Post by papaof2 on Mar 14, 2021 20:54:01 GMT -6
My muse isn't doing much for the longer stories, but she does occasionally have a spark of an idea. Here's the most recent one, complete in one post.
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Thursday, 25 September 2025, 19:20
"Hey, Jack! You have power back?"
"Brian, I don't want to say that's a stupid question, but do you think I'd be working out here using this little LED head light if I had power for the 500 watt yard light?"
"I guess not but Ginny said your kitchen window was lit earlier."
"We used the solar charged lights that live in the windows on the South side of the house while we cooked…"
"You can cook with the power off?"
"Natural gas stove plus a spark lighter means the cooktop works. Rechargeable LED light with a magnet base that sticks to the side of the over-the-range microwave oven and lights the cooktop. The oven's ignitor is electric, 380 watts worth, so our cooking was a pot of chowder cooked on one burner and something we can eat on for several days."
"We're all-electric so we can't cook."
"You have gas for the grill on your deck?"
"I think so."
"Then you can grill and you can cook on the side burner."
"Oh. I guess we can. What about power for the fridge?"
"I brought the little fridge up from the basement. It's only 4.4 cubic feet but it will run on the - as you once described it - 'toy solar system'."
"Ouch! Guess I did put my foot in my mouth since I was going to ask about power for our big fridge/freezer. If you're only using the little fridge, you're truthful about having 'limited' solar power."
"That would be correct. I do power up the U-verse router for five minutes a couple of times a day to see if phone, internet or TV has been restored but it doesn't stay on. Same for the cell phones. I keep them charged but I only power one up for two minutes every few hours. If the cell system comes back up, it should have any texts that were sent and maybe a list of missed calls."
"You can live without phones and the internet?"
"Brian, do you remember what I do since I retired?"
"You write books. Without power?"
"Using the right DC-DC adaptor to power the laptop only uses 15 watts from the batteries. I can write for several hours with little impact on other things. I can read on the tablet with even less power use. My hands are a bit old to be doing much typing on a tablet-size keyboard."
"What about the week of rain that's in the forecast? Won't that kill the solar power?"
"That will impact solar but I have a small generator…"
"Generator, Jack? I could run the house on it?"
"Brian, keyword of 'small'. It can power the small fridge and recharge the batteries on less than a half gallon of gas per day. It won't run your fridge, freezer, 85 inch TV and central heat. If it was that big, where would you get 30 gallons of gas each week?"
"The Chevron station? They had lights on yesterday."
"Did you check their prices?"
"No."
"Well, a week into this outage they seem to think gasoline is almost worth its weight in gold. How about $7.99 per gallon for unleaded regular? That's about $240 per week for gas for a generator that could power all those things. Remember that with the internet down they're cash only."
"How much gas do you have stored?"
"Mostly what's in our vehicles."
"I think you do 'fill at half tank' so I'll guess maybe 20-25 gallons. Maybe a month and a half of rainy days, Jack?"
"Maybe."
"Then what will you do?"
"How many people will run out of food in a month with the grocery stores all closed or looted?"
"Most of us."
"How many of those will load everything they can into one vehicle and go home to Momma?"
"Many at the apartment complex near the state highway. Maybe a third of those near us. Oh… there will be abandoned vehicles with gas in them."
"And some of those vehicles will have a battery that's still useful."
"You can expand the size of your battery bank!"
"Correct. I can drain the gas and remove the batteries without doing any damage to the vehicles. If those people don't return for a year or more, they'd need to replace the gas and the battery anyway. Most of those batteries are likely to be flooded lead-acid instead of the AGM batteries on the solar system but I can configure a solar charge controller for those batteries and use just one panel to charge them for powering the lowest power and lowest usage items, such as the U-verse router."
"What will you do for heat if the power's still off next month as one estimate has it?"
"If the natural gas is still working - and that might be a big if, the gas logs in the family room fireplace are totally battery operated; the remote control AND the gas valve run on batteries so they always work and I have a stock of rechargeable batteries. If we don't have natural gas, those logs also have an input for propane so I could run a line in and use the 20lb tanks from the grill. In that case, we'd be closing off most of the house and only heating a small space. If I can't get more propane, I can run the generator long enough to power an angle grinder and a wire welder to make one of those propane tanks into a small wood stove that will fit inside the fireplace. Again, that means closing off most of the house."
"How can you be so calm about this?"
"We have shelter. We have water from rain collection even if County Water fails. We long ago adapted to once-a-month paychecks by keeping a multi-week pantry of food, cleaning products and so forth. We have options for cooking, including a rocket stove. We could live in one room if we had to. If we don't have heat, I could put up a small tent inside the house and put a mattress in that tent to have a warm place to sleep. I'm also armed to protect those things. What's there to not be calm about?"
"Maybe that I didn't listen to any of the things you've said about being able to take care of myself in the five years we've been neighbors? I'll guess that my income is at least triple yours yet you have ten times more 'taking care of me' things than I do. You have said 'Get your priorities in order' more than once."
"I probably have. Want some leftover chowder? It's still warm."
"What'll it cost me?"
"Time helping me clean up the mess left from having four stumps ground and their roots removed."
"Sounds good to me. First thing tomorrow?"
"I don't get up that early most days. Say 10AM and I'll include lunch."
"I'll be here!"
-----------------------------
Thursday, 25 September 2025, 19:20
"Hey, Jack! You have power back?"
"Brian, I don't want to say that's a stupid question, but do you think I'd be working out here using this little LED head light if I had power for the 500 watt yard light?"
"I guess not but Ginny said your kitchen window was lit earlier."
"We used the solar charged lights that live in the windows on the South side of the house while we cooked…"
"You can cook with the power off?"
"Natural gas stove plus a spark lighter means the cooktop works. Rechargeable LED light with a magnet base that sticks to the side of the over-the-range microwave oven and lights the cooktop. The oven's ignitor is electric, 380 watts worth, so our cooking was a pot of chowder cooked on one burner and something we can eat on for several days."
"We're all-electric so we can't cook."
"You have gas for the grill on your deck?"
"I think so."
"Then you can grill and you can cook on the side burner."
"Oh. I guess we can. What about power for the fridge?"
"I brought the little fridge up from the basement. It's only 4.4 cubic feet but it will run on the - as you once described it - 'toy solar system'."
"Ouch! Guess I did put my foot in my mouth since I was going to ask about power for our big fridge/freezer. If you're only using the little fridge, you're truthful about having 'limited' solar power."
"That would be correct. I do power up the U-verse router for five minutes a couple of times a day to see if phone, internet or TV has been restored but it doesn't stay on. Same for the cell phones. I keep them charged but I only power one up for two minutes every few hours. If the cell system comes back up, it should have any texts that were sent and maybe a list of missed calls."
"You can live without phones and the internet?"
"Brian, do you remember what I do since I retired?"
"You write books. Without power?"
"Using the right DC-DC adaptor to power the laptop only uses 15 watts from the batteries. I can write for several hours with little impact on other things. I can read on the tablet with even less power use. My hands are a bit old to be doing much typing on a tablet-size keyboard."
"What about the week of rain that's in the forecast? Won't that kill the solar power?"
"That will impact solar but I have a small generator…"
"Generator, Jack? I could run the house on it?"
"Brian, keyword of 'small'. It can power the small fridge and recharge the batteries on less than a half gallon of gas per day. It won't run your fridge, freezer, 85 inch TV and central heat. If it was that big, where would you get 30 gallons of gas each week?"
"The Chevron station? They had lights on yesterday."
"Did you check their prices?"
"No."
"Well, a week into this outage they seem to think gasoline is almost worth its weight in gold. How about $7.99 per gallon for unleaded regular? That's about $240 per week for gas for a generator that could power all those things. Remember that with the internet down they're cash only."
"How much gas do you have stored?"
"Mostly what's in our vehicles."
"I think you do 'fill at half tank' so I'll guess maybe 20-25 gallons. Maybe a month and a half of rainy days, Jack?"
"Maybe."
"Then what will you do?"
"How many people will run out of food in a month with the grocery stores all closed or looted?"
"Most of us."
"How many of those will load everything they can into one vehicle and go home to Momma?"
"Many at the apartment complex near the state highway. Maybe a third of those near us. Oh… there will be abandoned vehicles with gas in them."
"And some of those vehicles will have a battery that's still useful."
"You can expand the size of your battery bank!"
"Correct. I can drain the gas and remove the batteries without doing any damage to the vehicles. If those people don't return for a year or more, they'd need to replace the gas and the battery anyway. Most of those batteries are likely to be flooded lead-acid instead of the AGM batteries on the solar system but I can configure a solar charge controller for those batteries and use just one panel to charge them for powering the lowest power and lowest usage items, such as the U-verse router."
"What will you do for heat if the power's still off next month as one estimate has it?"
"If the natural gas is still working - and that might be a big if, the gas logs in the family room fireplace are totally battery operated; the remote control AND the gas valve run on batteries so they always work and I have a stock of rechargeable batteries. If we don't have natural gas, those logs also have an input for propane so I could run a line in and use the 20lb tanks from the grill. In that case, we'd be closing off most of the house and only heating a small space. If I can't get more propane, I can run the generator long enough to power an angle grinder and a wire welder to make one of those propane tanks into a small wood stove that will fit inside the fireplace. Again, that means closing off most of the house."
"How can you be so calm about this?"
"We have shelter. We have water from rain collection even if County Water fails. We long ago adapted to once-a-month paychecks by keeping a multi-week pantry of food, cleaning products and so forth. We have options for cooking, including a rocket stove. We could live in one room if we had to. If we don't have heat, I could put up a small tent inside the house and put a mattress in that tent to have a warm place to sleep. I'm also armed to protect those things. What's there to not be calm about?"
"Maybe that I didn't listen to any of the things you've said about being able to take care of myself in the five years we've been neighbors? I'll guess that my income is at least triple yours yet you have ten times more 'taking care of me' things than I do. You have said 'Get your priorities in order' more than once."
"I probably have. Want some leftover chowder? It's still warm."
"What'll it cost me?"
"Time helping me clean up the mess left from having four stumps ground and their roots removed."
"Sounds good to me. First thing tomorrow?"
"I don't get up that early most days. Say 10AM and I'll include lunch."
"I'll be here!"
