Month: February 2014

39,000 Falling Tree Limbs

We went to bed last night with power, but at 1:30 in the morning I awoke to silence, the power was off again. Getting back to sleep took awhile because of the sound of falling stuff. There was the light crack and rattle of bushes covered in ice falling over and then there was the groan followed by a loud crack as tree limbs plummeted to the ground. A couple of times the tree limb’s progress to earth were interrupted by our roof with a loud thud and a rumble, rumble as they rolled off.

So far we have escaped with only minor damage considering the size of the limbs falling. In the second picture the dark line above the windows in the sided area is from where a limb hit the gutter on the way down and bent it. In the third picture on the left side is a pile of branches that landed on our wire fence between yards, crushing it in the middle. And the branch laying on the ground in front of the garbage can dragged its end down along the wall in that area and broke a bunch a pieces of siding on its fall.

By late morning we were getting cold, the temperature in the house read 57, we picked up our friend Joan who was in the same situation and slowly drove around Aiken looking for something open. There were a few places that looked open but they weren’t really, just employees inside stranded from getting to their homes from the last shift. We were a half hour early for the Golden Corral being opened, but by the time it did it would have been over run by all the folks out cruising like us. We went back to Joan’s house where she packed a bag, then to our house were we did the same and I got on US78 and headed west.

We finally got our hot lunch in Branchville, SC at a Chinese restaurant. They didn’t have electricity, but their gas burners were going and the three of us each had an egg roll and split some fried rice and chicken and broccoli. The little hole in the wall was unheated and the steam was rising off the food as we ate, but the three of us agreed it was the best Chinese food we had ever had. It really wasn’t until we hit I-95 about 20 miles later that the trees painted white with a coating of ice and sagging started to thin out.

We tried a couple of hotels at the first two exits but we were not the only one’s escaping the ice and they were already filled. The Emperor passed the 39,000 mile mark somewhere on I-95 south on the way to our final destination, a HIE in Hardeeville, SC.

Freezing Rain Begat Ice

Well, power has been off at the house 4 different times today and thanks to the hard working guys at SCE&G it has been back on 4 times. Right now we have made it to the 2 hour mark with power which is the longest all day, but nothing is certain as it has flickered a couple of times briefly.

We partially dodged a bit of a bullet when this morning’s freezing rain turned to sleet for a long period of time and thereby diminished the thickness of the ice coating, as the small sleet pellets bounced of the existing ice instead of adding to it. Looks like a SPIA Index of 3 compared to the predicted 4, but we still did get a decent coating on surfaces as seen in the photos below (all taken from the relative comfort of inside, through our new windows.)

Ice-Ageddon

Tomorrow, two weeks to the day from the snow storm that dropped an nearly an inch of snow on our Fair City, we are primed to get nearly an inch of ICE!

Snow makes driving very problematic, but that won’t be our problem with the ice. Matter of fact the roads might not even freeze over because of their ambient warmth (bridges are a different story), but that kind of ice brings downs tree limbs, whole pine trees and power lines. That means no lights or heat and, cripes, no internet…

The Reichter magnatude scale is a number to quantify the energy that is released during an earthquake, there is a Fujita scale for rating tornado intensity and hurricanes have the Saffir-Simpson for a rating based on their sustained wind speed, but did you know there is one for ice storms as well? I didn’t either, until today, and it is called the SPIA Index.

The Sperry-Piltz Ice Accumulation Index is a scale for rating ice storm intensity, based on the expected footprint of an ice storm, the expected ice accumulation as a result of a storm, and the expected damage a storm inflicts on human-built structures, especially exposed overhead utility systems such as power lines. It goes from zero, minimal up to 5, catastrophic.

A band from say Atlanta, GA to Columbia, SC along the I-20 corridor is expected to get a Big Ol’ Four or a damage and impact description of “Prolonged and widespread utility interruptions with extensive damage to main distribution feeder lines and some high voltage transmission lines/structures. Outages lasting 5 to 10 days.” So if you don’t see any blog posts from me in a while you will know that the weather guessers got it right and it is not just me taking a Blogging Avoidance Holiday.

Big Plans?

Yesterday after breakfast we were off to visit with a friend for awhile, get some lunch and do that grocery shopping thing. Donna suggested getting some cash from the ATM to pay for lunch seeing as we were driving right by our bank on the way out of town.

Insert card, type in my PIN and when the screen comes up with my choices for services I tap the screen for $20 Fast Cash. Nothing happens. I hit the touch screen again with the same results. I try again, nothing. I pull back my hand and look at my fingertip like it could possible be the cause of failure here. I try tapping on Other Services, but, you guessed it, no response. While I contemplate the location my next futile screen press, the ATM beeps and the screen changes to a question, “Do You Need More Time?”

I think to myself, “Do I really need more time to unsuccessfully poke at the screen?” I answer myself, “Nope.” So with out thinking further, I press the screen where it says NO. Doh! As you would expect, nothing happened. Fortunately there is an physical Cancel button on the PIN number keypad.

So I go inside and walk up to the one of the two tellers and say, “The ATM touch screen isn’t working.” The other teller says, “We know, a technician is on his way.” My teller asks how much do you want, to which I say, “Just twenty bucks.” While my teller is filling out a withdrawal slip, the other teller asks, “Got big plans for the weekend?” I look at her, smile and say, “What do you think? I only asked for $20 bucks.”

Reason #127 Why I Shouldn’t Be Sent On Errands Alone

Because we hadn’t done our weekly grocery shopping yet the cupboard was nearly bare, so this morning I was sent out for breakfast. Donna wanted an order of Biscuit ‘N’ Gravy from Hardee’s and I volunteered to make the run as long as I could stop at DD too and get my morning Cup O’ Joe too. She said fine, but don’t pay the buck eighty nine for a Hot Chocolate for her as she could make her own at home.

Hardee’s was the first stop where I picked up Donna’s breakfast. Normally I get a Sausage and Egg Biscuit here, but I decided to forgo that and get a muffin at Dunkin Donuts instead. At the DD drive up I ordered and when I got to the window I handed the clerk my DD Card and she handed me my muffin. She rang up my bill then handed back the receipt and my card. It wasn’t until I was driving around the back of the building that I realized I was missing my coffee. I was so keyed in on the fact that I was getting a muffin that I drove off too soon.

So I parked the Purple Whale and sheepishly walked inside the store to pick up my Medium Coffee with Cream & Sugar.

In case you are wondering, this is Reason #1

Clone Club Emails

In my personal quest to broaden the TV viewing horizons of my co-workers I have managed to get 13 other individuals to watch Orphan Black. To keep their interest up I have taken to issuing a Clone Club email about once a week of tidbits discovered on the web about the show. This week there were actually two emails sent because right after I mailed the first one, something really interesting came to my attention that I wanted to share.

First Wednesday’s:

Subj: A Clone Phone Ringtone, A Video and A Romantic/Scientific Relationship

A Ringtone – Now all you need is a pink cell phone cover…

A YouTube video – Tatiana Maslany talks to Space Channel about Season 2

A “Spoiler:”
Show runner Graeme Mason says that season 2 will explore Cosima and Delphine’s relationship, “That Cosima-and-Delphine relationship is as complex as ever. It stays romantic and stays scientific, but there’s a lot of gamesmanship going on”

Brian

Delphine: I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.
Cosima: Ah, like in a… not bad way?
Delphine: Oh, like… I have never thought about bisexuality. I mean, for myself, you know? But, as a scientist, I know that sexuality, is a… is a… is a spectrum. But you know, social biases they, codified attraction. It’s contrary to the biological facts… you know.
Cosima: That’s… oddly romantic. And totally encouraging.

Now today’s:

Subj: 10 Weeks, Down Under & A Fan Based Award

Only 71 more days, so if you watch one episode of Season 1 every Saturday night starting tomorrow, you will see the finale on the 19th of April, the same night as the premier of first episode of Season 2.

Last Tuesday night at 8:30pm in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth a combined 4.2 million Australians were watching the second half hour of a show called My Kitchen Rules. On Network 9, 1.9 million people were watching a re-run of The Big Bang Theory while only a total of 26,000 people were watching Orphan Black on SBS 2. Just like the continent, their idea of quality TV is upside down…

No Emmy, no problem. An OB fan has created a crowd funded award to give to Tatiana. There are several donation levels to choose from with different “perks” for each. My favorite level is The Helena, a $500 donation and you will get your own replica of the award, but I’m probably only going to be donating on The Beth level. This is already 1/3 of the way to reality, so hurry before it is too late to get in on it.

Brian

Mrs. S: I was tempted to claim the remains and feed them to you both on toast.

Crap, That Long?

I have been not posting and not missing doing it, so I thought I would see when my domain name expired and if it was close just go ahead and quit. Well, it doesn’t expire until August and it would be a shame to waste that approximately $25 I still have left, so I am going to try and chug along for awhile longer.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1295