Backup power supplies are a great idea until the power goes off at 3:45 am and you can’t find a way to stop the incessant beeping.
Wheels
2 Likes
Nothing as cool as watching a Soyuz launch from angels 20 but worth sharing nonetheless:
Today I finished up with this thing. It’s a bike shed with a chicken coop built into the back wall. Today I sawed out three hatches so you can clean the coop and take out the eggs from inside the shed. Client was happy, me and Wil were happy and that’s a sweet end to the year 
24 Likes
Quick ~60km ride around Greifswald. Bike infrastructure is lacking once you get outside the bigger towns and away from touristy areas but the roads are generally nice 
14 Likes
It was pretty eerie this morning looking out and seeing everything except the street lights, which have solar power batteries, was dark.
I used my phone to check the estimated time of service repair. At 4am they estimated 7:30 am. An hour ago it was estimated to be repaired by 11 am and as of now it has been pushed back to 12am.
Even better is that we just got an alert that our Internet service, Spectrum, is down too. 
Wheels
Edit:
We are using the redneck heater at the moment.
Had to use a lighter to light the gas since naturally the electric striker doesn’t work…
8 Likes
Been there. You light up the oven yet? Stay warm man.
3 Likes
Love it. Great job.
2 Likes
The oven has an electric striker too. All would be good until the oven shuts itself off and then it would just be venting gas. 
Wheels
Edit:
We have three SCE trucks outside working on the electric.
In the time it took me to walk upstairs the supervisor left.
The tree is doing a pretty good job of blocking the second work truck.
Estimated time for service restoration has been upgraded to Not Available. 
4 Likes
schurem, any sawing day is a good day 
It’s somehow cathartic to make sawdust.
2 Likes
I will second what Chip said. There is something very therapeutic about working with wood.
… and I just realised how that could sound to my American friends 
I similar news. My wife has been bugging me for ages to build a hayshed and a small tack shed next to the ‘pony paddock’.
We were able to come to a compromise when I convinced her that one of these was about 2/3 the cost, will be able to store feed & gear, and is weather and vermin proof.
It was meant to arrive before Christmas, but finally got here yesterday. The transport company said they wanted to wait for the rain to ease and the roads to dry out. Even so, ‘Surly’ the tilt tray driver wasn’t happy that they sent him out in a truck without a diff lock, even though I told them about the steep dog-leg in our driveway. He made it out - just.
13 Likes
Man cave
6 Likes
I just wanna point out, that while we might be illiterate, we’re not all complete preverts.
10 Likes
To keep anyone that is still interested updated, The power was out just a little under 9 hours yesterday. 3:44am to 12:25pm. Spectrum was doing work at the same time and the Internet service had been restored before the electric service so there is no way of me knowing how long that service was down.
Until it is down for a few hours you definitely forget how dependent you have become on electricity being available at all time of the day and night.
Wheels
8 Likes
we had a power outage on Wednesday night, only about 40min … but during that time it also degraded mobile phone service, so had to got the top floor to get any sort of signal, and data seemed very spotty … it was shocking to see how dependant we have become on the internet, the most ironic thing was I have a wind up radio, which worked well … but didnt know the frequency for the local radio station, something i would normally just go online to find … it was like being back in the 70s-80s
5 Likes
Since my phone still worked fairly well during the outage I was still in the 21st century but the house reverted back to the 19th century. 
Wheels
6 Likes
When one realizes that thier home is just an oddly shaped cave…
7 Likes
We got a pretty bad storm here, powerlines down everywhere, and we lost one of our big trees (fortunately not onto any of our structures, but I think it killed our pandanus tree on the way down).
So the generator has come out of course, and we have internet again now - the internet did go off for a few hours yesterday evening and all the kids magically appeared and wanted to spend time with us adults all of a sudden 
It did make for a great sunset though:
Happy New Years if I don’t speak to you all beforehand, we have a busy day today 
13 Likes
If you cut the wounded bits off so the pandanus only has clean cuts instead of tears, it might make it. Won’t be pretty though.
5 Likes
Was supposed to be a do nothing day…
Started at noon and with about a 90 minute break to fly with my virtual online squadron I am just getting finished about 9:30 pm.
I hit up 4 stores today with Walmart being a twofer.
I went to the 99cent store first for bottled water.
Summary
Most of the time the tap water in Corona would gag a magot. 
After going to the 99cent store I went to Walmart to shop mainly for food products.
After shopping at Walmart I took everything home and put it away. I also grabbed a quick bite to eat. Now it was off to Smart & Final to get mineral water for pops and a few more non perishable groceries.
Now I am off to Costco for what I think at that time is my last stop for the day.
I get home around 4:45 and it takes about 45 minutes to unload the car and put everything away. I am bushed but relieved that my day is done and I can sit down and get online with my virtual fighters group.
Just before we finish our online session for the night my Mother asks me if I bought any hot dogs. Of course the answer was no since they were not on any of the lists. As soon as she asks I know I am going to go out and get them but I groan to myself that going back out is the farthest thing I want to do right now since my mind has shut down for the day. Plus the thought of being stuck in another crowded store did not make it any more appealing.
So off to Walmart I go again to get the hot dogs and a few more items she added to the list.
Just gotta hope that nobody wants anything from the store tomorrow.
Wheels
10 Likes
Oh man. I feel your pain. We have a non-negotiable rule in this house:
“If it wasn’t on the list, then next time we go into town we will get it”.
Until Mother is visiting…
10 Likes