So I accidentally posted this in the SNAIL Sunday Night thread on Friday night:
Was actually going to christine Wreckfest tonight. But instead we had to prepare for a two day friggin' ice storm that's starting about, uhm, NOW! Raining now and temperature is going to drop to freezing in the next four hours or so. 3/4 to 1 inch of ice accumulation expected! Power outages a near certainty, possible flooding, travel expected to be near impossible; It's going to be a real schitt show. So we spent the evening stocking up on essentials and getting the generator on standby. So, yeah, sounds like a great weekend in store. And I missed out on Wreckfest... Again!
Well, it was a schitt show indeed! Rain, freezing rain, sleet, etc., from Midnight Friday until about 9:00 AM Sunday. Saturday night we kept getting power outages accompanied by power surges. We'd only be without power for about 5-10 minutes until it would come back on, then it would be on for anywhere between 5 minutes to 45 minutes. It cycled about six or seven times before I finally said screw this, I'm turning off the main breaker and firing up the generator. As I was in the driveway filling the generator with gas I saw something I've never seen since my first day as an industrial electrician apprentice. Visible electromagnetic surges traveling down the power lines while the power was out! At first I was looking down at the generator and thought it was blue lightning. My training said, "Nope, lightning is white, arching is blue. Must be transformers blowing up." So I started watching the power lines, scanning back and forth looking at my neighbor's and my transformer. Then, clear as day, blue halo looking flashes surrounding the power lines traveling from south to north - probably 200-300 mph. "Whoh! Friggin' cool!" I thought. It looked like something straight out of Star Wars. Today, after I woke up around 2:30 PM (pretty much stayed up all night maintaining generator fuel) I realized it wasn't so cool. The surges fried our living room TV and dishwasher (so far)
. We're not sure what else is on the brink of dying
. So, tomorrow I'll be talking to the insurance company and going shopping for new appliances. Considering our Senior Citizen start time, and the fact that I'm not getting up at 5 AM to go shopping, I doubt I'll be done with my day's business, dinner, and visiting with the family by race time. Heck of a weekend. I kinda knew we were in for trouble. Third ice storm this winter. We used to just get snow. Hmm... is the planet getting warmer?
On another note, concerning the major topic of conversation, my recently departed brother made me a fan of RUSH when I was about ten years old (1980). While my brother, five years my senior, was more into heavy metal (Dave Mustaine, George Lynch, Chris DeGarmo, etc.), he was always acting as a musical connoisseur to me. He taught me to how to appreciate everything from Hank Williams to Megadeath. And Rush was certainly one of the educations he gave me as a young man, for the reasons that Rob pointed out earlier. Just the sheer creativity, originality, and the way the band was working in harmony, but all doing their own things. Talking to my wife about Rush is like this:
