hahahahaha that's why I said it that way!!

Stopped here and shoveled a spot for the wife

Been without power and phone since sunday morning.

Lots of trees down everywhere. Almost hit a couple cop cars, and they just shut the highway down. Screw the rest of us...

Deep heavy snow. (Up to my butt. I don't know how deep that is.) Thaw and freeze a couple times, so the snow is in layers with crusty stuff between the layers.

PUD is talking like they have pretty much given up.

Someone finally got through our road this morning, with a bulldozer. Road will probably be gone again by morning.

I can't shovel myself out, so I am here for the duration.

I need a fully charged deep cycle battery and a small generator. (Only big enough to run a fridge and charge the battery.) LOL

If I'd been able to shovel myself out this afternoon, I could have at least gone and gotten the battery.




The kicker...

I spent a BUNCH of money, and did a lot of work to 'winter-proof' my water supply.

Winter just laughed at me and turned the power off.

I'll probably have to replace a bunch of parts and possibly a pump when this is all over.

Yeah. Welcome to global warming!



This setup for posting, is kludged with an old lawn mower battery.

Going to get off, to save the battery. (Already way low, I am amazed this is working! LOL)

Just wanted to check in. Will do so again tomorrow morning.

By the way, the squirrels know what's good for them, and are in hiding.

I HAVE had a couple sideways glances at the cat, though...

I have some deep cycle batteries...

Oooh . . . that's like porn to Selador!

Sounds like it would take a snowmobile to get them to him though.

Just put the stuff from the fridge out on the porch!

Those any good? You selling them?

Fed Ex and Amazon having delays.
4 Fed Ex semi's stuck trying to go up Merrill Creek Pkwy in Everett, 3 stuck Amazon vans on Glenwood.
Seaway exit to Boeing Freeway Eastbound closed by WSP, bus and semi spun out blocking roadway.

Most of them are, a have a bunch so I could be selling...

No kidding! What is that? A weeks worth of charging the phone, and the laptop and running the dsl modem?

But whatever they are selling for, not much doubt I couldn't afford one right now. Let alone be able to get one up here to me.


Well, not quite. It was a bulldozer that came through. As long as we don't get too much snow, anyone with 4WD will still be able to get through.

I just can't get out, because I can't do all that shoveling.


The bears and other critters would have a feast.

```

Usually the PUD crews are out there in the very worst weather. Takes the phone guys a few days longer.

This time, the phone guys have been working, up there at the highway, since sunday night.

I see their lights up there every night. And of course, the phone is on, and the power still isn't.

So the phone guys have taken the lead this time.

In PUDs defense, they have a TON of outages this time. And it has been very dangerous to be out there at all. (Just sayin... Those phone guys have been out there... LOL) PUD is probably just still taking care of the bigger areas. (Except I looked at the website and they are not giving any estimates of repair times because conditions are too dangerous. And that is on ALL the repairs they are working on. They are leaving the status on all of them at: "Reported". And nothing further. Like I said, seems like they have given up.)

~~~

Making plans now for the next time this happens.

A small efficient generator is the start of it. Just enough to run the fridge three hours a day.

Next would be a good battery. Doesn't need to be a huge setup. I don't plan on running a whole bank and running the whole house on it. Just the laptop, the phone, and the modem.

There will be incidentals like power sockets, a good gauge, a good float charger/maintainer. Etc.


I also just discovered something.

My DSL modem has a wall wart that supplies 12volts.

I figured that was minimum to run the modem.

Well, I hadn't maintained this battery. It is only like 9 volts, tight now. But it is still running the modem just fine.

So I experimented. Found a tiny 9v battery. Used alligator clamps and hooked it up... And sure enough, it ran the modem!

So I'll be looking for something like an old clock or something that runs on 9v batteries, and tear it apart, for the battery connector. Figure I'll stock up on a few of those 9v batteries as 'just in case' backups... Maybe even put in a couple "D"s in series, to bring it up to 12v.

The things you learn when you really miss your internet connection.....




For right now, I'd just like to be able to get out of here, or at least have the power back on.

Something will happen tomorrow. I am sure of it.

For instance, it just occurred to me that I could take the phone and the laptop into the truck for a while and charge it up. Also sit the battery outside the truck with jumper cables and charge it up as well. Well, there ya go!

If that runs low on fuel, I can move to the car. Between the two, I should get at least one full charge!

Laptop about to die. Gotta go!

Some of, if not the highest paid Seattle city employees are Seattle City Light linemen.
A lot of them make over $250K with OT.
Work their asses off in the stormy season.

They work their butts off whether it is an "emergency" or not. (Because power out, is always an emergency to SOMEone.)

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it.

It's just frustrating to see the power restored to Index, and to the houses across the river, within 4 hours of the outage. Then to sit here for four days with no power. But the phone guys got their part repaired...

~~~

Heres an amazing thing...

This lawnmower battery has a charge on it of about 8volts right now.

But it is running both the laptop and the DSL modem.

I think it's just because of the much larger amperage capability.

Laptop says it's about to die anyway, so I gotta go again. (ok, it's jumping back and forth, I think it has found an equilibrium. Of just not enough power. LOL)

I'll be back later, after I use the truck to recharge everything.



Yup. Going to have to get a bigger battery, and a way to maintain it. This is just too cool!

Would it make any sense to incorporate some sort of solar options into your power/charging situation, Jefe?

Sometimes I miss living out in the sticks, but not as much as I get older and wussier!

I'll make you a good deal on one of my older batteries provided I don't have to bring it all the way to index!