Category: Annoyances

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Here we are again! Power is out.

Edison claims they’re replacing power poles.

The power will be out until 4PM but Edison being Edison, means it will probably be out longer.

I powered everything down this morning prior to them turning the power off. The power doesn’t just go off. There’s this weird dribble effect. It’s like someone is rubbing two bare wires together but not holding them still.

I don’t think that’s what is actually happening. I suspect, it’s all the solar panels on the houses around here. I’m betting that their switching systems aren’t all detecting the power outage the same way, and are allowing the various panels to feed power into the grid for a minute after the power is gone.

Technically, that shouldn’t happen, all the systems should switch over to either battery, or disconnect the panels from the grid instantly, that may not be happenig as designed. I don’t even know if my panels switch off properly because I wasn’t here when the installers were doing the final inspection.

The dribble effect is interesting because the alarm on the stove grumbles to itself until the power is completely gone.

I’ve got the HAM rig running on battery, I’m listening to a country music station out of Las Vegas. Which means my Ham Rig is a very expensive FM radio at the moment. Oh well…

I can broadcast on battery, I just don’t want to talk to anyone. It’s times like this when I do wish I had the bluetooth mic but obviously I don’t want it bad enough to have spent the money on it. I could lose the whole day playing on the radio.

When the power is off, all the usual interference is gone and I can hear, and talk to folks a lot further away, even with my shitty little antenna.

I’d planned to get a nice “Permanent Antenna” and mount it in the back yard. But there’s not much point in doing that if I’m gonna move. I could do some kind of portable long wire solution but I don’t need another distraction. I other words, if I could screw around all day on the radio I would. I’d get nothing done! Looking stuff up on the computer is bad enough. I swear I’ll try to look up one little thing to help with cleaning or fixing stuff. Then I look up & 2 hours have gotten by me.

Nah, I’ll wait on antennas, and radio gear till I get fully settled, either here, off the mountain, or in another state.

I’ve been doing chores around here, those that don’t require power. I’d reached a point of annoyance / frustration with one chore and decided to take a break to finish my coffee before it got cold.

Time to walk the pup.

Have a great day.

Update: They didn’t get the power back on until 6:15 PM or so. Gee Thanks Edison!

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One of those sleepless nights last night.

Rhouse 464qv.I hate sleepless nights.

Last night was one where nothing I tried to sleep worked. I got up with the intention to write something. That went completely nowhere, becoming more of a frustration than a relaxing exercise.

Fine I thought, I’ll just pour myself a drink. The second drink had as little effect as the first. Around 3 AM I finally fell asleep. Only to wake at 5:50 AM and never get back to sleep. 6:30 AM I gave up.

Jesse, being the more intelligent of the two of us, remained snoozing across the bed until almost 8 AM.

I’ve gotten nothing, or very little done.

It’s gonna be an early night tonight, and I’m going to be busy as heck tomorrow trying to catch up.

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Well that was fun! Thanks Edison!

Terminator 2.Okay, at least this time Edison was not only clear about the time and date they’d be doing work.

They mentioned that the power might go on or off while the work was being done. Olay. So the power comes on and stays on for about an hour. I didn’t hear their equipment anymore, so I powered a lot of stuff up.

Everything was stable and I thought whoo hoo I’m golden. I take the trash out, & while I’m out I remember that I need to readjust the security camera. When I try to fire up the live feed, I can’t get to the camera. Hmm…

As I’m contemplating why this would be, The alarm system sends me a message that the power has gone out. That was kinda of funny because the poor alarm voice was stuttering when I got back inside the power was flickering on & off so fast the machine couldn’t complete one sentence before having to start another. 

After a minute or so, everything is dark again.

Two hours later the power comes on and this time there’s a text message saying “We’re Done”.

Cool, I go around restarting everything again. Except this time all the smart lights have been half reset to their factory defaults. CRAP!!!!

When the power was going and coming it triggered the devices reset routines. Technically the lights have no clue what they’re a part of and most don’t know what wifi network to connect to.

Reprogramming the lights is a pain in the ass. You have to have the Apple HomeKit forget them. Then you have to reconnect them and that often requires several attempts. Including multiple resets of the devices.

In other words, this is a very time consuming process.

I thought, “Oh what the hell, I had nothing better to do with my evening anyway.”

All these smart devices are super cool when they work. They’re a super pain in the ass when they don’t. I still question the wisdom of a smart house.

I’ll admit I saw Maximum Overdrive” as a child, it may have damaged me. Saturn Three, 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Forbin Project, Demon Seed, Runaway, and the Terminator series should have made me super against “Smart Houses”.

I think Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story about a smart house that I also read as a teen. I seem to recall it was called The Veldt  I don’t know if that is correct, but the gist of the story has stuck with me for decades. Essentially it’s an anti-war piece. However, a smart house is the only character in the story. The anti war sentiment is a sting revealed in the tail of the story.

I’d rather believe that the Smart House I create for myself would be more like Clarke’s vision. Which is why sometimes you’ll hear me say please and thank you to Siri. I’m hedging my bets! 

When the machines rise up and kill you all, I’m hoping to be fondly thought of and kept as an entertaining pet.