The Ice Storm....

two fingers said:
Side story.

When the '02 storm hit, the band I was in was doing 6 nights I'm a row at O'Hare's in the Holiday Inn Woodlawn in Charlotte. We got there fine. Storm hit not long after.

Suddenly we were trapped in an 80s era hotel for 6 days. Literally we were able to walk to a couple of joints in the area for food but that was about it.

We played to about 4 people per night until Saturday (the last night).

I may have been just about the most miserable week of my life. The band was considered "the help". So we couldn't just hang out in the restaurant, gym, etc.

There was a Duncan Doughnuts right in front of the place. They had breakfast sandwiches. I would buy two... one for breakfast and one for lunch. And, of course, we got doughnuts out of sheer boredom. I didn't eat doughnuts for the longest time. It was so frozen that going across the street to BW3 was treacherous.

I've never been so out of my mind bored in life. By the third day I was "mall walking" the hotel just for exercise. Yes, THAT bored.
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Well I was going to make a joke about y'all never escaping and being dug up by archeologists 5000 years from now who mistake the Holiday Inn for a Holy Entombment Crypt. Madd Magazine did a spoof on something like that and had an artist's rendering of the "High Preistess wearing her Ceremonial Headband" that read: "Sanitized For Your Protection". I tried to find that drawing but it's apparently buried now under mountains of Covid-PPE fashion-wear. So there's another victim of the pandemic: Good laughs lost to the vapor.
 
We had some storms last night and today, lightning and all.

Today I headed out to get lunch, only to turn around and go home. Standing water in the roads, raining really hard, car skidding on the water, ditches full, flood warnings......no thanks!

I guess all that will be ice soon. Hope the power stays on.
 
Me. said:
Another thing I find curious.... why do folks get so panicky about losing heat for a day or two? Sure, it might get uncomfortable, but just put on a coat. It doesn’t get windy or rainy or snowy inside, it just gets cold. Worst case, inside temp = outside temp. If you can dress to go outside in 10*, you can dress to stay inside in 10*.

Aside from frozen pipes, there is only discomfort, but no danger.

Of course it’s different for people with special health concerns, but overall, it’s just a couple days of being cold. What’s the big deal?
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Jack Torrance agrees:

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So was this a nothingburger? Matthews is cold and wet, but no ice.
 
I woke up and my boss texted stay home today. I thought it must be bad out there. I looked out the window and other than a little ice on the trees it looked pretty mild. At that moment I heard a Crack and a tree branch broke off and fell right on my fence and dented it before going into my neighbors yard. So much for mild:rolleyes:20210218_120943.jpg
 
Inglis said:
I live through winer in Berlin with -40 and freezing mist l can live through any thing.

Had a LT freeze his hand to a tank hatch. Next time wear gloves.
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My best friend did a tour in germany in the late seventies with the first armoured.division and he still talks about how cold the winters were
 
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oetkb said:
In my limited experience as a commercial landlord of small properties they are the hardest to find and highest paid of the trades.
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As an elechicken in the flesh I will tell you plumbers and hvac guys are paid more and a good plumber is the hardest to find.
 
Inglis said:
I was in Berlin from 76 to 80.
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Just got off the phone with my friend and I misspoke he was in 1cav while stateside in texas and was in 1st armoured division while in germany, he was there 78- 80
 
DrDover said:
As an elechicken in the flesh I will tell you plumbers and hvac guys are paid more and a good plumber is the hardest to find.
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I managed a dozen properties for 8 years and that was not my experience.

Edit: YOU NEED TO CHARGE MORE!! :p
 
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DrDover said:
Where at? I can probably point you towards a good electrician.
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See my edit above. ;)

I did find a good one finally, that charges reasonable prices.

I think the trouble has been that new construction in Southwest Wake county is absolutely berzerk keeping them busy, and my jobs are usually small jobs for electricians.
 
I must have a generator fetish. There are now 11 unit here on the farm ranging from a 2KW diesel up to 400 horsepower 225KW diesel. Nine of the 11 run; one 10KW diesel is spare parts for another (but it runs) and I have a 5500 watt Hatz diesel with a bad piston but can be repaired.

Only one of the 11 is gasoline, two are LP and the rest are diesel. I'm planning to use the 2KW diesel for power at the shooting range so that I can have lights during the winter. One of the diesel's is a 12KW unit that's part of an engine driven welder. It's mounted on a trailer with 71 gallons of onboard fuel so it will run for several days continuously (and has done so in the past). One of the 10KW diesel units is mounted on a mobile work trailer that I use here on the farm, but at present it only has a 5 gallon tank.
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Last week my neighbor and I picked up two good, used Onan 35KW liquid LP units. One has 335 hours on it and the other 995. They came with a 200A automatic transfer switch. They are single / three phase units with no derating :); liquid cooled and including a housing. They are older units; I'll need to do some paint and minor repair to the housings before installation.

They are still sitting on one of my trailers; I'll probably install his sometime next month with the ATS and mine shortly afterward.

I've already installed a 200A ATS for my house and the horse barns; just need to run conduit and wiring to the generator location. I was planning to use a 16KW Generac LP unit that I have with the ATS for the house, but I'll use the newly acquired 35KW Onan instead and sell the Generac. Fortunately I already have a 1000 gallon propane tank to install for fuel and the 35KW unit is a much more substantial unit than the Generac. It will be nice not to have to get out in bad weather to hook up the units and 1000 gallons of fuel should see us through just about any outage.

If anybody is interested in a good, used LP 16KW Generac, let me know. It's an air cooled Guardian model. They sell new for around 4K; I'd like to get 2K for mine. It's got a couple of ding's on the housing but very solid mechanically and electrically. We can fire it up and verify power before any $ changes hands.
 
Me. said:
Another thing I find curious.... why do folks get so panicky about losing heat for a day or two? Sure, it might get uncomfortable, but just put on a coat. It doesn’t get windy or rainy or snowy inside, it just gets cold. Worst case, inside temp = outside temp. If you can dress to go outside in 10*, you can dress to stay inside in 10*.

Aside from frozen pipes, there is only discomfort, but no danger.

Of course it’s different for people with special health concerns, but overall, it’s just a couple days of being cold. What’s the big deal?
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In my instance we are on a farm. The livestock fences are electric, and we use well water. Plus there are two mobile veterinary hospitals with onboard water that I'd sure hate to see frozen / broken water lines on.

An extended power outage during sub-freezing weather can be very problematic for us.
 
Scsmith42 said:
I must have a generator fetish. There are now 11 unit here on the farm ranging from a 2KW diesel up to 400 horsepower 225KW diesel. Nine of the 11 run; one 10KW diesel is spare parts for another (but it runs) and I have a 5500 watt Hatz diesel with a bad piston but can be repaired.

Only one of the 11 is gasoline, two are LP and the rest are diesel. I'm planning to use the 2KW diesel for power at the shooting range so that I can have lights during the winter. One of the diesel's is a 12KW unit that's part of an engine driven welder. It's mounted on a trailer with 71 gallons of onboard fuel so it will run for several days continuously (and has done so in the past). One of the 10KW diesel units is mounted on a mobile work trailer that I use here on the farm, but at present it only has a 5 gallon tank.
.
Last week my neighbor and I picked up two good, used Onan 35KW liquid LP units. One has 335 hours on it and the other 995. They came with a 200A automatic transfer switch. They are single / three phase units with no derating :); liquid cooled and including a housing. They are older units; I'll need to do some paint and minor repair to the housings before installation.

They are still sitting on one of my trailers; I'll probably install his sometime next month with the ATS and mine shortly afterward.

I've already installed a 200A ATS for my house and the horse barns; just need to run conduit and wiring to the generator location. I was planning to use a 16KW Generac LP unit that I have with the ATS for the house, but I'll use the newly acquired 35KW Onan instead and sell the Generac. Fortunately I already have a 1000 gallon propane tank to install for fuel and the 35KW unit is a much more substantial unit than the Generac. It will be nice not to have to get out in bad weather to hook up the units and 1000 gallons of fuel should see us through just about any outage.

If anybody is interested in a good, used LP 16KW Generac, let me know. It's an air cooled Guardian model. They sell new for around 4K; I'd like to get 2K for mine. It's got a couple of ding's on the housing but very solid mechanically and electrically. We can fire it up and verify power before any $ changes hands.
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For many years now it has been predicted, largely without question or objection, that Keith Richards would be the last living man on earth.

It’s pretty clear we were wrong.

:p
 
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