Here's the link: Vimeo Link
eg:
Winter 2009-10 #1 from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Video Link
Blogspot has a really crappy video utility, so I've started putting the movies up on Vimeo.
Here's the link: Vimeo Link
eg:
Here's the link: Vimeo Link
eg:
The Big Storm III
The latest Big Storm didn't quite measure up. Looks like we got 2-3 inches over night, tho' there was some pretty good wind, which is supposed to continue thru today and tomorrow. So the probability of losing power again is still high.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
The Big Storm III
Got power back at about 530 yesterday evening. Of course, this was less than 10 hours after I scored one of the last 3 generators at Lowe's - they got a short shipment of a couple dozen in at 7, opened the store at 730 and were sold out by 10. But I don't care. I'm so fucking tired of this Post-Apocalypse bullshit I could spit bricks thru a car door.
The phones came back maybe 15 minutes ago, so I needed to grab some webtime and post some of this before the next storm starts in earnest. The phone issue has been very annoying. Losing the land line is bad enough, but the power outage also took out our local cell tower, so communications has been difficult as well.
It's already been flurrying a bit off and on all morning. Forecasters are saying we'll get 4-8 more inches tonite. Given the sorry state of the grid to begin with, and the simple fact that lots of trees are bent and damaged and ready to go, it shouldn't take much to put us back to where we were 3 days ago.
But at least I've got enough juice now to run the Reefer, 2 space heaters and various lights and appliances. I also scored 2 more Jerry cans, so I can run for 30 hours if we're a little careful.
The main thing is figuring out how best to heat the joint. If I didn't hafta run the space heaters, I could stretch the gas out to several days. Nick and Luke have been scavenging from the woods, but trudging thru 2 feet of snow across the open ground before you get to the woods is a real chore. Plus, you gotta load up the little sled and drag it all back to the house. Once back at the house, we can use the electric chainsaw, I've resisted buying the gas-powered version, thinking I'll convert a couple of the fireplaces to some other fuel once this is all over.
The other thing I'll be working on is figuring out a way to take the whole subdivision off the grid. We have a gas main that runs pretty close, and we've been approached once before to see if enough of us wanted to convert from propane to natural. The attempt failed, but it might be a really good time to ask again. I'm thinking we could do a mid-sized fuel cell generator and stop worrying about the power going out every stinkin' time more than 11 snow flakes get together. Distributed Power Generation is something that'll probably have to happen at some time anyway because the traditional grid system is aging badly and becoming ridiculously expensive to maintain. It's stupid to go on pouring billions into a system that won't be able to keep up with us.
Schools have been closed 6 out of the last 7 days.
Challenges remain, but we're working the problems one at a time, hoping to turn a couple of them into opportunities.
The phones came back maybe 15 minutes ago, so I needed to grab some webtime and post some of this before the next storm starts in earnest. The phone issue has been very annoying. Losing the land line is bad enough, but the power outage also took out our local cell tower, so communications has been difficult as well.
It's already been flurrying a bit off and on all morning. Forecasters are saying we'll get 4-8 more inches tonite. Given the sorry state of the grid to begin with, and the simple fact that lots of trees are bent and damaged and ready to go, it shouldn't take much to put us back to where we were 3 days ago.
But at least I've got enough juice now to run the Reefer, 2 space heaters and various lights and appliances. I also scored 2 more Jerry cans, so I can run for 30 hours if we're a little careful.
The main thing is figuring out how best to heat the joint. If I didn't hafta run the space heaters, I could stretch the gas out to several days. Nick and Luke have been scavenging from the woods, but trudging thru 2 feet of snow across the open ground before you get to the woods is a real chore. Plus, you gotta load up the little sled and drag it all back to the house. Once back at the house, we can use the electric chainsaw, I've resisted buying the gas-powered version, thinking I'll convert a couple of the fireplaces to some other fuel once this is all over.
The other thing I'll be working on is figuring out a way to take the whole subdivision off the grid. We have a gas main that runs pretty close, and we've been approached once before to see if enough of us wanted to convert from propane to natural. The attempt failed, but it might be a really good time to ask again. I'm thinking we could do a mid-sized fuel cell generator and stop worrying about the power going out every stinkin' time more than 11 snow flakes get together. Distributed Power Generation is something that'll probably have to happen at some time anyway because the traditional grid system is aging badly and becoming ridiculously expensive to maintain. It's stupid to go on pouring billions into a system that won't be able to keep up with us.
Schools have been closed 6 out of the last 7 days.
Challenges remain, but we're working the problems one at a time, hoping to turn a couple of them into opportunities.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
The Big Storm II
As of about 1:30 pm Saturday Feb 6:
It's been snowing since yesterday at about daybreak.
Lost power at 6:30 last night.
Probably close to 20 inches on the ground so far, expecting another 3 or 4 through tonight at about 10.
I bought a second power inverter last week, so this time we can run the WiFi and one laptop, the phones and the TV and satellite receiver.
If the official total snowfall is over 18 inches, it sets the record for most snow in a season.
All for now.
It's been snowing since yesterday at about daybreak.
Lost power at 6:30 last night.
Probably close to 20 inches on the ground so far, expecting another 3 or 4 through tonight at about 10.
I bought a second power inverter last week, so this time we can run the WiFi and one laptop, the phones and the TV and satellite receiver.
If the official total snowfall is over 18 inches, it sets the record for most snow in a season.
All for now.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Into The Lions' Den Again
I posted earlier about Obama going to the Repub Retreat and suggested at the time that if Obama beat up on people at The Prayer Breakfast, we might get an idea of how the administration intends to navigate the various minefields left over from the last 30 years of partisan warfare.
I've seen some of the video (if you go looking for it, don't forget to include Hillary's remarks - as often as I find her grating and unpleasant, I think she's doing a really good job for us at State). Anyway, The Big O had some pretty sharp and direct criticism for the Goddies, but he said it in a nice way. It didn't sound a lot different than any sermon you might hear in any given church on any given Sunday.
So I'm left to believe he got thru to at least some of 'em. Or maybe he's doing a kind of surgery - like he sees an unhealthy element in these groups of people who are otherwise decent folk, and he's trying to talk to the 'moderates' in a way that says "I can help you regain power inside your own organizations if you'll help me push the nutballs back into the bleachers".
Watch the last 20 minutes of the first episode of The West Wing for a fair illustration of the idea.
I've seen some of the video (if you go looking for it, don't forget to include Hillary's remarks - as often as I find her grating and unpleasant, I think she's doing a really good job for us at State). Anyway, The Big O had some pretty sharp and direct criticism for the Goddies, but he said it in a nice way. It didn't sound a lot different than any sermon you might hear in any given church on any given Sunday.
So I'm left to believe he got thru to at least some of 'em. Or maybe he's doing a kind of surgery - like he sees an unhealthy element in these groups of people who are otherwise decent folk, and he's trying to talk to the 'moderates' in a way that says "I can help you regain power inside your own organizations if you'll help me push the nutballs back into the bleachers".
Watch the last 20 minutes of the first episode of The West Wing for a fair illustration of the idea.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Curiouser About Mr O'Keefe
James O'Keefe is quite a piece of work. Via the watchdogs at One People's Project, here's a new twist.
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