, I eventually spoke to an airhead named Sherice who insisted on patronizing me and treating me as if I was her best friend in the world AND six years old. Sherice sympathized with me and pretended that she really, really cared that I'd been off-line for four days already, with no way to pay bills, check e-mail, send out resumes, buy gun stuff or read blogs. She tried--and failed--to reset my connection from their end. Then she cheerfully explained that a technician would have to come here and set me up for a service call on Thursday.
At this point, I came a bit unglued and told her politely but firmly that Thursday was not acceptable to me and that I expected it to be restored immediately by whatever means were required on their end. Sherice kept telling me oh, so cheerfully, that she could not get anyone out here any sooner. I stopped her after about the third repeat of this claim and told her that she was saying "can't" when what she really meant was "won't". This one brought her up short and probably took her right off of that little page of answers to things that customers say that I suspect that she was reciting from. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"You CAN send someone here tomorrow," I explained. "You just won't. There is a difference."
She again denied that she could send anyone tomorrow, and I stopped her again. "Do you have technicians working tomorrow? There's actually people there, right? No holiday or labor strike, right? Then you actually could send one over here tomorrow if you chose to. So the word is 'won't'."
She again told me that she couldn't send anyone.
I then suggested that if the president of Comcast's home internet went out, someone would be sent right over to his house, probably in the middle of the night. He probably doesn't even pay for his internet but I pay for mine, so have someone over here in the morning or I will have a competitor's truck over here installing their equipment and your guy can just pick up the router when he shows up on Thursday.
This also did not work. But it got Sherice onto another track. "I'm really sorry for your inconvenience..." she started. This time I just cut her off cold. "It's not an inconvenience, Sherice. It's a significant disruption of my affairs, but it's also a failure on your part to provide a service that we contracted for and which you're being paid to provide. This is not my problem, it's yours, and you need to fix it. Now."
“Oh, you'll get a credit for the time that you weren't able to connect,” she said, still sounding cheerful.
"I don't want a credit. I want the service that I'm paying for. You need to deliver that service."
"Well I'm sorry for the inconvenience..." she said again. She was obviously reading from her script again. The one that probably says "Always sound cheerful" at the top of each page.
I finally lost patience with Sherice. "May I speak to a grown-up now, please?"
"I'm sorry. There's none here right now," she said (cheerfully).
"Yeah, no shit," I said, hanging up the phone.
Today I called back. This time, after the same voice mail jerk-around, I was connected to Kiara. Kiara was similarly patronizing and artificially cheerful, but before I unloaded on her, I sat down and cooperated as she ran the same diagnostics and tests from her end that Sherice had allegedly run last night. This time, the system reset and everything magically began to work again. I'm back on-line. Finally.
Sherice, if you should ever read this, please know that you're a fucking idiot.
So...how was YOUR week-end?
PS--Thanks to Comcast, I missed a Colt Argentine Model 1927 .45 that went at auction last night for a ridiculously low $476.00. I'd have gone higher but I was knocked out of the last day's bidding. Thanks, Comcast, you assholes!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Back! (finally)
It's been quite the week here.
Thursday saw an ice storm which motivated some unknown (to me) idiot to smack her/her car upside a utility pole, putting the power out to the whole area until mid-day Friday. Oh Joy. I finally got home Thursday night in the sleet-fest, alternately delayed to no small extent by members of both classes of West Virginia winter drivers.
For those not familiar, once it snows, the driving population divides itself into two teams. The first is the crew that slows to roughly 5mph and proceeds to just drive up and down the two-lane highways for no apparent purpose other than to stack the rest of us up in long trains of slow-moving vehicles. The second team is comprised of those goobers who mistakenly believe that their pickup tricks--mostly two-wheel drive versions--possess the traction needed to steer and stop when operated at insanely high speeds in the snow and ice. Fortunately most of them wind up in the ditches in the first fifteen minutes or so but they still manage to mess traffic up for the rest of us in numerous ways.
And of course once off of the paved two-lanes, getting to the Lair itself is complicated by all of the new people who moved in since the last winter's end and who didn't realize that their little two-wheel drive city cars aren't at all suited to the steep, narrow rural roads that we have here. My 4x4 had no trouble at all but I had to detour around no less than three such people, each of whom managed to completely block one road or another with their stuck cars. But I finally got home to a cold and dark house, which I set about remedying with a fire in the fireplace and a few Coleman lights which were set up in advance in anticipation of just such a situation. Allegheny Power had promised a restoration of electricity by 9PM that night but of course, as is typical with Allegheny, 9PM came and went with no power. So did 10PM, midnight, and eventually, sunrise. In fact it was almost 3PM the next day before they got it back on line.
Meanwhile though, I had the opportunity to test my emergency management skills and these are my unvarnished critiques and observations:
1. Light. For starters, I have numerous flashlights around the house, but as I tend to use them for things and almost never put them back, most weren't handy and the first one that I found was dead since I hadn't recharged it recently. But I did find my trusty Brinkmann 6 volt and it had enough power to get me through the night. It also allowed me to find and light off the Coleman propane lanterns that I had ready--gas canisters installed and mantles burned down--just waiting to be lit.
2. Heat. My pellet stove would have been nice to use, but it needs electricity and the generator that I'd bought to run that and other essential devices was out of service. Ironically I had planned to take it in for repair this week-end. It was in the basement but fat lot of good it did me. Still, I brought wood in and lit off the fireplace. That warmed the library up nice at least. An extra comforter on the bed kept the cold at bay.
3. Food. I have a fair bit of stuff that can be eaten cold, but I didn't feel like doing that so I cooked dinner over the fire in the fireplace. When the power didn't come on by morning, I broke out the Coleman stove for a nice hot breakfast and coffee.
4. Water. The well pump wasn't working, so there was no shower--a factor in my decision not to try to go to work Friday morning. But I have several gallons of bottled water stored for just such an occasion and numerous gallon jugs of tap water set aside for washing and flushing toilets. A toilet tank needs 2.5 to 3 gallons per flush and I keep a week's supply available. It served me well this time.
5. Communications. My cell phone had sufficient charge to last until the power came back but I kept it turned off to maximize it's battery charge. Worse come to worse, I could have charged it off my vehicle power jacks if need be.
6. Clocks. In addition to my cell phone's clock, two of my alarm clocks have battery back-ups and they not only told time but the alarms worked so I could get up and check road conditions in the morning. They were still bad so I stayed home.
7. Security. I still had Lagniappe the Land Shark on duty and a ready pistol with night sights in case I need to deal with some of those cretins who always seem to try to take advantage of such situations.
As annoying as power outages are, it's good to get the chance to test the emergency procedures every now and again, if for no other reason than to ensure that when things really go bad, the transition will be as seamless as possible.
Of course that doesn't mean that I'm not calling Allegheny Power up and demanding credit for a day's lost power.
Thursday saw an ice storm which motivated some unknown (to me) idiot to smack her/her car upside a utility pole, putting the power out to the whole area until mid-day Friday. Oh Joy. I finally got home Thursday night in the sleet-fest, alternately delayed to no small extent by members of both classes of West Virginia winter drivers.
For those not familiar, once it snows, the driving population divides itself into two teams. The first is the crew that slows to roughly 5mph and proceeds to just drive up and down the two-lane highways for no apparent purpose other than to stack the rest of us up in long trains of slow-moving vehicles. The second team is comprised of those goobers who mistakenly believe that their pickup tricks--mostly two-wheel drive versions--possess the traction needed to steer and stop when operated at insanely high speeds in the snow and ice. Fortunately most of them wind up in the ditches in the first fifteen minutes or so but they still manage to mess traffic up for the rest of us in numerous ways.
And of course once off of the paved two-lanes, getting to the Lair itself is complicated by all of the new people who moved in since the last winter's end and who didn't realize that their little two-wheel drive city cars aren't at all suited to the steep, narrow rural roads that we have here. My 4x4 had no trouble at all but I had to detour around no less than three such people, each of whom managed to completely block one road or another with their stuck cars. But I finally got home to a cold and dark house, which I set about remedying with a fire in the fireplace and a few Coleman lights which were set up in advance in anticipation of just such a situation. Allegheny Power had promised a restoration of electricity by 9PM that night but of course, as is typical with Allegheny, 9PM came and went with no power. So did 10PM, midnight, and eventually, sunrise. In fact it was almost 3PM the next day before they got it back on line.
Meanwhile though, I had the opportunity to test my emergency management skills and these are my unvarnished critiques and observations:
1. Light. For starters, I have numerous flashlights around the house, but as I tend to use them for things and almost never put them back, most weren't handy and the first one that I found was dead since I hadn't recharged it recently. But I did find my trusty Brinkmann 6 volt and it had enough power to get me through the night. It also allowed me to find and light off the Coleman propane lanterns that I had ready--gas canisters installed and mantles burned down--just waiting to be lit.
2. Heat. My pellet stove would have been nice to use, but it needs electricity and the generator that I'd bought to run that and other essential devices was out of service. Ironically I had planned to take it in for repair this week-end. It was in the basement but fat lot of good it did me. Still, I brought wood in and lit off the fireplace. That warmed the library up nice at least. An extra comforter on the bed kept the cold at bay.
3. Food. I have a fair bit of stuff that can be eaten cold, but I didn't feel like doing that so I cooked dinner over the fire in the fireplace. When the power didn't come on by morning, I broke out the Coleman stove for a nice hot breakfast and coffee.
4. Water. The well pump wasn't working, so there was no shower--a factor in my decision not to try to go to work Friday morning. But I have several gallons of bottled water stored for just such an occasion and numerous gallon jugs of tap water set aside for washing and flushing toilets. A toilet tank needs 2.5 to 3 gallons per flush and I keep a week's supply available. It served me well this time.
5. Communications. My cell phone had sufficient charge to last until the power came back but I kept it turned off to maximize it's battery charge. Worse come to worse, I could have charged it off my vehicle power jacks if need be.
6. Clocks. In addition to my cell phone's clock, two of my alarm clocks have battery back-ups and they not only told time but the alarms worked so I could get up and check road conditions in the morning. They were still bad so I stayed home.
7. Security. I still had Lagniappe the Land Shark on duty and a ready pistol with night sights in case I need to deal with some of those cretins who always seem to try to take advantage of such situations.
As annoying as power outages are, it's good to get the chance to test the emergency procedures every now and again, if for no other reason than to ensure that when things really go bad, the transition will be as seamless as possible.
Of course that doesn't mean that I'm not calling Allegheny Power up and demanding credit for a day's lost power.
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