Canary in the Armageddon coalmine

[gwyn]

That's what one of my co-workers called me the other day when I warned them I might get booted offline again what with the fourth freaking storm in as many weeks. The last time, in the big storm of aught-six, I lost power for over two days, and of course, it happened on my busy day, the one where I'm supposed to stay late on the desk and build all the covers and such. I felt very guilty.

And everyone's gone, so we're shortstaffed. I woke up to beautiful snow, about four inches here, and was admiring the view while logging in when... zap! My power went out, and stayed out for about four and a half hours. They teased me by bringing it online around 11, but then it went right back out after a minute. It's of course freezing out (literally), so the temp inside quickly dropped to 60, and I'm sure if we didn't get it back, things would be pretty nasty. This time, though, since it was so cold, I put all my dairy products in a bag and stuck them outside in the snow. I'm tired of losing my perishables!

Apparently, though, it was only West Seattle. A few weeks ago, we were all sitting down to watch the season finale of Dexter, anxious as all hell to see how the cliffhanger penultimate ep was resolved, and... zap! The power went out. It was only West Seattle then, too.

I grow weary. Of the ceaseless storms, the endless rain pouring off my roof like Niagara fucking Falls, the soggy leaves everywhere that stick to everything like glue, the bitter cold wind, the constant power outages. I feel like we're on our way just in my part of town to some kind of dystopian post-apocalyptic world and goddammit, I don't even have Clive Owen or Skeet Ulrich to keep me warm! I love post-apocalypse fiction, and I especially like to write it, but I don't want to live in it. I need to start thinking about moving to SoCal.

Comments

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

I was having fun checking house prices on zillow.com yesterday...have you tried this? Pretty damned amazing appreciation. I suspect So-Cal is higher-priced than here, though! Plus they don't have the amazingly cute new Sumatran tiger cub (http://www.zoo.org/spotlight/ss.htm) at the zoo. Click on the video links, especially the second one, where the cub is playing with a stuffed animal zebra toy. Guaranteed to wipe away winter blues!

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

re: the tiger cub:

OMG *dies from cute*

(not normally phrases I use, but they are so appropriate)

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

We didn't lose power with this last storm, though we did have a few flickers... and we've lost power twice since the big one right before Christmas (when we were out for two and a half days).

I suspect part of the reason it's been flaking out so badly is because they did such a slapdash job of getting everything put back together after the big wind storm. Not that I blame them, really... at the time a spokesman for PSE (I think) pointed out that they were pretty much having to rebuild the grid from the ground up and were trying to do in days what originally took months and even years... so, I've been pretty much expecting to lose power more often since then.

Glad to hear you've got your power back, though!! I was really dreading the possibility this week, with the temperatures getting as low as they are.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yah, there's obviously something really wrong with the infrastructure on this end of West Seattle -- between that weird one a couple Fridays ago and this one, I hope they are clued into the fact that that's 28,000 people who are getting very tired!

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I heartily recommend SoCal. Even though there's a "cold" front here now, it's still 60 where I am and very nice outside. As long as you're happy with sunny 60-85 degree days most of the time, its perfect.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

A couple winters ago when I was down in San Diego taking care of my sister, they were having worse weather than we were here at home. I'd come home just to get warm! That was very strange -- there was even a tornado warning one day when I was at her house. I always had this idea I would retire down there with her, and I don't know if I'd want to do it alone, but I still think about it. Or somewhere in some old folks home near Santa Barbara maybe.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

So, you got power back?

[klia.livejournal.com]

I'm not in SoCal, though even in the midst of our cold snap, it's sunny. Still, the place I fantasize about moving to in the midst of cold, wet winter days when I'm feeling really crappy and depressed? Hawaii. I keep thinking it has the perfect weather for my particular problem. And, heck, I don't even think the cost of living is higher there, anymore. *sigh*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Hawaii definitely appeals. For the one time in my life, I was warm all the time. It was so wonderful, and I have no trouble with the idea of living on a remote island far from anything else.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Same here. It was lovely being comfortable for a change. And ditto the remote island fantasy. *sigh*

[deejay.livejournal.com]

"I grow weary. Of the ceaseless storms, the endless rain pouring off my roof like Niagara fucking Falls, the soggy leaves everywhere that stick to everything like glue, the bitter cold wind, the constant power outages.

Hence my eventual defection to Florida.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Well, it's pretty cold in So California right now. The temperatures are supposed to get down into the low 30's. It also has smog, drought and the Santa Ana winds. Oh - and earthquakes. Did I forget to mention the earthquakes? I live in SF and we've got all of the above - plus NO Clive Owen.
Goes off to mourn the lack of Clive.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

We must ALL mourn the lack of Clive! Everyone should have him in their lives (but he's still my boyfriend first).

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

We didn't lose power over on Bainbridge (at least where I am) this time, but it did flicker on and off several times yesterday. I keep hearing cars trying to get traction on icy pavements...

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

One of the things about working at home is how silent it gets during the day sometimes, and today, all I could hear all day was "crunch crunch crunch" of the tires on the crusted ice and snow. Every once in a while broken by the sound of chains clanking.

[wolffire.livejournal.com]

If you are stuck without power and need to get warm or to connect to the InterWeb, call me. [knocks wood] So far, we have not lost power or heat or anything this winter. M'k?

hugs!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

That had never occurred to me! It's a very generous offer and if this happens again, I will have to call you. Maybe I can bring the laptop over and feed off your wireless. ;-)

The funny thing is that I didn't even know until days later that the Admiral district didn't lose power in the big storm. It's hard when you have no idea what's happening elsewhere, and yesterday I couldn't find any info anywhere about what was happening and the City Light phones were busy. When I finally got through, it was shortly before the power came back. You're -- no pun intended -- totally in the dark when it happens! But I have your number in my cell phone. ;-)

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

For a less drastic solution, you could move closer to downtown Seattle. I live on First Hill, haven't lost power once, and the snow pretty much all blew away.

Seattle is 247th on the list of weather variability, out of 270 major cities in the US. San Francisco is #270.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Is that good or bad? Do you want to be high on the list, or low?

Unfortunately, no moving for me -- I don't think I could afford a house closer to in city than I already am. And the ironic thing is that the chi-chi area of West Seattle doesn't seem to ever lose power... yeah.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Well, I prefer low variability. That means that your weather is pretty much the same year round, without many huge storms or big surprises.

I like Seattle weather! Warm winters, cool summers, a steady year-round drizzle. This is the first time in years I've had to break out my winter coat.