Power outage

We received almost 1" of rain just after midnight, but I never heard it, this time. It usually wakes me up. It must have gotten stronger as it moved down I-40 to you.

Anytime you can get 1" of ran in August in OK, you'll take it. We've been running above 95 every day. It was 68° when I walked a few minutes ago. It was almost cold.

 

That derecho hit my sister, nephew, etc in Iowa pretty hard. They are also 2/o power this morning.

 

My power is still on, but there's a broken tree branch hanging from my service drop that I'm really not tempted to go grab (even though I'm sure the insulation on the drop wires was perfectly fine 30 years ago or whenever when it was run).

Just got off the phone with my utility, who told me as long as the power is on it isn't their problem.

 

They're wrong about that, although I suspect it will keep for now.
Most of the things on their side on the power meter is a 'them' thing.

 

Drop a note to your news station "in your corner" group or equivalent telling them what the utility told you. It will get addressed.

 

Handled, using a long 1✕3 and a pair of Toyota-compliant electrical gloves. (Not every battle has to be chosen....)



Managed to hang itself up on every one of three services.

By the by, a few years ago a friend of mine hosted a party, and had a helium tank for balloons, and then asked me to figure out what's supposed to happen to the used tank.

It turns out the small tanks for balloon parties are not wanted back by the gas suppliers; the right thing to do (around here at least) is empty it, bash an obvious hole in the side, and leave it for curbside pickup with the hole showing, so they know it's not pressurized.

But I harvested the nifty balloon-filling valve first:



You use it by sticking your balloon (or whatever) over the soft rubber end, then pushing it sort of sideways to let air flow. It's nice and controllable.

The FoodSaver vacuum-storage folks sell an accessory for evacuating a Mason jar. It isn't canning (no heat involved), but nice if you'd like to keep some stuff in a jar without air around.



Turns out that, plus a little balloon filler, is just right for stretching the gauntlet of an electrical glove around and doing a good air leakage test.



I have never been able to do a convincing test just by rolling the glove up the way you see in demos. Just can't make that work. I'm apparently glove-rolling-up-challenged.

The balloon filler by itself is also very useful for sticking up the gauntlet and helping get the wretched glove off your hand, in case you might have perspired a little or maybe not used enough glove powder.