Tag: electricity

Power outage

We decided to go to Galveston for the rest of the weekend, because Airbnb had some affordable places that normally cost loads more (likely because they weren’t rented already for the weekend, and today was Saturday already). Also, we wanted to take advantage of the extra time off work for me, and go spend some time together intentionally.

So, we came to Galveston. Just after we placed our meal orders for dinner, enjoying our appetizer of queso flameado, as well as the house frozen margarita that had just been placed on our table, the power went out.

It turned out that the whole portion of the island had lost power, and it didn’t seem like it was coming back too quickly. So, after about ten minutes, we had finished our queso and some final chips with salsa (not to mention that it was getting cold in there), and the rest of our food couldn’t be made until the power came back, since the oven wasn’t working. We decided to take our drinks to go, finished dinner at a gumbo place in another neighborhood, and headed home. Fortunately, as we had confirmed with the original outage look-up, the Airbnb was not part of the outage.

Funny bit, though, was that we sat at the bar for the gumbo place, and Wheel of Fortune was on. One of the puzzles was “Brief Power Outage”. We chucked at that one.

Anyway, we’re exhausted, so going to sleep just after nine right now. Goodnight!

Thank you, God, for our safety. Keep us safe and well and in your hands. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

A change in plans

Today, I got to experience flying in a small airplane on a hot and clear day – loads of, basically, constant turbulence; high crosswinds with crazy-high gusts that made landing quite difficult and had several planes look insane as they were landing (successfully); an unidentified malfunction of the flaps – those help you slow down when landing, as I understand it – that prevented us from landing with those gusts, multiple times; the discovery that that malfunction was related to power… as all the plane’s electrical power eventually disappeared while in the air – remember that the engine still is running, just nothing else works, including the com system; navigating with no modern electrical airplane tools; and landing at a towered airport without radioing the tower, and, instead, by telephoning someone on the ground to let the tower know we have no power, and getting the all-clear from the tower through that person.

We never actually got to stop at the fly-in event we were going in the first place to attend, but we got to where we apparently needed to be today. Talk about a nutso flight… we certainly had it today! But I am extremely proud of my man and grateful for his passion and dedication to learning and practicing what he needed to learn and practice in order to handle it all safely and efficiently today. I mean, sure, I was definitely crying… a lot…, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t handling each situation well. That just meant I was terrified, which is really nothing new for me with flying.

(I know, it’s hard to believe, given all of my experience flying all over the world, but I genuinely am nervous and at least a little stressed every time I am preparing to travel by and am traveling by airplane. Walking off that plane and onto solid ground always gives me such immense relief. Seriously.)

Anyway, I prayed a lot today. I was definitely stressed as things were happening, but God and Mary and Jesus and Jude and Joseph of Copertino all came through and kept us safe and, eventually, gave us a safe landing… and on a real runway. (I kid you not, we never said it aloud, but we were both thinking that we were likely about to be emergency landing in one of the many fields we were passing.)

Thank you, God and Jesus and Mary and Jude and Joseph (of Copertino – grazie!), for keeping us safe and bringing us home, safe. Thank you for this training for the both of us. Please, help me to find a call around my man’s flying. And, please, help him always to have safe travels and departures and arrivals, especially for work. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Humpf day

Well, school starts tomorrow. I’m mostly ready for it, I think. Just need to pick some clothes and get there in the morning. Then I’ll have some time to go through what exactly I’ll be doing in my two classes for the day. And I likely will have time to prep everything for Friday, too, and get some done for next week, all before my classes tomorrow.

However, that whole plan of going to bed early, so I can gym and get to school and shower and all…? Well, a massive storm showed up, crazy hard winds and all – 50mph – and rain came down and the power blew out in the neighborhood not five minutes after I got home from the gym to cook dinner this evening. We have one candle. Fortunately, we have a gas stove, so I heated up the leftover food instead of cooking new stuff, and we ate quickly. Now, I’m sitting at the front door, just letting air into the house, because I was having trouble breathing after a little while of no power and lots of breathing from us three – the dog is going nuts, by the way, with all the thunder and lightning. I’m waiting for a lighting setup for the bathroom… I never thought I’d be a ‘generator sort’, but here I am, totally okay with his plan to turn on some lights and a fan. So it goes, so it goes, I guess and suppose. But actually, so it goes…

Anyway, Imma see if I can shower and start heading to bed now. It’s just after eight, now, and the power is estimated to return around 10:15pm. Hopefully, I’ll be already falling asleep by then, and hopefully we’ll have air even sooner than that! Fingers crossed!

Plus, this poor dog… she’s so scared, she can’t tell if she wants to curl up next to me, follow him around, or curl up inside that mailbox… (Note: She would not fit inside that mailbox, but she certainly keeps looking at it like she is considering finding out!)

Dear God, please, help me to rest well and fully tonight, so that I might do a great and effective job with school and everything else tomorrow. Help me to pursue and fulfill your will. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. We got an update, and it is unfortunate. The number of houses near us without power went down, and our estimated restoration time for the remaining houses now shows as 11am… ugh… Okay, God. Thank you for this opportunity. I accept. Goodnight. Be blessed. Bless us, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2022

Are the satellites even out there?

Okay. Power just went out at 7:58pm. Not sure what the deal is or for how long the power will be out. I had stopped to play guitar for a bit just now, and was thoroughly enjoying it. The plan was to do at least one more category of tidying – letter-writing materials and tools – if not two – also Japanese art supplies. However, I will do neither tonight. I pulled out the rest of everything (I think, but will do a final check in the morning) for the letter-related stuff just now, after lighting two candles.

I’m hoping the water pressure will return in the very, very near future – I prefer flushing the toilet to pouring water into it. I was contemplating this all earlier, how we are what is call a first-world country. That involves civility, – lacking a lot this year with all the violence and hatred from both ends of the spectrum – electricity, – just over 57% of Houston has no power – and clean drinking water – a huge chunk of Houston has no water at all. So, it seems we have gone this year from a first-world country to …. what? Pathetically incapable of being self-sufficient? Utterly miserable due to our reliance on being a first-world country? Yes, I suppose. Yes, indeed.

Well, the satellites surrounding or planet are still allowing a signal through this phone, so I shall finish this business while that connection still exists.

May we all have calming, healing, empowering, and magic-like nights tonight, that we may awaken rejuvenated and filled with light and love. And dear Lord, please allow us to have that include electricity and running, clean water.

Gratitude. 🙏

Post-a-day 2021

^Easy peasy this time, for some reason 😛

Are the satellites even out there?

Okay. Power just went out at 7:58pm. Not sure what the deal is or for how long the power will be out. I had stopped to play guitar for a bit just now, and was thoroughly enjoying it. The plan was to do at least one more category of tidying – letter-writing materials and tools – if not two – also Japanese art supplies. However, I will do neither tonight. I pulled out the rest of everything (I think, but will do a final check in the morning) for the letter-related stuff just now, after lighting two candles.

I’m hoping the water pressure will return in the very, very near future – I prefer flushing the toilet to pouring water into it. I was contemplating this all earlier, how we are what is call a first-world country. That involves civility, – lacking a lot this year with all the violence and hatred from both ends of the spectrum – electricity, – just over 57% of Houston has no power – and clean drinking water – a huge chunk of Houston has no water at all. So, it seems we have gone this year from a first-world country to …. what? Pathetically incapable of being self-sufficient? Utterly miserable due to our reliance on being a first-world country? Yes, I suppose. Yes, indeed.

Well, the satellites surrounding or planet are still allowing a signal through this phone, so I shall finish this business while that connection still exists.

May we all have calming, healing, empowering, and magic-like nights tonight, that we may awaken rejuvenated and filled with light and love. And dear Lord, please allow us to have that include electricity and running, clean water.

Gratitude. 🙏

Post-a-day 2021

^Easy peasy this time, for some reason 😛

Forward thinking

The problem with everything being automated, electronic, is that, as I have said many times before, when the power goes out, not only can you not see the toilet, but you can’t really use/flush the toilet, and you can’t even wash your hands afterward… which gets really terrible in a building filled with a thousand-ish high school girls…. even if the power is out for a short time.

But we live in Houston, Texas, where hurricanes take out power for days just about every year in the late summer and early fall.

Forward thinking, to me, doesn’t just mean going digital and automatic/electronic/whatever… it’s about actually thinking through things…

Post-a-day 2018

The insignificant significant thought

Thought for the day, which can be answered easily by either asking a friend of mine or by doing some very quick research: I wonder when houses switched from having air vents be on the floor to having them be on the ceiling, and why – sure, cool air falls, but heat still rises…, so it makes sense (in a way) to have heat vents on the floor and cool vents on the ceiling, instead of just one location for both.

Post-a-day 2018