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| View from the Family room Thursday evening |
Friday the high was 35 at 0800 and it was raining. As the temperature dropped, the rain turned to sleet and by Saturday morning, everything was covered with about 1/2" of ice. The highest the temperature has been since Friday so far is 25 with a wind chill of 10. So...nothing has melted.
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| Roughly the same view Friday Morning and right now. |
Unfortunately, in the hubbub of building a new house, repairing our old house, moving out/in we forgot one crucial step in the process. We forgot to build a shed for our well.
Guess who's been without running water for three days now.
Fortunately, our guest house and old house receive water from a different well, which is enclosed, so our guests (from Wisconsin, they think this is mildly chilly) and my sister are fine. One of my new chores right now is load all available containers into the truck and drive down to the old house and fill them with water and return them to the new house. This will continue until water is restored. So, Mrs J has decreed, so it shall be.
Feeding the horses has also become sporting, lots of ice on everything, including the ground between the house and barn. Gates covered with ice, blah, blah, blah. In any case, I opened the gate to feed them this morning and didn't realize it hadn't closed. The hay burners took that opportunity to thank me for feeding them by rushing through the gate. I believe I heard one say "Free at last!" as they ran out of sight.
They decided they wanted to visit the folks from Wisconsin.
20 minutes, several carrots and a ride home sitting on the pickup's ice coated tail gate coaxing them on later, we arrived back in the barn. My butt hasn't been that numb since the 10.9 hour flight strapped to an ejection seat in an F-4 flying from Hawaii to Okinawa.
Well, as they say, one "Aww S41T wipes out an awful lot of Attaboys". Two wipes them all away.
However, one of the other symptoms of this winter storm is the power goes off frequently. (This has happened 8 times since I started this posting and got to this point.) It restores itself almost immediately, and blogger is pretty good about autosaving. But...At this point, I think I'm going to follow Annie's Lead and go take a nap or something.
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| Notice the gesture she's giving me. Shows me how I rate around here. |
Vegas!!! Redux... Part Deux
So there I was…an AT-38B Instructor Pilot at Holloman Airplane Patch New Mexico. I’ve been there about two years and my non-flying duty is squadron scheduler. I have been blessed with a “good deal”, and I have made the most of it.
Current Wing Policy is that all senior Wing Personnel will receive check rides from the Chief of Stan-Eval. The actual name is Standardization and Evaluation, most of us called them Stan Evil. Ostensibly the requirement for the Wing King and such to get their check rides from the Branch Chief was to reduce the likelihood of “undue Command Influence” in passing their check rides. Works for me! A Lieutenant Colonel looking for a Squadron to Command and therefore, earn his ticket to Bird Colonel. No possibility for influence there…..
In any case, those thunderstorms raged far, far above my limited horizon. My immediate problem was simple. I had busted the Director of Operations (The number three guy in the Wing, call sign Vegas) on his last ride before his check ride. Apparently, he had forgotten everything he’d learned in his 4000+ hours of flying about landing a jet, therefore he required another practice ride and his Check Ride was scheduled for tomorrow.
The Chief of Stan-Eval had booked a cruise for the day after and would not be available for the next two weeks. When dealing with the gods, scheduling is important.
I get back into the squadron, and the squadron CO is waiting for me. Already having been chastised by Vegas for having questioned my busting him on the ride, he asks me what my intention is. I look at the schedule and see a three ship of IPs scheduled for a continuation sortie. Continuation sorties were missions where the IPs flew front seat and actually got to fly the jet and remain proficient at flying a fighter. Students may or may not get to tag along in the back seat. Didn’t get a lot of them and these three guys were going to go out and fly a 2 V 1. This was about as fun and complex a mission as we were allowed. Highly sought after. Schedulers were able to get IPs to do all sorts of unpleasant things on the promise of a continuation ride.
I walk up to the schedule, draw a line through the 1 in the 2 V 1 and wrote Vegas and my name in. The IPs would now be going on a 1 V 1. Vegas and I would get our refly. I was not popular.
Obviously, this ride was going to be later in the day and at Holloman during the summer, a later sortie made everything just a little bit more difficult. The pressure altitude was higher, the engines responded different, winds were gusty, dust frequently blew so visibility was worse. In short, for a person having difficulty landing a jet, flying late in the afternoon could make or break him.
We blast off, go to the area for a few minutes just to get down to landing weight, then return to the pattern for touch and go’s. I’m a bit tense, but Vegas doesn’t seem to be worried. He flies down initial, pitches out, configures, starts the turn, rolls out on speed and greases the landing. Requests closed, granted, rolls out on downwind, configures, starts the turn, rolls out on speed and greases the landing. Starts the go around, and says, “You want to fly the rest?”
I clearly had passed the test.
It’s now towards the end of the program. Vegas had flown with other IPs, but I still was his primary IP. We’re now in the first ride in the Air to Ground phase and Vegas is in the front seat.
Once he sees the bombing range from the front seat, he will switch to the back seat and “instruct” me in Air to Ground techniques. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to it. We had just completed Air to Air, and having him in my back seat instructing me (note the lack of quotation marks), had been VERY educational both for my IP skills as well as my actual Fighter Pilot skills. I was looking forward to experiencing the same in Air to Ground. We’ve been to the range, dropped our 6 blue practice bombs and headed home.
We’re coming down initial for runway 16 and I hear the tower clear a flight of 4 F-15s on to runway 25 to hold.
We pitch out, configure, turn final for a Touch and Go. Roll out on final, I do a quick look out the nose of the Jet to check lineup, configuration etc. (I’m still the Aircraft Commander, and IP, it’s my butt if something happens.) As expected, Vegas is on the numbers. I glance out the right side of the jet as we cross over the overrun….
Pause for a scenario setting . Runway 16 and Runway 25 butt up against one another. The overruns intersect.
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| The problem will occur in the light gray area at the top center of the photo. |
Clearing a flight on to hold, gives that flight permission to do just that. Taxi into position and sit there until given clearance to do something else.
It does not give you permission to run your engines up to military power in anticipation of takeoff!!
So, enough interlude. I glance out the right expecting big wide exhaust nozzles from 8 Pratt and Whitney F-100 Engines.
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| What I'm expecting when looking at exhaust nozzles instead, I see little bitty teenie exhaust nozzles spewing exhaust gas across our approach at who knows how fast. |
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| This is what F-15 engines look like in Mil Power and what I'm seeing |
I advance the throttles into afterburner, while at the same time calmly communicating to Vegas that I was going to take command of the aircraft and would he please let go of the stick (I slammed the throttles to AB while I screamed “I got it!!”), just as we hit the turbulence.
The jet rolled to the left, and my guardian angel kicked in at that second, because my expected reaction should have been to roll back right. I didn't, I added right rudder, which yawed the nose away from the ground as well as countered the rolling moment. I have no idea where that reaction, the only and absolute right move, came from. I’m not sure what the angle of bank was, but I have a very clear picture of looking up at the runway. The jet begins to yaw the nose above the horizon while rolling back towards level. We exit the turbulence as the aircraft rights itself. I clean the gear and flaps up and remember the burners. About this time, Vegas calls from the front seat and says “Well, that was exciting, do you mind if I fly the full stop?” “No Sir, not at all.”
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| These guys practice it, me, not so much! |
Full stop, and Vegas asks what happened. He’d never seen the four ship and all he knew was we had almost lost control. I explained what had happened. Debrief began later than usual that day as my student was unavailable. Evidently, a flight lead lost his flight lead status.
About 6 months later, I’m now the Wing Scheduler and am up for assignment. The F-4 is being phased out and F-15s and F-16s are starting to be assigned. However, the AF still needs folks assigned to F-4Gs as well as F-111s, so the policy is that IPs up for assignment in the next 6 months will be divided into Top Half/ Bottom Half. Top Half will get the jet of their dreams; Bottom Half will get needs of the AF. I’m fairly certain I’m in the Top Half, but, since I also want to be assigned with my wife, also military, and 2 year old son, I’m a bit tense. Today is the day. I get the call from my assignment officer. F-4G to George. I’m disappointed, but it is with my wife, so that’s the way the ball bounces.
Vegas also knows this is the day. He comes walking in to my office and asks what I got. I tell him, his jaw drops and he says “Captain, can I borrow your desk?” Dials a number and says (I’ve forgotten the name, so let’s use Stan) ”Stan, Vegas here, do you personnel wienies still subscribe to the Top Half/Bottom Half policy?....Well, I’d like to know why Juvat here, my number one guy in this assignment tranche, is getting an F-4G? …..Yeah, I know about his wife…..Look, Colonel, I've got a retention problem here (he did) and if I can’t get my number one guy a new jet, what am I going to tell the rest of the guys to keep them in the AF? Why should they stay? I want him in an Eagle, and I want his wife assigned to the same base.”
At that instant, it no longer mattered to me what my assignment was, I was reassured there were still people in the AF that cared about their people. I would stay.
There’s more conversation on the phone, finally Vegas hangs up and says “Juvat, you and Mrs. Juvat are going to Kadena.”
Update from OAFS:
Juvat is still sans power which is why he hasn't answered any of the comments yet.
Hard to believe that Texas is colder than New England right now.
ReplyDeleteVegas Part Deux, a great story.
Thanks, and thanks for the backup.
DeleteI had a Skipper like that once. Whilst on deployment, the Navy in it's infinite wisdom decided to "Get the kakhi out of flying billets". I was told to "Call your detailer" for orders. I did, arranging for orders to a sister squadron which would get me home from deployment early and not deploy for another year. Great! sez I. Two weeks later, out of the blue my orders are modified to a squadron that is relieving us, meaning I will spend a year on deployment. Skipper finds out about it, makes one phone call, the whole thing is cancelled and I remain in my job for the rest of the deployment. Best CO ever...
ReplyDeleteWe had a CO that hooked up a fellow JO so he could get FRS orders, extending him in the squadron until an opening came available. Problem was, this guy was an "Early Promote" (EP) player already, and the extension brought him through the next fitrep cycle. Normal rotations provide top third guys with EPs, but if somebody extends, somebody doesn't get to move into that EP slot. That was me. I left with an EP, but not during a competitive fitrep cycle. The guy wound up getting out of the Navy as soon as he could too.
DeleteTaking care of your peeps was a lesson taught throughout the military. Too bad the lesson didn't take hold with quite a few folks as they rose in rank, but not leadership ability.
DeleteI'm not understanding this "shed for a well" thing. Texas wells must be different than Pennsylvania wells. Ours, all the guts are down at the bottom of the well, holding tank is in the house, there's nothing to be affected by the weather except like an 18" stub sticking up out of the ground so you know where it is. Why are Texans silly?
ReplyDeleteBecause your old timers had the good sense to keep this kind of weather to themselves!!! We got snow last night south of San Antonio. A good inch of it on top of freezing rain. Last year we had exactly one excursion below 32 F, for a couple hours. We aren't setup for this kind of madness this close to the sun... ;)
DeleteBecause, in the South, FLOODS of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS are more common than ICEMAGGEDON, so we'uns dawn he-ah put our well pump and pressure tank outside above ground level because of water issues.... With a well... Seriously. It's because, well, ground water penetration and saturation would flood any 'in-ground' casement or well head.
DeleteNow, correspondingly, we'uns dawn he-ah also then USUALLY!!!! then build some sort of semi-insulated structure for the wellhead and pressure tank, with an outlet off the power to the wellhead for to plug in an old-school incandescent lamp to provide some warmth to said well beasty.
So, you get, depending on the smartness and cleverness and ingenuity of the Southerners, anything from exposed tanks and wells that freeze to packing blankets and tarps cleverly wrapped around them (and usually left for weeks, months, years) or cardboard boxes or slap-dashed structures that only a post-apocalyptic dog would call shelter to actual small 'wells' that look like 'olde-tyme' wells (with a fake bucket hanging from the crank handle) to basically a shed (either one of those plastic ones you can buy at Homey Despot or Sams) or an actual framed shed, sometimes with a concrete floor.
For much the same reason that we-uns dawn he-ah don't have cellars or basements or even underground utility spaces like you northerners and yankees have. Surface water (of the unusable and unreliable sort) is a very big problem. So we go up, not down.
The farther south and the closer to the water table meeting the ground level, you will see septic tank fields that are mounds of dirt next to the trailer/mobile home/house that it services. Yes. The septic tank leeching field is above the ground level of the house. And bomb shelters, tornado shelters and other hardened facilities are built above ground level, with the floor at least 1' above GL, in an already high spot, and then are mounded over with dirt. Like... Disneyworld (which is built on top of a concrete 'tunnel' foundation that is actually feet above the surrounding GL and then DW is built on the dirt mound covering the access/garbage/transportation/bomb shelter (well, it was built after the Cuban Missile Crisis and Walt was no dope, unlike the current leaders of Disney.)
And juvat fell to a classic Southerner New Home Owner fail. Protecting the exposed water system pieces parts. I've seen frozen pool filters that have been cracked from being, well, frozen because 'It's FLORIDA!!!' and nobody expects it, except anyone who lived through the frozen years of 1973-1975 (which killed all the orange groves north of Brevard County and Orlando (look at a map of Florida and draw a line across the state from Titusville across through Orlando and that was the Go/NoGo line for orange groves, seriously, until '74 we had orange groves all the way up to almost the FL/GA line, but then Global Warming occurred and we lost them all.)))
DeleteI guess Yankees just accept that it'll be a problem and use the house as the "protective shed", and give up some interior space for the tank and electric stuff. Plus the detail about burying the water line below the frost line, and... stupid snow... stupid ice... stupid winter...
DeleteWhen your ground water table is 3' or so below Ground Level, you don't go big for digging holes. It's one of the reasons behind concrete casket vaults in the South.
DeleteI wish we had basements dawn he-ah. It would be nice to be able to access sewage and water lines instead of having to chop up the slab inside an already finished house. Of course, not having a basement full of sewage is a good thing.
Beans and STxAR summed it up nicely for me. Thanks, Guys. Well...It's been a fun week. OK, not so much.
DeleteMy condolences on the Winter Weather visiting Texas juvat, it's been so cold here that the snow squeaks when walked on or cars drive on it. Minus twenty again this morn. Hard to remember everything when there's a build/move/rebuild...... never had heard of a well shed though. As for Vegas Part Deux.......very interesting to read the descriptions, it was your everyday life for years but neat to read. "Going to Kadena".....sounds like a movie title eh?
ReplyDeleteMore like a dream, Nylon, more like a dream.
DeleteYeah two days sitting in Boerne Texas with the 10 iced over. Wanted to make it up to Fredericksburg to the museum but no joy.
ReplyDeleteNow wake to looks like an nigh on 6 in of snow.
Wouldn't have mattered, the Museum was closed. Should be open now, though if you're still in the area. If so, drop and email to Sarge and I'll get in touch with you and tag along. I need to get out of the house for some reason or another.
DeleteHey Lead! I use to haul water for live stock. Back in the day.... I don't miss it at all. Those horses can suck water awful fast.
ReplyDeleteWe called it the well house where I grew up. Had a little gas stove in it. The yellow jackets would roost in there to keep from freezing in the winter. Our main fuse panel for the house and barn were in there, as was the pressure tank, and the controls for the pump. Someone before us turned a 500 gallon propane tank on end, and it was behind the well house. That was our cistern. Pipes were down about 3 feet below grade, and they had placed old milk cans in the ground where the cutoffs were, so you could isolate various lines.
I don't know how you'd do that in the limestone parking lot you live on. We couldn't even drive a ground stake in out there.
Great memories of zoomie land. I really get a kick out reading about that. Keep warm up there.
Thanks, STxAR. Check in tomorrow for the follow on. It's about like you'd expect.
Delete3" of snow and 7 degrees F here this morning where I'm at outside of San Antone.
ReplyDeleteExcellent story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I see T-38s fly overhead in single and dual pairs on a regular basis. Beautiful to watch and I used to enjoy watching them shoot approaches over at the airfield outside Seguin.
Always good to have a leader one would follow to the gates of hell and back. My first one was my Battalion Commander while in Germany. He was aviation in Vietnam earlier in his career. He had a photo on his office wall of him standing next to his OV-10 Bronco after a mission. The plane had numerous bullet holes from small-arms fire. He told me he received an award for that mission but he much preferred the thanks given to him by the guys on the ground he was supporting.
Great tales and I wish you the best getting your water going again!
-Barry
Hope you weathered this week better than we did. It wasn't pretty.
DeleteGreat story. Respect goes both ways.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it does.
DeleteIce, ice, baby. We got enough ice to use the ice traction cleats that stretch over our shoes. We’d only used them a couple of times, but they work really well and cost far less than a trip to the ER.
ReplyDeleteFlying. When you started describing the shape of the exhaust nozzles, I guess what was coming and my pulse rate sped up.
I’d love to get a ride in a high performance aircraft, but unless you are someone of the same quality and training is at the controls I will watch from the ground.
Career paths. After eight years of enlisted service, I chose to leave the active duty Navy at the end of my second hitch.
It was around the seven year point and I was halfway through two years of shore duty at the Aegis site in New Jersey.
The Navy was beginning the switch to gas turbine main engines and they offered a chance to convert from one’s existing rating to the new gas turbine rating.
I was a steam turbine engineroom guy, and if the Navy was going to change, I wanted to be part of the change.
My formal request was denied because, “The needs of the fleet require that senior engineering ratings remain in their ratings.”
It only poured coals on the fire when I read an article in Navy Times a bit later and the article described the success of the Gas Turbine conversion program and went on to mention that a postal clerk was going through the conversion program. Hmmm.
The Old Man went to bat for me, but nothing changed and I saw my future as being more or less on a dead end track.
That and a couple of other things were why I left at the eight year point and enlisted in the active reserves.
Choices have consequences, and your boss made the right one.
Yeah, it was similar but different at the end of my AF career. Billy Jeff was in charge and I made the Squadron Command list as an alternate, but didn't get a flying job out of the staff tour. Back to Back Staff tours was pretty much the kiss of death. There were other factors, family being one that made the decision easier, but that was a factor for sure.
DeleteI completely forgot where you were Juvat! Yes, Texas (at least mid and south Texas) is not really set up for that kind of thing. The shelter for the well is probably a rational oversight: after all, what are the odds this year?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the story. Amazing how one concerned Officer (or manager, in my case) can make a positive impact in one's life.
Yeah, they do have an impact, don't they?
DeleteOne of the many wonderful things my parents remembered from Holloman was the constant sand and dust everywhere. They got the last of the dust out in Vandenberg.
ReplyDeleteSome of the other wonderful things? Letting the tumbleweeds pile up on the barbed wire fences, then setting them on fire during the annual ground migrations of whatever ground migratable spiders they have out in Holloman. Apparently the front wave of the annual ground migration was rather thick, so you let the spiders inundate the tumbleweeds and spark a flare and 'whoosh' the tumbleweeds burn so fast the fence posts are barely scorched.
As to freezing water, the first year in the old house, which we had water softeners and a pool, we did not know to cover up all external exposed things. So, of course, out there at 6AM with a hair dryer melting the ice in the pipes and jerry-rigging some sort of moving blanket and plastic tarp cover over a light so as to keep everything warm...
So, juvat, did you at least cover the well and stuff with tarps and put an incandescent light under there to start warming things up?
My wife and I had a good chuckle over Holloman's version of Burning Man, err, Burning Spider!
DeleteBeans, yes, I did, except for the light, no real place to put it. Details to follow.
DeleteTuna, I chuckled at that also.
DeleteI thought I had something to add, both under icy wells and good bosses, but that's all been pretty much covered.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot more patience today, than I had back in the day.
I'm still waiting on the patience train. I'm better than I was, until I get in a car. Then....
DeleteLove it when Karma actually works in your favor vice the norm... Up here we didn't get any ice, but it was -3 this morning and 4 inches of blowing snow... Sigh...
ReplyDeleteHow bad was the power grid meltdown up there?
DeleteSo Juvat, did Mrs. Juvat want to go to George vice Kadena or was she happy for both staying together and going overseas?
ReplyDeleteWe both loved Kadena. As well as an Eagle base, it was also a Big MAC base so, Space A travel around the orient was easy. Little J was at the right age where we didn't have to carry the entire baby stuff around with us all the time. We bought him a couple of Kodak disposable cameras to take. He's a big, and talented, camera buff now.
DeleteYou write:"Continuation sorties were missions where the IPs flew front seat and actually got to fly the jet and remain proficient at flying a fighter." I recall those and how we needed them for we were lucky to hit the ground with our blue bombs after going half-way or more with a class in the RTU. AND the "shoot-off" was looming!
ReplyDeleteMy kin are from Marshall and Corsicana TX. I can remember driving from the latter to DFW to fly home to Santa Cruz. After an ice storm. The kids wondered why daddy was driving so slow. The kids were wondering why all those people were "parked" on the side of the freeway and why some were pointed in the wrong direction. Scary ride.
Yeah, NOBODY drives well on ice, I don't care who you are or where you're from. We made a couple of necessary trips into town and what normally took about 10 minutes to travel was generally in the 20 to 30 minute range. Yes, we got passed by big assed trucks and yes one or two were later passed by us. We waved at them as they sat in the bar ditch.
DeleteJuvat, been an interesting few days here north of the 'burg, just as you've experienced. We were encouraged by Mrs. Cletus to buy a generator when we built the house, so although CTE has failed us a couple of times the little Generac stepped up, kept us in power and heat. We were in the generator phase from 6am Sunday (yesterday) till 2am this morning when it shut down for some unknown reason. I crawled out of a nice warm bed, suited up in Texas warm weather gear (which ain't much) stepped outside to 6F, checked the propane tank level...ok, checked gen. oil...ok, couldn't figure out the failure code so resorted to the most technical level I have....just started punching buttons. After about 45 minutes of thrashing around and pushing all the buttons, got a cough, sputter and wonderful hum of electrical power being generated. All went well from then till the power was restored around 2pm today. I miss the sound of the generator and flip a light switch every now and then to be sure we still have "juice".
ReplyDeleteHang in.
Cletus
I read your reply on my phone, but couldn't reply, and it got me to thinking about various "options" to lesson the pain. Please provide input on tomorrows post.
Delete(Don McCollor)...Ah yes. Remember being back at work after the 1997 Grand Forks flood. House with no electricity, no city water. Taking a sponge bath from a coffee cat of stored water (heated outside on a camp stove in the rain) by the light of a kerosene lantern hanging from the shower curtain rod. Can't remember how many times I flipped the bathroom light switch on and cursed...
ReplyDeleteThere is NO WAY I can enter a dark room and not hit the switch. Even if I reminded myself about no power as I turned the handle. Ditto on the curse.
DeleteMy guess is jubvt lost power and / or internet. I live south of SA, he is well north. We lost internet, and some are still without power. I got about 2 inches of heavy wet snow. We only have sand to fix the roads here, no plows, no salt, so everything is shut down until it melts. It didn't make it above 30 today, but the sun melted a lot of it. Tonight we are scheduled for 9 degrees. I have never even heard of this kind of cold here since Galveston bay froze in 1821....
ReplyDeleteGlobal Warming is so... cold...
DeleteBoth.
DeleteI think 1821 was in the Dalton Solar Minimum and also 5 years earlier there was the severe global cooling caused my Mt. Tambora erupting. Solar Cycle 25 is proving to have low sunspot counts. Could we be having another Solar Minima?
Delete"Global Warming is so...cold..."
DeleteIt's called the "Gore Effect," Beans.. :)
I'm "Back in the Saddle, again". Bill, I've wondered that myself. We'll see.
DeleteI understand that ya'll are generous and sharing kind of folks there Juvet...but I would have been just fine if you had kept the freezing rain/sleet south of the Mason-Dixon Line instead of shipping it all north. Yes, we do have plows, and sanders, and even wells with the pump at the bottom of the well, and warm coats, gloves, yaxtraks to prevent having to spend 6 hours hanging out at the ER with a broken tail bone, but I really am not a fan of ice. Unless it is cubed and in my tea glass.
ReplyDeleteReally can't blame you for forgetting about the well house--after all, you were worried about the old house floors!!
And I have only one recommendation for you--buy your wife a late Valentine's Day present called a Honda 2000. Costs about a grand, but works like a dream, and will run the most vital parts of the house--like a furnace, and the fridge. It's pretty and red, and ours started with one pull. And it's even quiet, so the neighbors don't realize you are running one. Not as cheap as the Chinese knockoffs, but worth every single penny...run it with the premium unleaded rec gas and it just goes and goes.
Hope you get power back soon...being with out power gives an entirely new meaning to "a 3 dog night" :)
Suz. I was on the fence between the yaxtraks and the STABILicers Walk Traction Cleats. I liked the slightly pointed spikes and they have worked well on the handful of times we've needed to use them.
DeleteThe price is roughly the same, and I might give the yaxtraks a try as a spare set.
Our standby generator lives in the shed, and gets a test run twice a year. But as it's crowding close to it's thirty fifth birthday, it might be a good time to start looking for a replacement this summer.
John: my landlord has the stabilicers walk cleats as that is what his niece gave him for Christmas a few years ago so he would quit falling when doing chores in the barnyard. Gets kinda icy there when hauling water, even before we got freezing rain.
DeleteI got my first parn of yaxtrax from a nursing agency I was working for, went and bought my own when I left there as I found they worked well, and I HATE falling down. Getting too old for that crap anyway. Don't need to be breaking important body parts...like hips, legs and arms!!
Heard on the radio that there are over 3 million in TX alone who are out of power!!! Hoping juvet gets his back on PDQ.
Suz. Thank you for the intel. We are supposed to get 3-5 inches of the white stuff here in Philly starting early Thursday.
DeleteWe reset the snowthrower skids today, and gave it another spray of silicone on the snow contact surfaces.
Thanks, Guys, We're back. Not much fun, but all safe and well. Details tomorrow.
DeleteMethinks Juvat's power is out since he hasn't responded to the comments yet.
ReplyDeleteYep.
DeleteI am trying to be nice about power in the State of Texas. I guess the sun don’t shine through several inches of snow and the wind can’t blow a frozen turbine.
ReplyDeleteOn the Nose, Lt. Our Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) mandated Solar and Wind provide power percentage from 20-46% (depending on who you talk to). The intent was to lower the cost of electric power, and in general has done that. Until last week. Seems to me, you build Coal, Oil, Nuke, and Natural Gas (I know, it had problems last week also) that can handle normal output plus expected disaster. Then you build your renewable and shut down/trim down the production from the non-renewable plants to the extent the renewable ones can provide on routine days. When the SHTF, or is forecast to as this was, you power up the reliable plants and ride out the storm. That would seem to be the logical solution. But then, I'm not a member of ERCOT and I live in Texas which at least 5 members don't. Think that one through.
DeleteReporting in from near Bandera, Texas about 40 miles south of Juvat as the airplane flys (directly) and I don't know how far north or northwest from STxAR . We have the cold and snow here also; about five inches when we got up Monday. Power was off mostly from 0530 to 1730 but then there are rolling blackouts across Texas. Here we get about an hour of electricity followed by 30 mins without. We are keeping the house warm.
ReplyDeleteWhile my well house with attendant plumbing to support soft water and direct well water to two houses has not frozen, the pipes in my attic have frozen in part. Same thing happened to my daughter and son-in-law's house. We have water in some taps and none in others. My mother-in-law's house which is the other on our place has had no problems yet with water.
I read this Bill and got a ray of hope that things were beginning to get better, Wasn't the case. Although I hope you weathered the storm better than we. Details in tomorrow's post.
Delete