POWER! (OT)

NicoMoreno · Post by **NicoMoreno** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:40 am

South-Eastern Ontario (Canada) and some of the US East coast were without power yesterday from about 4:15 to sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

It was fun.

I whistled a bit. Then I read a book until 8:00 pm when it got too dark to read. Then I went swimming in a pool with my girlfriend and another guy, and watched while their parents and the owners of the pool got progressively less able to get up in the morning. The theme: I hope the power doesn't come on before I have to go to work.

I think it was though, but while they were joking that I might have to come a drive everybody to work, that did not actually happen.

Who says power is necessarry for a good time? I think most whistlers will agree that you don't need electricity to play a whistle and drink beer!

Nico

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:51 am

My neighbor, Kirk, is notorius for home improvement projects gone wrong. One time he did something in his house that actually blew a circuit breaker on a utility pole and shut down electricity for the whole neighborhood.

When the power was browning out and coming off and on yesterday just before the big shutdown, I called and talked to his wife, Spring.

"Spring, this is Jerry."

"Hi, Jerry."

"Is your electricity acting funny?"

"Yes."

"Is Kirk working on something?"

Laughs, but doesn't answer.

If they don't get to the bottom of what caused the blackout, I'm turning Kirk in. I'm sure it's something he did.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:24 am

At 4:10 I handed off the 'on-call' pager to the next person on the list. (For anyone who doesn't know, I'm a computer analyst for a commercial medical laboratory, deeply tied to two large hospital systems some distance from this lab).

At 4:11 as the computer room door closed behind me, when we had the first power hit she came after me, yelling "YOU WIGGLED WIRES! YOU GAVE ME THE PAGER AND THEN YOU WIGGLED WIRES!"

We had a sense that things were not all well with the state of our computer network when all connection to the main hospital systems decided to close down. . .this is a hospital computer geeks biggest nightmare. . .earlier in the day there had been the monthly 'test of the emergency electrical system' and we knew 'for a fact' that someone had forgotten to cut the power back over to the live and that was the cause of the problem.

Remarkably, everything clicked over exactly as it should, all systems came back online using the emergency power, all instruments and interfaces came back up and communicated.....holy sh*t the system worked!

I, however, had a nightmare drive home. In three miles and about 10 traffic lights that weren't doing their thing, people were being pigheaded. Tyghre was in his glory hooking up the generator that I didn't want him to get in the first place. And yes, I went out back, pulled out the Grinter, and played and played and played. Power came back at 10:00 pm through much but not all of the area.

I wonder how many other Chiffers have sneaking suspicions that they either caused it, or know someone who caused it?

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 11:30 am

This is worse than I thought.

It's a CONSPIRACY!

thurlowe · Post by **thurlowe** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:07 pm

We had a momentary dropout in Kalamazoo that reset clocks and VCRs to flashing "12:00", but that's about as bad as it got. Except at the radio station where I work-- some broadcast equipment went completely haywire and the engineers are still trying to figure it out. I had some goofy moments on-the-air this morning-- for instance, only one CD player was working, so I was loading and ejecting CDs like Wonderwoman.

2 million are without power in Detroit, the governor declared a state of emergency here in Michigan, and it's even worse elsewhere-- Hope we hear from some more of the affected C&Fers soon!

Cara

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 5:41 pm

Bloomfield was suckling at the teat of Doom whem the electricity failed. Walked down to the crowded midtown streets (I am SOOO glad I don't work on the 54th floor anymore). Then took a deep breath of fetid air and a swig of clean water and headed south, sixty blocks. But at the end of that a rooftop and a bottle the right stuff was waiting. Spent a very pleasant evening in the dark, chatting with roof-top neighbors and watching the candles flicker all around. There was almost a party mood in Manhattan, I think because everybody remembers the last time we walked home from work. And of course we were on the roofs, and not stuck in the subways.

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 6:25 pm

*** never mind ***

NicoMoreno · Post by **NicoMoreno** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:17 am

At the time that I posted my original message, I hadn't heard any news at all. I figured since my tiny off the beaten track town had power, everybody should.

Then I went to fill up the family van with gas. And waited 40 mins in line.

I listened to a lot of news!

At the time, and probably it is only partly diminished, HALF of Ontario was without power. At around 5 pm only 75% of Toronto had power, and the hydro company was fully expecting rotating blackouts so that others could have some of the still very limited power.

The funny thing is that a main feeder line goes through a rather major town between mine and Toronto, and that town was still mostly (80%) without power. And yes, the lack of traffic lights was abysmal.

So it wasn't quite as much fun as I originally implied.

Plus I had to drive to the Airport to pick up my parents.

Nico

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:58 am

My tiny, off the beaten track village also got power restored very early in the process. I wonder if there's some reason for that other than random luck.

Post by **Dale** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 7:43 am

Bloomfield wrote:There was almost a party mood in Manhattan, I think because everybody remembers the last time we walked home from work. And of course we were on the roofs, and not stuck in the subways.

One of the more moving things I saw on television during the blackout was a New Yorker walking home, asked by a report how he thought New Yorkers were holding up. He shrugged and said, "Yeah. Well. We've been through worse." There was something beautiful about it.

madguy · Post by **madguy** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 8:04 am

I woke from a nap to see thousands of people walking through the streets of NY, and, not knowing yet what had happened, thought, "My, God, now what?."

~Larry

Post by **Dale** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 8:37 am

Right. The aerial shots of ALL those people at the Port Authority, walking down the highways, etc.--were breathtaking. Something kinda Old Testament about it.

God bless NYC and the people therein.

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 9:24 am

I wonder if it was the Buddy MacDonald song I was learning this week that started the blackout: "It's Getting Dark Again."

Chorus goes:

"Getting dark again, getting dark again,
For the second time since we got up
It's getting dark again."

I'm not that great a singer, but I don't think it was me learning that song that did it -----REALLY

MarkB

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:21 am

We were one of the later areas (in Queens) to get power after 23 hours. We were fine with plenty of stores of battery radios, flashlights, candles, batteries, water, etc. We played a family game that I haven't played since I was a kid - Geography - until we fell asleep. During the day, the whole building was out in the courtyard sharing ice cream that wouldn't last anyway and just hanging out...

Sort of makes you realize what you take for granted and what you can live without...Not pleasant or desireable, just thought-provoking.

Regards,

Philo

Rockymtnpiper · Post by **Rockymtnpiper** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:52 am

This is worse than I thought.

It's a CONSPIRACY!

Actually it wouldnt surprise me. Here is the scenario I would be the least surprised about... : Greedy Stockholders decide that the Grid is antiquated, but they dont want to actually pay for improvemnts themselves. (how long have they been putting that one off??....) Kill the lights for a while, blame it on the grid and rake in some corperate welfare to fix everything up. Hopefully our government doesnt go to far with it .. and start yet another new agency.. the Fatherland er.. Homeland Electric Administration.