Really trivial stuff that amuses you...

[Swift]

It was almost that way for us. I'd floated the idea of a whole-house generator for quite some time but The Wife thought it too expensive...until we had a 2½-day power outage. So, change of perspective.

And as I was writing this, we had an earthquake. A modest 4.2M but it included a sharp 'bang' tremor. Got the heart rate up just a touch.

USGS

[schlaugh]

It was almost that way for us. I'd floated the idea of a whole-house generator for quite some time but The Wife thought it too expensive...until we had a 2½-day power outage. So, change of perspective.

And as I was writing this, we had an earthquake. A modest 4.2M but it included a sharp 'bang' tremor. Got the heart rate up just a touch.

Would you be able to power the generator for two or three days? I've always figured you'd need a good-size fuel depot.

[Van Rijn]

We will have gone from talking vaguely about how we should have a generator to having a generator in a week.

Have you been having long power outages? If I had PG&E, I definitely would have had a fairly large generator installed (I would want enough for air conditioning and a refrigerator, plus a bit more). They have repeatedly cut off power not too far from me for days with a higher possibility of fires starting and that is happening again now. But I have SMUD and so far outages have been fairly rare and even then usually don’t last much more than an hour. I can accept the occasional power problem lasting two or three hours, but not two or three days.

[PetersCreek]

Would you be able to power the generator for two or three days? I've always figured you'd need a good-size fuel depot.

Ours is plumbed to the natural gas line, so as long as that's good (and we pay the bill) we're good. We also have an adapter that allows us to use tanked propane, if the NG line is knocked out. I don't have much of a depot built up, though.

[PetersCreek]

USGS

Revised as usual. The Alaska Earthquake Center differs slightly. calling it a 4.1 rather than 4.0. Their waveforms chart pretty much looks as I felt it 17 miles away.

[Trebuchet]

"Whole house" generator was an absolute requirement when we built our new place. It caused us some issues with the builder, because they were going to put it right in the front due to their plans and their specifications not matching. No natural gas here, but we've a 250 (?) gallon propane tank, the fill level of which I need to remember to check before winter. It won't provide heat or run the laundry machines or oven, but everything else is pretty much covered. Starts up and transfers automagically when needed. We can even watch TV and use the internet! Assuming the cable company doesn't flake out again, of course.

[Extravoice]

We will have gone from talking vaguely about how we should have a generator to having a generator in a week.

If you don’t have one, I highly recommend a CO alarm, preferably battery powered.

[Trebuchet]

I woke up a little early this morning and wound up composing limericks in my head. That was kind of weird, I don't recall consciously doing so before. At least one was triply forbidden from posting here!

[Gillianren]

Have you been having long power outages? If I had PG&E, I definitely would have had a fairly large generator installed (I would want enough for air conditioning and a refrigerator, plus a bit more). They have repeatedly cut off power not too far from me for days with a higher possibility of fires starting and that is happening again now. But I have SMUD and so far outages have been fairly rare and even then usually don’t last much more than an hour. I can accept the occasional power problem lasting two or three hours, but not two or three days.

We've had two short power outages in the time we've lived here. A few hours each, but one was a definite inconvenience. On our old grid, we were on the same grid as the courthouse and the jail, and power was never off long. This is no longer the case, and I'd been making vague noises about emergency planning Just In Case. We've actually ordered a solar generator, including panels, so we don't have to worry about CO or fuel. Just somewhere to put the panels. It can even store a charge from wall power and hold it in a battery for emergencies. We made noises about considering a whole house generator, but for now, we didn't see the point.

Yesterday, meanwhile, I had an intake to get back into therapy. (Definitely a Non-Trivial Thing That Makes Me Happy!) One of the questions was if, in the last twelve months, I'd been stressed/depressed/etc. when considering the future, and I answered quite honestly that I wasn't sure anyone could fully answer that question no these days.

[Torsten]

We've had two short power outages in the time we've lived here. A few hours each, but one was a definite inconvenience. On our old grid, we were on the same grid as the courthouse and the jail, and power was never off long. This is no longer the case, and I'd been making vague noises about emergency planning Just In Case. We've actually ordered a solar generator, including panels, so we don't have to worry about CO or fuel. Just somewhere to put the panels. It can even store a charge from wall power and hold it in a battery for emergencies. We made noises about considering a whole house generator, but for now, we didn't see the point.

Yesterday, meanwhile, I had an intake to get back into therapy. (Definitely a Non-Trivial Thing That Makes Me Happy!) One of the questions was if, in the last twelve months, I'd been stressed/depressed/etc. when considering the future, and I answered quite honestly that I wasn't sure anyone could fully answer that question no these days.

So true. And a reminder, I suppose, that we're all in one big boat.

[Torsten]

It can take me forever to understand the obvious. That should bug me, but in this case I found it amusing.

As part of my continuing involvement in a long running silviculture trial, I do annual height measurements of trees in research plots. It's a tedious chore, but I have a handy tool that makes it easy. I stand where I can see the top of the tree as well as a point on the stem 1.3 m above the ground. Here I will have placed a transponder next to the tree, and the tool uses ultrasound to measure the distance between me and the transponder, as well as the relevant angles, then it does the math for me. The transponder also makes audible chirps to confirm that the two devices are communicating, and I could always hear these.

But I've had difficulty reliably hearing these chirps in recent years, so I thought I might be experiencing hearing loss. That made no sense though given that in my home I can still hear the ticking of the wall clock in the other room and other fairly faint sounds. And then the obvious explanation came to me: the trees have grown, so each year I must stand further away to get my measurements. The strength of the sound probably falls as the inverse square of distance from the tree. So I tested by standing closer, and sure enough, I could hear the transponder.

[Noclevername]

One of the questions was if, in the last twelve months, I'd been stressed/depressed/etc. when considering the future, and I answered quite honestly that I wasn't sure anyone could fully answer that question no these days.

Truer words never spoken...

[Solfe]

I was at the laundromat today. I wait in my car during covid season. Anyway, I heard the familiar tick-tick-tick of a car that can't kick over the starter. There were a lot of people sitting in cars, so I couldn't tell which it was until either the owner or the car went haywire. A horn started blaring for a full 2 minutes. It was pretty easy to pick out that car and driver. His head was shaking back and forth, he was yelling and punching the steering wheel.

I debated what to do. Finally, I masked up and pulled the jumper cables out of the trunk. By the time I found them, the blaring had stopped and the owner of the car jumped out, let go a might cuss and threw his keys across the parking lot. He then ran off. Problem solved, I put the jumper cables back in the trunk.

About 15 minutes later, I noticed a couple of people hopping out of their cars and running inside the laundromat. Sure enough, the guy was back. He was a little calmer, so I offered to jump start his car. That did the trick and he left.

When I walked into the laundromat, someone told me I was insane for walking up to that guy. I shrugged. I got him to leave. And if he has a bad starter, bad battery leads or corrosion on the terminals, he won't be able to start it up and return. Not a problem. At least not from my perspective. Or maybe his. After talking to him for a bit, I am leaning on the side of a very bad corrosion problem, all over the car. It was a bit of a junker. He seemed too calm to have been the guy who leaned on a horn for a couple of minutes. I suspect the contacts are all gummed up. I bet he touched the horn and it wouldn't release, which caused him to beat on it in an effort to make it stop.

It's all perspective sometimes.

[Extravoice]

When I walked into the laundromat, someone told me I was insane for walking up to that guy. I shrugged...

“I’m a teacher, this doesn’t scare me.”

[DonM435]

The NFL announcer on Fox-TV told us that the Chicago Bears' runner had scored "from the one-inch yard line."

[Gillianren]

I drove into town yesterday because my pattern lied to me, and I needed literally about half a yard more fabric for Irene's Halloween costume than I'd bought. So I went to the fabric store. While in town, I saw someone "drifting" through left turns, which they probably thought made them look cool but made me think of a geeky character from a cartoon show. Then, while I was getting a hot chocolate at a coffee hut, I saw someone driving a VW van while dressed as Sasquatch. And I amused the checker at Goodwill (where I'd gone to see if I could avoid having to make a Mario hat for Simon--spoiler: I could not) by handing her a book, telling her I'd changed my mind about it, and saying that it had turned out not to be very good. I'd read about ten pages in line before reaching that decision. I did get the novelization of The Last Starfighter, though.

[schlaugh]

Our neighborhood is having an internet and TV outage from Comcast. The “amuses me”’part is that Comcast says services will be restored by 9:38 pm. Not 9:37 or 9:39, but 9:38.

I’m assuming the ticket was logged at 5:38 pm. -

[Jim]

Read this on the Interwebs.

"We told you to stop at 2012."
-The Mayans

[Swift]

Read this on the Interwebs.

"We told you to stop at 2012."
-The Mayans

[Solfe]

Read this on the Interwebs.

"We told you to stop at 2012."
-The Mayans

You had to push your luck, eh?

[KaiYeves]

Post on social media: “What signs are you most attracted to? I like Libras and—“
Me: “The ones that say ‘Free Books’.”

[Extravoice]

Mrs. Extravoice picked up a bag of pecans at the grocery. The package shows you how to pronounce “pecan”. It gives at least four options.

I should save the bag for the next time someone insists I’m pronouncing the name of the nut incorrectly.

[Van Rijn]

A while back there was discussion about sugar in Subway bread. I occasionally go there (only once this year, a little before that discussion) and I’ve never noticed the bread to taste sweet. On the other hand, I just went to get a hamburger at Carls Jr as a change from home made food. Their buns are as sweet as cake, almost candy sweet. If Subway bread is supposed to have a fair amount of sugar in it, but tastes fine to me*, I wonder what that says about Carls Jr buns?

*for what it is worth, I almost always get the Italian herbs and cheese bread at Subway, as it tastes best to me from their choices. But I don’t recall the others tasting sweet either, just not as good tasting bread.

[pzkpfw]

I get a lot of Lenovo ads as I've been going to their site a lot to contemplate a purchase.

Somebody loaded something incorrectly, as I've been seeing this model a lot:

[Swift]

I get a lot of Lenovo ads as I've been going to their site a lot to contemplate a purchase.

Somebody loaded something incorrectly, as I've been seeing this model a lot:

Yeah, I never would pay more than $110,000 for a laptop.

[Trebuchet]

Today being Halloween, I went down to the old garage/shed and collected some stuff to put out to indicate to the TorT'ers we were open for business. Plastic punkin pails and orange hard hats on the pathway lights to the front door, a pumpkin wind sock on the bottle tree, and the piece de'resistance, a bizarre trophy I won years ago, with a papier-mache pumpkin face (with marshmallow eyes) on the body of an old brass lamp all covered with little mosaic tiles. (Must see if I can find a picture.) The latter will have the candy in it.
When it gets dark I shall be sure to have lights on.

We purchased this property in 1997, although we've only been in the new house for two years. I can count the total number of Trick or Treaters we've ever had here on the fingers of my left foot.

[Gillianren]

We didn't have any, but of course this was not a year when I was expecting them. We didn't go, but I invited a few people to come over, hang out on our patio, and admire the kids' costumes. The look on Irene's face when my sister took off her mask to show her the fangs she was wearing under it was amazing, and I wish I'd gotten a picture.

[Trebuchet]

Half a dozen of my stock of little snickers actually went last night. Of course, it was just me that ate them.
The wind sock is still on the bottle tree, I forgot to bring it in with the rest of the stuff.

[Torsten]

Eighty one trick-or-treaters came by my house last night. One of the annual community events was cancelled, so the kids stayed at it longer, with more of the older ones coming by later. Maybe they were doing a second pass through the neighbourhood. If so, they surely fooled me.

I made a challenge out of giving up treats: I tossed them from 2 m into their bags. Most kids couldn't figure out how to present the opening of their container/bag to increase my odds of success. I may have had a 25% success rate.

One very tiny child said "Thank you Grandpa" after receiving his treat. I told my daughter about that and she couldn't stop laughing.

[Swift]

Our town allowed trick-or-treating this year. We put out a big bowl of candy with a sign "Help yourself". I don't know how many kids came (no doorbell ringing), but there were kids out and by the end of the evening the bowl was more than half empty. Maybe it was one kid and they just took that much, or maybe it was lots of kids, but I hope they had fun.

Apparently Starbursts aren't very popular, but little Snickers bars are.