Friday, July 28, 2006
The problem with the left grabbing an issue is that they take a term and attach all sorts of things to it. So--for example--"global warming" means that "man has caused global warming" and "we (the government, preferably us) must take drastic measures to 'fix' global warming". Well, ok, it appears the globe is getting warmer, although some scientists have pointed out that many of the observation stations have had city grow up around them, which tends to cause localized hot spots. And I haven't seen a wholly mammoth in quite a while (not counting "Ice Age 2").
But that kind of points out the problem. Somehow, I don't think SUVs, or even humans, were responsible for the end of the Ice Age. And it appears that we actually have less CO2 in the air than when everyone was burning wood, coal, and other nasty stuff. And the temperature on Mars is increasing, too. Does that mean that there are martians causing their global warming?
I think the jury is still very much out on how much of the warming humans are causing, and how much we could slow or reverse it, even if we all stopped producing CO2, or-as some of the more radical have suggested-- 90% of us died off, or were killed by disease. (To which I reply, "You first!" Isn't it interesting that the ones that advocate killing people to reduce the population always mean "not them"? Because, of course, they are the "elite", better than eveyrone else. You wonder if they have pictures of mass murderers and despots--or maybe Mengele--on their walls. And the scary thing is, they are heroes within the scientific community, and not even considered that radical! Pretty scary when you think about it. Access to genetics, and no morals, or worse, twisted morals. But I digress...)
Anyway, as I said, the left says "global warming", and they mean all this other stuff, but when you try to address that issue, they go to the "you can't deny global warming, or you're an anti-intellectual, and then we don't have to listen to you" ("la la la la la, I can't hear you"). And "anti-intellectual" is the least of what you'll be called! They are very good at epithets.
Oh well, that's my philisophical/political rant for the day!
But that kind of points out the problem. Somehow, I don't think SUVs, or even humans, were responsible for the end of the Ice Age. And it appears that we actually have less CO2 in the air than when everyone was burning wood, coal, and other nasty stuff. And the temperature on Mars is increasing, too. Does that mean that there are martians causing their global warming?
I think the jury is still very much out on how much of the warming humans are causing, and how much we could slow or reverse it, even if we all stopped producing CO2, or-as some of the more radical have suggested-- 90% of us died off, or were killed by disease. (To which I reply, "You first!" Isn't it interesting that the ones that advocate killing people to reduce the population always mean "not them"? Because, of course, they are the "elite", better than eveyrone else. You wonder if they have pictures of mass murderers and despots--or maybe Mengele--on their walls. And the scary thing is, they are heroes within the scientific community, and not even considered that radical! Pretty scary when you think about it. Access to genetics, and no morals, or worse, twisted morals. But I digress...)
Anyway, as I said, the left says "global warming", and they mean all this other stuff, but when you try to address that issue, they go to the "you can't deny global warming, or you're an anti-intellectual, and then we don't have to listen to you" ("la la la la la, I can't hear you"). And "anti-intellectual" is the least of what you'll be called! They are very good at epithets.
Oh well, that's my philisophical/political rant for the day!
Well, as I said, PG&E showed back up at about 11 PM. About 3:15 AM, the power came back on. It was weird, like one of those Twilight Zone shows where time stands still. Everything (that we hadn't remembered to unplug or power off) came back to where it had been on 10:15 AM Sunday. The bedroom lights came on (we had been getting ready for church), the pool filter started up, etc. And the answering machine went through its startup routine.
I spend the next 20 minutes turning off the generator, hooking the fridge, alarm and internet back to the mains, resetting clocks, etc. Then turned on the house fan and went back to bed. The heat wave had broken, so we didn't need the air conditioning, but it was nice to know that we could have turned it on if we wanted to.
We now have a 50 KVa transformer in the ground, so hopefully we won't go out again because of that, but with California's electricity demands at an all-time high, there will probably be other "opportunities" to use our generator.
I spend the next 20 minutes turning off the generator, hooking the fridge, alarm and internet back to the mains, resetting clocks, etc. Then turned on the house fan and went back to bed. The heat wave had broken, so we didn't need the air conditioning, but it was nice to know that we could have turned it on if we wanted to.
We now have a 50 KVa transformer in the ground, so hopefully we won't go out again because of that, but with California's electricity demands at an all-time high, there will probably be other "opportunities" to use our generator.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Day 3 of our power blackout:
We've been without power since Sunday morning. It has been really hot, over 110 degrees. It doesn't get much below 80 at night. Without electricity, no AC. No fans. No nuttin'. So Monday morning, we went looking for a generator. There was one left: actually it was a return. But they said it worked. We brought it home and fired it up. (It was interesting getting it home: It barely fit into Rita's hatchback). The engine ran smoothly, it was great. Except that it didn't generate electricity.
So we figured that there wouldn't be any more generators anywhere in San Jose, so we headed down to Lowe's in Gilroy. They had their floor models left. It was louder, but it generates electricity. When I brought the other one back to Home Depot, they said "Hey, that's just like the one that other guy is returning!" So I guess it was probably a good thing that we got the one at Lowe's. We're running the fridge, and a couple of other things: A fan (we got rid of most of our fans, because who needs them when you've got AC? Oops), and some lights and the internet. (Hey, priorities. And realistically, the net doesn't take hardly any power).
PG&E finally showed up on Monday night, at 2:30 in the morning. So really, it was Tuesday morning. They called me, and asked if I could meet their guy outside! So I did, and we found the transformer. He tried to get it going, but determined it was dead, Jim. Tuesday morning, another crew came out, and determined that we needed a bigger transformer. They ordered one, and left.
About 6, the crew showed up with the transformer. They installed it, which took a couple of hours, and fired it up. It didn't work. Apparently, the switch in it was bad: They said that was extremely rare. So they ordered up a new one, and left to eat and sleep. They'd been working 40+ hours, and hadn't eaten in 12 hours!
It is now a bit after 11 PM, and a new crew is just returning, with a new transformer. So we might still get power tonight, but for now, we are melting in the heat!
We've been without power since Sunday morning. It has been really hot, over 110 degrees. It doesn't get much below 80 at night. Without electricity, no AC. No fans. No nuttin'. So Monday morning, we went looking for a generator. There was one left: actually it was a return. But they said it worked. We brought it home and fired it up. (It was interesting getting it home: It barely fit into Rita's hatchback). The engine ran smoothly, it was great. Except that it didn't generate electricity.
So we figured that there wouldn't be any more generators anywhere in San Jose, so we headed down to Lowe's in Gilroy. They had their floor models left. It was louder, but it generates electricity. When I brought the other one back to Home Depot, they said "Hey, that's just like the one that other guy is returning!" So I guess it was probably a good thing that we got the one at Lowe's. We're running the fridge, and a couple of other things: A fan (we got rid of most of our fans, because who needs them when you've got AC? Oops), and some lights and the internet. (Hey, priorities. And realistically, the net doesn't take hardly any power).
PG&E finally showed up on Monday night, at 2:30 in the morning. So really, it was Tuesday morning. They called me, and asked if I could meet their guy outside! So I did, and we found the transformer. He tried to get it going, but determined it was dead, Jim. Tuesday morning, another crew came out, and determined that we needed a bigger transformer. They ordered one, and left.
About 6, the crew showed up with the transformer. They installed it, which took a couple of hours, and fired it up. It didn't work. Apparently, the switch in it was bad: They said that was extremely rare. So they ordered up a new one, and left to eat and sleep. They'd been working 40+ hours, and hadn't eaten in 12 hours!
It is now a bit after 11 PM, and a new crew is just returning, with a new transformer. So we might still get power tonight, but for now, we are melting in the heat!
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