Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 06/05/18> Can I get a “do over” please…?
That was a question that got asked quite frequently back when I was a kid, there were plenty of games that included “do over’s”. One that comes to mind rather quickly was the game of “horse” that we played out back on the basketball court.
That game was about making the same shot as the person who made the shot before you from the same spot, if you made the shot you were “good” if you missed the shot you got a “letter”, starting with H. Once you missed five shots, you had then accumulated all the letters to spell horse, H O R S E and at that point you were eliminated from the game. It was very common for folks to ask for a “do over” for a number of various reasons, mainly interference from other competitors.
Power outages aren’t uncommon around these parts; lightning seems to play havoc with the electrical grid in this area. The last thing I expected was that we would have a tree go down from the wind and take out the power line that runs from the road back to the homestead. We had one hell of a hurricane just last August and I was pretty sure that the trees that were in bad shape had been culled with that storm. Well I was wrong, and Mother Nature proved that I was wrong.
Local news radio said that the area had massive power outages but the power company predicted that all the power would be restored in our area in couple hours or so, which is pretty much normal. So I headed off to sleep, at 5:30 AM on Monday I awoke to no power, I made a call to the power company and I was informed by the lady on the other end of the phone line that the power had been restored to our area by 10:30 PM or so, well maybe our area, but not our house I informed her. She checked and sure enough I was right, according to her. Hell, I knew I was right; the house is pitch black and not a light switch one would work; she didn’t need to tell me I was right.
So, she put us on the “list”, just might how long the wait be on that list Mam? A couple hours was her reply, okay, what choice do I have any way. When daylight broke I took one look out the kitchen window and knew we had a big problem. The big oak tree that I am used to seeing just wasn’t filling up the tree line along the gully; it was lying across the gully. Those power lines never had a chance best I could tell. After a quick look from outside I went back inside and called the power company to inform them that it was a line down, hoping that might speed up the process, but nope, still two hours according to the lady. Her advice was “don’t go near the line” it might still be hot. Yes, I sort of know that is a possibility.
I have always had certain rules I have lived by and the two highest priority rules have always been don’t fool with married women or electricity. Fooling with either of those can lead to death, and I am not looking to die anytime soon. Fact is, I don’t even fool with the single women any longer and haven’t for 24 years, because I am a good loving husband and my wife would shoot me if I strayed just a little bit.
The power company made everyone switch to these “smart meters” a few years ago, maybe a little longer ago now that I think about it, but we were told that the system would monitor the conditions and alert the power company when there is a problem. Well either their program needs some tweaking or the person who is supposed to be monitoring it needs their work reviewed, but somehow, it didn’t show up as problem until I called at 5:30 AM. Next time, I won’t rely on chance, they will get a call if the lights even flicker since I know that their smart meters are not all they were cracked up to be.
So, I am calling for a “do over” and today will be my Monday for this week. I don’t care what the calendar says or what Mother Nature says, my Monday starts now. No “H” for me, Mother Nature, you took a cheap shot with the wind and I wasn’t ready for it, so I’m ready now.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
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Well I hope your do over Monday turns out better mr Papper but I think we all know the feeling when there's an electricity outage or no water due to pipe bursts or no hot water due to faulty geyser or a geyser burst or Mother Nature causing damage! Now to move your big old oak tree!
Hope the rest of the week goes well :)
Thank you Lizelle, it is starting very well. I have a big cup of hot black coffee and a few replies to tend too. After that a steaming hot shower awaits.
That tree will take some time, and while it waits the beavers might just make it part of their world and build a new dam using it as the foundation.
For them it would be just like they have won the lottery.
Thanks for the well wishes, same to you.
I don't have any idea what your personal Monday ratio is, but I would bet a fur piece that today will be better, even if it is second Monday.
Power outages are rare in this little corner of heaven, mostly because all the service lines are underground. No frost means no problems for electrical cables in the ground.
All the supply lines are above ground, however and when we do get an outage it is usually significant. Last one I remember was 4 days. It was so bad that I had to grind my coffee beans in a pillow case with a rolling pin :) Water started getting scarce late in the third day because the water company couldn't pump the supply tanks for the area. As the level went down in the tanks so did the water pressure....
Good luck with second Monday. I'd say it has a chance to be a pretty good day, and glad you had a do over in your bag....
That was pretty creative on your part for grinding the coffee beans, kudos.
Most people do not realize that the water systems are gravity pressurized system, even though gravity doesn't exist in my mind, it is just physics. For every foot of height of the water column it represents .433 pounds of pressure, as the height decreases so does the pressure, so without the power for the pumps to keep them filled to the top there will surely be a loss in pressure.
My Monday, today, is starting great. I look forward to what the rest of it brings.
The smart meter that is not so smart. You make the right decision to call them next time rather than wait. In the positive side, it helps to remind us that sometimes we take things for granted like our lights and water in the house. There are countries that have their citizen living on streets without all these convenience. In our side of society, we tend to complain more actually. Human nature that I am also guilty at times.
Yes, the fault is clearly mine for assuming the problem was just in their supply side of switches and circuits as it has been numerous times in the past. Lesson learned, as past performance is not always indicative of future results.
I hope that you have better luck the rest of the week! Power outages are so common here they are almost normal. And we don't have smart meters yet. They are threatening to do so but I think money is a big issue for the changeover...
Some people claim smart meters have all kinds of negative effects on the human body, I don't know if that is true or just a bunch of BS, but if they were supposed to be able to alert a power outage it clearly did as the woman was able to see that we were without power when I called, but we were told it would be "proactive" since it would be monitored and that there might be times when we would experience a power outage and not even know it, since they wouldn't be waiting on a call, they would already have the information.
That clearly didn't happen in our case, who ever is in charge of the monitoring department needs to have a serious talk with the staff. They had nine hours to detect the problem from when it went out until I called it in. I did get a good nights sleep that night, I haven't since then though.
I don't think that the smart meters are so smart. I believe that they are only as good as the people that program them. And we all know how well that turns out...
Or the people that read the reports, programming is very important for sure, but if someone doesn't read the info and react nothing happens. Maybe the programmers need to go back in and add the part that automatically generates the work order for the repair crews, instead of leaving that up to another human that isn't paying attention.
Now, that is an idea!