New, Fabulous Ure Crackpot theory time!
Lookie here: I don’t know if the moon going Void of Course on December 18th has anything to do with things, but this week has turned into a real crap-storm of “best laid plans of mice and…”
The the big puddle-dumper (and now 43-people dead if our reader clicking the counter hasn’t missed anyone) has thoroughly screwed up the idyllic life here in the woods at Uretopia.
For one, during the storm we had a big power outage. How big, exactly? Well, big enough to wipe out an inverter on the back-up power system, getting past a big-ass surge suppression system (and did I mention my EMP preps?) when the power came back on.
Well, now we get into a story of cascading failures.
You see, on that leg of the AC power in the shop/office is a branch off to run the back-up well pump and the small freezer for the things in our long-term storage that need to be kept frozen. Granted, there’s not much, but there is Panama’s stash of used-to-be-frozen Belgium Waffles, too…
So when the power came back up, the obvious thing to do would be pull the output line off the inverter, wire in a big herc’ing plug kept for just such emergencies…and then plug the former inverter output into the the former inverter input (which transits a 20-amp outlet box purpose-made by the designated system designer. (Yeah, me.)
Well, fine…it all worked…for about 30 minutes. The wireless router for the office came up (the satellite router is on hot UPS power and never goes away, at least for several hours).
The CLICK! A heard – so much as seen– there was a flash of light from a nondescript location in the office and the breaker, now feeding this part of the office (being jumped around the inverter) fails.
Well, crap.
So I click back through all the things that could go wrong and it occurs to me that it might have something to do with running over the schedule 40 buried conduit that takes power from the office and runs 20-feet underground over to the former wood crib, to which we added a roof and tons of insulation – where the freezer is housed.
With power off, I ohmed things out at that end, but even with the follow-on leg (up to the greenhouse) disconnected, I found myself total screwed.
Night before last I was arguing with myself about cutting the cable at the conduit inlet (which would give me occasion to install a waterproof outdoor outlet that I nave no use for) so I decided to have a glass of Grandpa George’s Scottish Cure and think about things.
No, nothing wrong with Sched. 40 buried a foot…so it MUST be something else. My infallible engineering doesn’t fail that easily.
As soon as Peoplenomics was done (disengage economic brain, re-fire the electrical engineer brain) it occurred to me that something in the office might be at fault…
So I pulled everything in my office off the circuit and by God, it held.
About here, although my beard is too short for real beard-stroking, I sat down and have a cup of hot soup.. .since in the midst of working on the inverter in 35-degree weather, I wrenched my back (lower left) and it hurts like hell. Where’s my Oxy dealer, when I need him, right?
Finally, with Elaine looking on, I started plugging things back in, one at a time and sonofagun if it didn’t turn out to be one of those three Sceptre 246X-1080 24” LED monitors that I had explained in a Peoplenomics article (or here, mind is going) about how cool it is to refurb old electronics by replacing the capacitors in the power supplies.
Except that was a year to 18-months back (calendars and I aren’t on good terms…especially today)…and it was time for one of them to fail again.
How, exactly, I don’t know. That falls down the “To do” list. I can get by with two monitors.
Knowing that the inverter was going to need a trip to the doctor’s office, I decided to give it one more test as I was getting ready to box it up.
Just as I was doing this, all of a sudden (I can’t make this stuff up) there is a gentle pushing on my butt as I’m bent over in the king of all awkwardness positions.
One of my neighbors has a 6-month lab pup (nice dog, actually) but as young dogs will sniff the damnedest places. This one decided to sniff Mr. Ure’s hindquarter while I was regaining my balance I got a small nick of 110.
It was a small nick because a) always wear rubber soled shoes when working power and b) (even if the disturbance behind you is a SWAT team or s a busload of bath house refugees) you have to maintain the presence of mind to grab things only with one hand while violently turning to confront whatever – even when most everything is off. It was trivial but a reminder. It didn’t even come close to my personal best (1,200 volts and waking up across the room but that was 40-years ago…).
No OSHA lecture please. I’m incredibly safe – I just hadn’t figured on dog-nose in my butt as part of my planning….go easy pard.
Are you starting to get a sense of how things went Wednesday? Wonder why I don’t like dogs wandering around which inevitably wander into the shop if I leave a door ajar? I mean above and beyond stepping in surprises when working in the yard…
Here’s another joyful slice of Wednesday:
Needed to fly airplane to get the oil change signed off by our mechanic. Called a neighbor to go flying. No soap – working on roof.
Hmmm… odd. Usually there’s a line of people anxious to go flying…but not this week.
Elaine offered to go …way cool!
As we’re heading out the door, the mechanic called from a distant airport – the parts for a job at Palestine hadn’t come in and so as a result, he would not be able to meet us at the field.
Question: Do I spent 3-hours and $100 of gas and wear and tear to fly a check and the log books to the mechanic or push that back for a few days?
Pushed. (Assigning actual costs to things makes decision-making easy. Remember that…)
Wednesday also brought an event to Panama, my bro-in-law whose bad luck is legendary. He reported his hot water heat at gone Tango Uniform.
By the time I heard about it (I was playing Edison, remember?) he’d already ripped the covering counter off the 20-gallon water heater for his shower…he was thinking about replacing it….
OMG! All that needed happen was to reset the GFI!
Except – and here’s where Ure’s Luck kicked in – over-riding the Bates Luck – a plug on the top of the tank was moist and needed to have some thread-teflon and retightening or THAT would have been a future disaster lurking for another event cluster.
Sometimes things work out. Reset GFI, hot water followed.
At last, to the point: There may be a point to my ramble here.
I may have to send a note to our consulting Astrologer – because when Moon goes Void of Course on the 18th for Pieces/Pisces, what the hell is everything going to crap on Tuesday for?
Even my friend Gaye over at BackDoorSurvival.com was having website issues…something was definitely going on. She did get her prepper book festival underway, though. But it was strange how the crap piled up not only here but there…. Her issues turned out to be a DoS attack on her cloud hosting outfit that made her site extremely slow for a couple of hours. But again – all time on waste-directed tasks…instead of productive/forward-moving tasks. Sheesh.
Did I mention one of us (likely me) left a car door open and the battery needed a 12-hour charge – also in this period? This is the kind of thing that never happens around here.
Or that three computers here all decided to act up and not log onto the ‘net for a variety of reasons?
EXCEPT: The Moon went Void of Course for Leo exactly when the crappola was shaking out all over the place.
SO: What we have derived from this is the learning that despite being born under the Fish sign, Leo apparently rules electricity – and I must have a monster aspect of Leo in Pisces because of the key role electricity has played in my life.
It’s something to think about when you’re looking at periods in your life when crap is blowing up all around you.
Just remain centered, so the Miracle Money Technique and look for the Void of Course lunar land mines.
First thing you know, a New Year will arrive…
On that note, thank you for a wonderful year…especially our Peoplenomics.com readers who keep the lights on for both UrbanSurvival and the Peoplenomics site.
See you next year – and why not take the rest of the year off? Go ahead – call in well.
Except tomorrow Virgo goes Void of Course and since that’s an Earth sign, that might fit with something like a major….oh, let’s save that till next year, shall we?
Write when you break (or break-even)
George george@ure.net
PS: As the sun went down last night, one of the buck deer that seek shelter from the annual rerun of Tet (deer season) wandered past the sun room. Eight points, he leisurely walked up to the garden.
To me it was a hugely Important Sign from Universe: Maybe the Buck does stop here. Or, we should expect more bucks in 2016…