Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Derecho Me Mucho














I think I can hear Tina Turner somewhere, singing ... "out of the ruins, out from the wreckage" ... how did the rest of that song go?

Maybe it wasn't quite Beyond Thunderdome, but I did feel very post-apocalyptic when the power was finally restored to my home this afternoon. Our neighborhood had been off the grid ever since that derecho hit the region last Friday night, and my family and I have been hauling away downed trees, suffering 100 degree heat, and scavenging for bags of ice by candlelight from then until now. 

Strictly speaking, it was only my wife and kids who were doing that all along. I went to work yesterday and today, where I enjoyed the AC and did a moderate and responsible amount of web-surfing while recharging my iPod and other stuff in the government's power outlets. But, you know, I suffered, too. 

The WaPo is running a name the derecho contest. The winning entry will be announced Thursday.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go TSB! You trained them well and volunteered to bring home the bacon! Bravo! gwb

Anonymous said...

http://www.ciudadanos.com.mx/2012/07/03/decomisa-el-fbi-tres-millones-de-boletas-del-pri-en-texas/

FBI sizes 3 million mexican ballots in Texas.

gwb

The Snake's Mommy said...

Welcome back on the grid. I lucked out here, for once. Usually I'm the first to go if there's gonna be massive days-long outages. Local news was warning people we were at our limit for power usage, asked people to not squander power, raise thermostat to 75 etc. I guess a slight benefit of living around a ton of boarded up homes is that they aren't drawing power.

TSB said...

GWB: Speaking as a Gringo, the demands of political correctness prevent me from repeating scandalous rumors about vote fraud in Mexico. To quote Eduardo Sanchez, a spokesman for Nieto:

“The charges are offensive to the dignity of all the voters who supported Pena Nieto, because they allege that Mexican voters are susceptible to vote buying”

So, I hope the Mexican hacktivists can do something about the situation. That's quite a movement they're got going, and I think it's a new type of challenge to the plutocrats in Mexico D.F.

http://teatrodelamente.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/anonymous-hackea-al-ife-todo-sea-por-la-democracia-2/

TSB said...

The Snake's Mommy: It's good to hear you weren't affected. This blackout was so widespread that power companies here had to call in crews from as far away as Florida and Quebec to repair the damage; everyone closer than that was busy repairing their own damage.

Funny thing I noticed: battery-operated transistor radios are almost extinct now. My neighbor couldn't find one for sale. My 5-year old granddaughter (who can use any iPad or cell phone or other digital device) was completely puzzled by my little SW radio. "What's that thing? It looks like an old telephone."

I hope all is going well with you.

Anonymous said...

“The charges are offensive to the dignity of all the voters who supported Pena Nieto, because they allege that Mexican voters are susceptible to vote buying”
LOL! I saw a story of a pretty good sized demonstration of Nieto supporters complaining they hadn't received their promised payments. Also, one of Obrador's main campaign directors was assassinated yesterday. Happy 4th!
gwb