I Hate Being Old

[papaof2]

Last story in my pipeline.  My muse dropped "Dark Days" (the "Nuke" chapter) and started this story rather urgently on 14 December - with almost 9200 words that day, 5800 words the next day and 3700 words the next.  In the ensuing week, there were days of 3200 and 2200 words - very rare that I get 24,000 words of inspiration in 7 days.  Maybe she was trying to give me a Christmas present or make up for dropping "Dark Days"?

No promises of when a new tale might turn up after this one is posted, as there are only bits and pieces in my notes about some future might-be-a-story ideas.  Sometimes the "bits and pieces" do become a story ("The Waif" started with a 10 second event in the real world and "In The Dark" started with a prop-driven plane coming over the house low and loud) but there's nothing currently close to "Ready for prime time".

This is 39K words, so about 2/3 of novel length.  There's at least one cliffhanger chapter ;-)

[papaof2]

Chapter 1


Monday, 12 December, 19:30


I hate being old - and my idiot doctor is too afraid of the "Drug Nazis" to prescribe anything more than a strong NSAID for the almost debilitating pain in my lower back and hip - even after last year's diagnosis of problems with red and white blood cell production and him taking me off even the daily aspirin for my heart.  Each tablet of that prescription NSAID has to be the equivalent of a week's worth of aspirin in its effects on my blood counts.  Better than being in pain when sitting or lying down I guess, but I could do without the "waking up tired every day" side effect.  Just another week of that med and then it'll only take this ancient body a month to two to get back to my eighth-decade version of "normal".  

Tonight's forecast is for a low at or below freezing so I should turn on the humidifier in this room and give it a bit of a head start on the overnight dryness from the furnace running long enough to keep up with the cold.  Better to start that now than to wake up with my sinuses dry and my throat scratchy.  


Click!


No response?  It worked two days ago and the transparent reservoir shows that it still has plenty of distilled water in it.  Did someone unplug it?  Follow the cord around to the back of the pure sine wave UPS and it's plugged in.  Bad outlet on the UPS?  Try another unbacked outlet: no change.  Now an outlet with backup: still no response.  The 50" TV is playing along happily on its outlet with backup on that UPS, therefore the problem is localized to the humidifier.  

Is it worth disassembling that unit this late in the day?  I may be standing ten minutes to work on it and then taking a twenty minute break stretched out on the sofa before spending another ten minutes working on it, but better to have it than to not sleep well.  Get some tools, including a digital multimeter (the ones Harbor Freight used to give away had an internal calibration control and they could be calibrated accurately on the twenty volt scale and be very useful when working on "12 volt" equipment - including small solar systems).  

I have two small solar systems, both designed and built by me and both still running as designed four years later.  The smallest system provides lighting in the equipment shed (mowers, leaf blower, string trimmer, generator, gas cans, kerosene cans) for the maybe thirty minutes a day someone is inside the shed one or two days a week.  $200 for parts was much cheaper than paying an electrician for tunneling under a concrete driveway to have grid power for that small amount of use.  The other solar system is my "Wait until daylight" system for lights, fridge, freezer and gas-fired furnace.  I have had one or more gasoline generators for years but the last relatively long outage (twelve hours) had me outside in the dark shovelling seven inches of snow to get a generator out of the shed and get that generator started in the cold.  This old body needed a better way than shovelling snow in the cold and dark - so I researched small solar power systems and found that I could build my own cheaper than I could buy an equivalent unit.  In 2017, the Goal Zero Yeti 1250 with two 30 watt solar panels was about $2000.  For just few dollars more, my system has 1600 watts of solar panels, a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter (instead of the Yeti's 1250 watt unit) - plus a spare inverter - and four times the battery capacity of the Yeti.  My system isn't portable but it provides eight to twenty hours of backup power depending on the season so I'm not out in the dark shovelling snow - thus the description "Wait until daylight."  No, I'm not "chasing rabbits"; we're having what one college professor called a "learned digression" ;-)

Back to the humidifier.  It's unplugged, so take off the "spout" that directs the ultrasonically created water vapor and then lift the reser...  The reservoir isn't fully seated?  Did someone bump the humidifier when vacuuming?  No other reason for it to have been touched since the reservoir is almost full.  OK, reservoir correctly seated so spout back in place and put the plug back where it started.


Click!  whirrr.


And we have a small cloud exiting the spout as it should be.  That was a much easier fix than I expected.  What will break now to make up for that easy fi...


BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!


That has to be the smoke/CO alarm at the bottom of the stairs to the basement.  I'm already complaining about my body and that's sixteen steps down and another sixteen steps back up?  Better get on with it.


No visible smoke and the metered CO detector I brought down with me is displaying a big fat "0" so what's going on?  Furnace or water heater?  The furnace is about 8 years older than the water heater so check it first (P-Touch labels go on those things the day they are installed so you know when they were installed and what company installed them).  OK, don't see or smell anything so maybe back up the stairs to turn the thermostat up...


click.  whir.


Thank you, thermostat, for reading my mind and saving me a trip up and down the stairs...


Pop!


BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!  BEEP!BEEP!


Grab a book from the preparedness bookcase and fan that puff of smoke from the combustion air inlet away from the smoke alarm.  Ah, the silence is much better.

That's odd.  It should be impossible for a induced draft furnace (some say it has a "combustion blower") to have the equivalent of a backfire - but that blower didn't sound like it was up to full speed before the "Pop!" so maybe look there?  Is it possible that's an event that "should never happen" and they don't track it?  I hope not.

What's my plan?  Back up the stairs and move the thermostat from "Heat" to "Off" to ensure the furnace doesn't try to start again.  Then back down here and take off the furnace's covers to check for anything obvious - although the diagnostic display on the controller board should have an error number.  Pretty sure I have the PDF of the furnace manual on my laptop so I'll open that file and check the possible error codes - Maybe print that list? - before I come back down.  The smoke alarm shouldn't do its "BEEP!BEEP!" again if the thermostat is off, so "How To Build An Outhouse" from the Storey Basics collection can go back in that bookcase as I go to the stairs.


---


All that is done and I have the paper list of error codes as I head down the stairs with tools.  Drill/driver with a fresh battery and a 5/16" socket to get the screws out and back in without stressing these old hands.  A few "Zip! Zip!" and the screws are out and in a magnetic screw tray.  Covers off and what can the controller tell me?  The numeric error code is "72".  OK, paper error list shows any two-digit code starting with a "7" is related to the forced induction.  "72" is "Induction Fan failure/low air flow".  That's not a problem I'm likely to be able to fix tonight as the air inlet's screened cover is clear of any obstructions.  Note the part number on the fan - I always have pen and paper in my pocket when I'm troubleshooting - put the covers back on the furnace and then out to the shed (I'll be using those solar-charged lights for a few minutes ;-) to get a 2.5 gallon jug of kerosene.  Get the jug of kero upstairs and then get me to the garage to retrieve the kerosene heater.  I should open one garage door and use the battery-powered leaf blower to do a heavy duty dusting of the kero heater before I take it to the screened porch and fill its tank with kerosene.  In a few minutes, all that's done.

The heater won't be running while I'm asleep but I can turn it up all the way right now and use the ceiling fan in the kitchen to warm the ceramic tile floor and a small fan sitting on the counter to blow some warm air down the hall to the bedroom.  I should also turn on the gas logs in the masonry fireplace in the family room - once that ton of brick and mortar is warm, the room stays warm for a long time.  Since it seems I'll be using a "manual" thermostat - Are my hands cold enough to justify more heat? - for a number of days while waiting for the replacement fan, I need to get in the habit of "making deposits" in the "heat banks" before I turn that heat off at night.

Now to my laptop to search online for the fan's part number.  OK, I have three links for Amazon, four for eBay, and two for appliance parts houses.  Who has the best combination of price plus delivery?  

Looks like Amazon vendor number two, as they're within a few dollars of the lowest price but they guarantee delivery in four days while all the others say a week or more.  More $$ than I wanted to invest in a ten-year-old furnace but cheaper than replacing the furnace - by a zero or two.  The "Comments" section on that page does have most people replacing the original fan at age five or six which means I lucked out with the life of this fan - but I think that should have been 20 years.  Bad engineering by Amana or poor choice of original supplier for that fan?  That's an answer I'm not likely to get.  Maybe I should double the order to have a spare fan for five or six years from now?  

That amended order is in and I should put a note on the thermostat about why it's off in case the better half comes back from seeing the new great-granddaughter sooner than she planned to.  I'm not traveling that far by car because it hurts too much to be sitting in one position that long.  The kids and grands - and the first great-grand - will be here for Christmas and then I can see Kelly - who may have my hair and eyes - without the long drive.  Furnace note done, complete with the expected delivery date of the replacement fans.

What's the temperature in the kitchen?  72F.  That's fine.  I can peel off the overshirt and be very comfy and the fan on the counter is keeping the bedroom at 66F.  Out by the fireplace, it's 73F so time to turn the gas logs off until the room drops to 70F - probably more than an hour.  The rooms need to be a little warmer than usual now because there will be no heat overnight.


Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!


That's the SAME weather radio.  What watch/warning are we under now?


'This is the National Weather Service with a Winter Storm Emergency...'


'Emergency'?  Isn't the word they use when a tornado is on the ground and headed for you?  What's the rest of it?  I'm certain they will repeat this message.


'...orm Emergency for the following counties: Cherokee, Cochise, Dekalb, Eastman, Greene, Harrison, and Madison.  Tonight's precipitation will be freezing rain and sleet starting by 10PM, changing to snow by 4AM.  Freezing rain accumulation of one half to one inch.  Snow accumulation of four to eight inches...'


That's all I need to hear.  It's cold.  It will be colder.  People are now mobbing the grocery stores for bread, milk and eggs because they won't be able to go anywhere tomorrow - possibly several "tomorrows" if we get eight inches of snow in an area that rarely sees more than three inches.  Based on historic weather events, I should at least double their freezing rain guess and, for the moment, I'll accept the snow forecast - it sounds more realistic than the "one half to one inch of snow on grassy surfaces" forecast of a few years back.  One TV weather-guesser laughed on-air at the model that predicted eight inches for that storm - he should have paid attention, as I measured seven inches here (and have the pictures to back that claim) and other places in Madison County had as much as twelve inches.  We, along with hundreds of others, were without commercial power for twelve hours although some were in the dark - and the cold, as few have any type of backup power - for much longer.  

This house is two miles of tree-lined roads from the electric co-op's substation so I should expect to be without power no later than noon tomorrow - possibly sooner with the potential amount of freezing rain.  What do I need to do?  Well, alternate heating is already in place and we're good with the gas logs for as long as the local natural gas company can get it to us.  The kerosene heater has fuel for maybe two weeks based on my estimate of the gallons of kero when I was in the shed.  Then there's the 1600 watt inverter generator.  I can run it for three hours morning and evening to keep the solar system's battery bank charged while we're sunless and snow covered, so the alternate power for fridge, freezer and a few fans to move heat around is also good for two weeks and then I can tap the full tank on my tru...


Deedleet!  Deedleet!


That's Sarah's ring.


'Yes, Love?'

'Jack, you have probably already guessed that I won't be on the road in the ice and snow.'

'You're an intelligent person, Sarah, so I was expecting you to call.  Besides, the furnace died tonight and the replacement part is four days away - I guess that's now four days after the roads are cleared.'

'What are you doing for heat?'

'The usual: kerosene heater plus gas logs.  Not really any different than the January the furnace died the first time, other than the ice and snow - and the forecast is a bit warmer.'

'Power status?'

'Fine now and no flickers yet.'

'The 'yet' because you expect the freezing rain to put you in the dark soon?'

'Probably no later than noon tomorrow.'

'Historically accurate if you double the ice accumulation.'

'That's what I did.  And our new great-grand?'

'Your eyes and hair, like her mother, who just might have been your favorite grandchild for some reason.  I'll wait a year or two before I say Kelly looks just like Karen.'

'"Favorite grandchild" might be related to us having raised Karen after Ann died in childbirth and Eddie said "I don't know nothin' about babies" and ran off to join the Army.  I spoke with the recruiter and he said that Eddie had told him "I want some place they'll be shooting at me" so I think he never got over his guilt of getting Ann pregnant - even if that is what newlyweds often do.  He did list Karen as a dependent so she got monthly support and then the proceeds of his life insurance that went into her future college fund.  We both know that early evaluations of "looks like" are always subject to the "middle school face/body event" when the kids don't look like anyone in the family.'

'That too.  Ask me when she's fourteen.'

'By then, even I will have noticed whether she looks like me.'

'You're not that dense, Jack - probably a year or five sooner.  See you when the roads are clear.'

'That's fine.  Plan on a week or ten days - possibly longer if the snow hits eight inches or more.'

'I remember when we had twelve inches in the county - more than a week for us to get out, two weeks for some other places.  I'm happy to stay where the overnight low is predicted to be 44F.'

'And where's there's a new baby to cuddle.  You do that.  Love you.'

'Love you too.'


She is and will be safe, so back to my planning for being in the dark but this time planning in ink on paper.  A few minutes and that's done.  I've also located a gas station with a kero pump and a much better price than the $9/gallon - and UP - at Walmart or Lowes.  That's a "maybe" which will only be needed if the shipping for the replacement blower takes more than two weeks but I have the station's info and won't be trying to search the internet for kero using the data option on my phone if power is out that long - these old eyes much prefer a 15 inch screen or an 8 1/2 X 11 printed map with store address and expected hours (that paper has a 13.9 inch diagonal, so it's almost a 14 inch "display").


I'm back on the sofa with heating pads on my back and neck.  I'll need to watch the temperature in the room as my torso will be warm from the external heat sources but those things don't warm my hands or feet much.  I should get out some wool socks for tomorrow and the fingerless computer gloves for my hands.  Not needed tonight but they might be nice in the morning when I won't have a smart thermostat turning the furnace up at 6AM.  Those items can share the bed with me so they'll be warmer than the room is when I wake.  OK, get this creaky body up and put both those things on my pillow and they can go down farther in the bed when I get there.  Back to the sofa and my laptop.

Checking the North camera, the streetlight up that way is gaining a halo.  Do we have fog that wasn't in the forecast or did the rain get an earlier flight?  Pan down and I see that the driveway is wet enough to reflect that light so I'll guess the front edge of the rain is almost two hours early.  Will that be non-freezing rain that might keep the roads warm a little while when the freezing rain and sleet get here?  I should check the leaves on the tree that never sheds all its leaves until March, when they are forced off by new leaves.


I also checked the outside thermometer and it's at 31F, so what I see on those leaves is most likely ice.  Most definitely not a positive for power or transportation when the freezing rain is almost two hours early.  We did spend several thousand dollars getting trees trimmed and removed last year so we're somewhat less likely to wind up with a limb or tree on or through the roof from ice and/or snow.

What's the fuel gauge show on the kero heater?  More than 3/4 of a tank.  That's good.  I never fill it completely because it will run most of a day starting at the just-below-full level and I don't risk overfilling the tank, spilling kerosene and not being able to clean the heater well enough to get rid of the smell.  Plenty of fuel for the next few hours and for its restart in the morning.  I can refill it tomorrow when the gas logs have that room warm so I'll have a warm place to come back to after being outside.  Kerosene heating doesn't smell especially bad IF you light the heater outside and let it warm up and then take it outside to shut it off.  The screened porch is the ideal place for the "fill and light" process with its concrete floor, brick half-wall below the screens and the brick wall of the house all being nearly fireproof.

Will this be the event that has me testing the diesel parking heater?  I did get five gallons of diesel last week when the nearest station's price was $0.40/gallon less than any of the other stations in the area so that was a bargain - today they're the highest price in the immediate area, at least by the price on their electronic sign.  But you only know the true price if you check the pump because they're not consistent with keeping the electronic sign in sync with the diesel pumps - the gasoline gets enough customers to keep the clerk on her/his toes if the prices are incorrect.  I should check online for ways to prevent the stored diesel from gelling - that's expected in even the best diesel blends when the temperature drops to 10F or so.  Mixing it with kerosene is one way - let's see what I can find online.*  Better to be doing this now than after the freezing rain's ice accumulation has reached a quarter inch or more and useful things - such as power and communications - start "going away".


Kerosene is the easiest way of gel prevention because I have a lot of it but it only drops the gel temperature by 3 degrees F for each 10% of kerosene added: 10% for 3 degrees; 50% for 15 degrees.  I have an unused 2.5 gallon can in the shed - I could do a 50/50 mix of diesel and kerosene in that and have almost the 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of the parking heater's fuel tank.  I never store any type of fuel in the house but I may have to make an exception for the diesel if it gets much colder.  

Wish I had thought of this sooner - 4 ounces of HotShot or Pri-Flow is about $6 and can drop the gel point of 16 gallons of diesel by about 30 degrees.  Per the windup clock, the nearest auto parts store has been closed at least 30 minutes and it's not worth the drive to the WalMart that doesn't always have winter diesel additives in stock.  I should go out and mix that first batch of diesel plus kero in case it's needed.  I have a 30 gallon galvanized trash can with snug-fitting lid that would make an acceptable "Flammables cabinet" for a 2.5 or 5 gallon diesel can so those cans could be moved to the basement if needed.


---


It's cold and miserable outside!  Now to get warm again and see what's needed inside.  

I need to check whether I can do a manual run of the furnace blower with that error present.  If I can, running it for five minutes each hour will probably keep part of the water pipes in the basement warm enough to keep them from freezing.  If not, the parking heater might be a solution as the basement only needs to be a few degrees above the currently forecast low to keep the pipes safe.  I should go check whether the manual blower switch still works.


The manual blower switch gets no response, so I'll try an "Edison reset" of removing power from the furnace by turning off its breaker, waiting thirty seconds and then turning it back on.  Back down sixteen steps, breaker off, thirty seconds by the clock down there, breaker on.  Back up sixteen steps, pulling myself hand-over-hand the last few steps.


To the thermostat and the Fan switch to On.  It works!  That also means I should be able to run the blower on the solar backup system.  I'll just need to see if the blower moves enough warm air into the basement to protect the pipes.  That's a test for the morning, when the basement will be its coldest with all the heat having been off on this level and the blower not being run for an extended period.  It's so much nicer when the little electric slaves are available - such as a programmable thermostat and a furnace that works.  

If we lose grid power, I'll need to come up with an equivalent to the ceiling fan in the kitchen - storing heat in that ceramic tile floor is part of having this level and the basement a bit warmer overnight.  Where did I store that twelve volt "RV ceiling fan"?  I think I know which tote it's in.  It only uses about six watts of power but it might move enough air to warm the floor if it runs all the hours the kero heater is on.  Something to test, probably by noon tomorrow.  The windup clock just struck 10PM, although it was striking slowly.  Guess it needs to be wound and this is a good time to do that as both its hands are out of the way of the winding ports.


Two minutes and that clock's ready for another eight days.  Nice to have good timekeeping without power from the grid or a battery.  "Without power" reminds me - I need to be ready to turn off most of the UPS units when we lose power tomorrow.  I'm thinking "when" and not "if" because of 20 years experience with the local weather - I know how likely we are to lose power because of multiple years of weather logs that correlate "amount of freezing rain/snow" with "days of power outage".  Yes, days and not just hours.  The power co-op trims limbs away from their lines but we're in the minority of local people who spend the bucks to have trees removed when they become a hazard; if a tree could fall across the road, it will probably take some power (phone, internet, cable TV) lines with it.  I will move the essential UPS units (phone, internet) to backup power IF any of that stays up.  From experience, a big enough power outage will take the UVerse service down completely.  In that case, I'll just turn that equipment off, ensure the UPS units are recharged, then turn those off and only turn those things back on to check their status a few times each day.

The front side of this sheet of notes is full, so over to the back side and start it with the current time of 10:17PM.  Sometimes it's nice to know when problems occurred and it's even better to know how long something lasted during a problem, whether one of the new USB rechargeable flashlights that were delivered today, the UVerse service or the UPS for the wifi router.  Don't think I'll be in bed for a while.  It's rare that I get to bed before midnight and that's on nights that haven't cranked up my adrenaline with smoke alarms from the basement or "Winter Storm Emergency" alerts on the Weather Radio.  I think a cup or two of chamomile tea and a couple of the gingerbread cookies that we baked recently might be a good prescription for relaxing - and maybe a recorded episode or two of "How It's Made"?  If I'm awake, I might as well be learning something.


---


* www.fuelox.com/2020/03/19/kerosene-vs-winter-fuel-additives/

[papaof2]

Chapter 2


13 December, 00:23


Beep!Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!  Beep!  Beep!Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!


I think the "Beep!" serenade in near-darkness (there's a small USB strip light plugged into the TV so the room doesn't go totally dark) without the usual power off, on, off, on, off to stay intro tells me we've lost power for a while, although the TV and DVR are quite happy to continue playing the recorded episode of "How It's Made", using power from the pure sine wave UPS.  If the power loss is from the ice buildup of freezing rain, that happened sooner than I expected which is not good.  Hit "Pause" on the DVR remote, get the Fenix E12 from my pocket and go find the "Off" switch/button on all the other UPS units on this level and in the basement.  I may want a jacket in the unconditioned area of the basement so get that and go there first so I can go ahead and start the backup power system.  Grab the three-AA-cell LED head light from the knob of the door to the basement stairs and I now have both hands free to get things in place.  

Other than running a long extension cord to power the home network and the UVerse router, that's all within a few steps and only takes a minute or so.  Five minutes later, I'm back upstairs where it's somewhat warmer and I've turned off the UPS units on this level except the one for the TV and DVR.  A quick check and the fridge has power and the furnace blower runs on the backup power.  I can easily check the basement temperature as the solar power monitor running on an old laptop down there tracks the temperature of the solar charge controllers and the battery bank.  It's 31F outside but we had heat on the main level and in the basement earlier today so the basement temperature - even in the unconditioned space - shouldn't have dropped to an unacceptable level in the four hours since the furnace died.

Looks like my expectations are correct as the battery bank is at 59F.  It's a big, solid block of four 75lb batteries so its temperature will drop more slowly than the air in that space but that just makes the batteries a 300lb "heat bank".  I'd expect the air temperature to be in the mid to lower 50s.  It's not worth the wear and tear on my body to make that trip down and back up the stairs again this night.  In the morning is plenty soon enough for an air temperature check and I'll be able to check the battery temperature remotely as often as needed.  

I should pull my notes on setting up the parking heater, as the laptop where I'm typing this weather/event log just beeped and popped up a "No internet connection" message and I won't have access to that YouTube video from here - and I don't think it's worth burning cell phone data to play a twenty minute video when I may only need the two pages of notes I made and the three screen captures that I printed.  Some people ask me why I print so many "unusual" things; that's easy: I'm building my own "How-To" manual for just about everything that can be repaired.  Plus, paper manuals need no power and you can read them by the light of an oil lamp.  Did I just jinx the backup power by mentioning an oil lamp?  I hope not.  Hit the "Pause" button again and start the remaining five minutes of the "How It's Made" episode about backup generators, then I'll turn it all off and go do some other checks.


---


A check out the windows on each side of the house only shows appreciable light where people have solar-charged lighting, mostly walkway lights.  It's in my best interest to look no better off than anyone else, so an oil lamp on the kitchen table for light while I eat my midnight snack.  I'll be using rechargeable LED lights in the much of the house - but they will travel from room to room.  This laptop is at 88% charged so it's good for at least a couple more hours but I don't plan to be up that much longer.  Get the solar-charged plus hand-crank plus AA battery-powered Kaito AM/FM/shortwave/weather radio from the South-facing window it lives in to always be charged.  Any local radio stations on the air?  One very scratchy AM station well West of us that's running at reduced power because they're on a generator.  Perhaps the generator needing to be upgraded was missed when their power was upgraded from 5,000 to 10,000 watts, as their generator seems unable to provide even 5,000 watts?  Their signal is weaker than I remember from before the upgrade.  Maybe they're just running on the "driver" transmitter that's a few hundred watts?  That would allow then to stay on the air longer on the same amount of fuel.  At least they are on the air and they're running in "talkradio" mode so those who still have some type of phone service can call in and complain about not having power or internet or cable TV or whatever.  The callers' locations do provide a good map of which part of the infrastructure is out where - and how fast things fell apart as the ice from the freezing rain built up above a half inch.  A couple of our clotheslines went "Ping!" less than an hour ago so I'm not greatly surprised that we've already lost power.  The aerial power distribution cable is tough stuff but none of it can handle more than an inch of ice plus the weight of an ice-covered tree or large limb.  I should use some cell phone data to see if our electric co-op has any status info online...


---


I now know that 70% of their customers are in the dark - with most of them also getting cold - and that the restoration status for every outage is "Assessing Condition".  Other than clearing streets of downed poles and lines, I don't think they'll be doing much else before morning.  If the snow comes as fast and heavy as the ice did, they may not be restoring anything for multiple days.  I'm OK with that but what will all the people who rushed to the grocery store a few hours ago do with the food they bought if power is off?  The practical answer is to put it in a sturdy cooler (to keep the food from freezing - fridge temperature is around 38F - and for protection from insects and animals) and put that cooler in the garage or on the back porch - but how many have anything more than a foam cooler and how many will even think of that?

From the size of those outages, I don't think I'll have any UVerse service restored tonight, so I should make one final trip to the basement to turn off the UPS units for the UVerse equipment and most of the home network.  While I'm using the laptop, I'll leave the wi-fi router and the cameras powered up.  I need to check the total power usage for that; I might decide to leave that bit of security active because I can see all those cameras on my phone.  I'll get the actual air temperature in both conditioned and unconditioned space while I'm there.  If it's close to my guesses, I may put only that in the paper notes.

I did check the stored water while I was in the basement earlier and five of the eight the five gallon jugs were filled.  I should use the filter pitcher and clean enough water for the other jugs.  There's been no word of problems with County Water but a big enough power outage could put them on generator and I think they only have fuel for a week or two.  That should be fine with our current weather as the ten day forecast has a high of 50F about five days out.  It's almost 1AM and a big flashlight out one of the back windows shows that we have a lot of snowflakes mixed in with the freezing rain and sleet.  The original forecast had snow at 4AM, so the snow is also early.  The ground is wet but it's cold from sleet and freezing rain so we could be seeing an accumulation of snow soon - not looking forward to the amounts of snow that this storm might dump on us.  See if I can get to weather.com via cell data...


I might be happier if I hadn't gone to look - wonder why the weather radio hasn't alerted on the increase in snow.  That's now eight to sixtee...


Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!


Speak of the devil and guess who pops up?


'This is the National Weather Service with an update to the Winter Storm Emergency...'


Hit the "Record" button on the digital audio recorder and I'll come back to listen - something I ate didn't like me so I'm on my way to take care of that.  Fenix in my hand and then on the counter pointing up to light the room as I rush to the throne...  


I hate being old.


---


Much better now - and I'm possibly five pounds lighter.  Back to warm tea and bread for while.  Guess I won't be in bed as soon as I planned but I need to care for this old body.  OK, what's on the recorder?


'...Emergency.  The snow has already started in some places and will be across the area by 2AM.  Snow accumulations of ten to eighteen inches are expected across Cherokee, Cochise, Dekalb, Eastman, Greene, Harrison, and Madison counties.  Low temperatures will be in the mid to low twenties across the area.  High temperature the next three days will not exceed thirty degr...'


That's all I need to know.  Other than the 1% of the people who have access to a tall tractor or a tracked vehicle (which includes everything from a snowmobile to a CAT D-8), the county's population will be snowbound.  Where is the snow "drag" I built for clearing the roof?  I think it's in the overhead rack above my truck in the garage.  I can climb up in the bed of the truck to reach that; it's a piece of 3/8" plywood with diagonal braces and a ten foot handle made of PVC pipe with screw-on couplings to add two more ten foot sections of handle .  While I'm up in the truck's bed, I can pull the red 'Emergency Release' cord on the garage door opener so I can manually lift that garage door to get the drag out for use, if needed.  First, I wait until daylight so I can measure how much snow we have at this location and see how much - if any - has slid off the roof to know whether I'll need to use the drag.  Add all of that to my paper notes.  I don't think I'll want to read this list first thing in the morning but I'll need to do that and then bundle up - complete with tall waterproof boots - to make a circuit of the house, measure the snow depth in several places and check for actual or potential damage.  But I should get the gas logs and the kero heater going and make a big Thermos of hot tea before going out for recon - I'll certainly want something warm to drink after wading around in a lot of snow - so circle that and add an arrow pointing to "Tuesday at daylight".  "Wading around"?  I should go find the hip waders from my days as a fly fisherman...


---

[texican]

pp2,

Self story?

Texican....

[papaof2]

Tex,

Started with a real world event, but then somewhat embellished ;-)

[ydderf]

Looking good thank your muse for us.

[udwe]

Good to hear from you again!

[papaof2]

Chapter 3


Tuesday, 14 December, 05:27


CRACK!


THUD!


Not the best wakeup after a very short night, as I felt the shake of that "THUD!"  Either a tree or a very large limb down and while it could be well away from the house it might also be uncomfortably close.  Sunrise isn't until about 07:30 so grab the "blanket with sleeves" housecoat, slip on the wool-lined slippers, get a big flashlight and walk from window to window checking for any disturbance in the snow.  

And do we ever have snow!  Only the top of the fire hydrant across the road is visible.  I think that puts the snow at something over twenty inches.  (Or is it thirty inches? It's too early to remember details like that.)  Check closer to the house - and there are piles where snow has slid off the roof.  Great!  If some of the snow is off the roof, that may mean one less task - or a smaller task - to do in the cold.  Back to looking for "something down".  The road out front is clear, except for snow, as far as I can see - I'll be able to see farther when I'm outside and with daylight.  Aim the flashlight back to the right...  Snow is still falling but it's only visible against the dark trunk of the maple out front when the snow is illuminated from this angle.  To the end of the house and check the side road...

Not so good.  It seems I only heard the biggest of those trees fall as my best guess is that there are at least three trees across that road.  Nothing that can be done in the dark and probably almost nothing until it stops snowing.  I won't be out wielding a chainsaw in these conditions and I'm not sure if any of the other neighbors have a gas chainsaw - too many folks that live out have started choosing corded and cordless outdoor tools.  The 40 volt Ryobi string trimmer I have is much lighter and easier to use than the gas equivalent but it isn't an essential tool.  In our current circumstances, a chainsaw is essential and it will be needed for hours.  Guess I should get the chainsaw out of the shed while I'm out in the morning so I can check or change the spark plug, sharpen and adjust the chain, check how much two-cycle gas/oil mix is left and mix more if needed.  I can see that saw being in use for many hours in the near future.  Add that and the other wood cutting and handling tools to the paper list.  Now go check the other directions.

Lots of snow wherever I looked.  Some limbs down, but small enough that the snow cushioned their fall a bit and the "THUD!" would have been muted.  One driveway blocked a couple of houses down the road but those are the folks who've never had any trees trimmed.  I think one tree hit their Escalade and the other one his "water toy" - a Candy Apple Red ski boat and its trailer.  Wonder if they have insurance for any of that?  No more visible news, so back to bed?  Should I even try to get back to sleep now?  Not much I can do without daylight so at least another hour of sleep might be available.  I did pull up the flannel sheet, wool blanket and a quilt my grandmother made when I got out of the bed so it's still a bit warm.  Anything warm sounds good after seeing that much snow.


---


Tuesday, 14 December, 07:15


Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!


Annoying alarm but the little clock runs a year on a single AA cell so it's my first choice when power is off - even ahead of the fancy alarms on the cell phone because I know this one's battery will last the night.  Get in the warm clothes in the bed with me and then the wool-lined slippers and then to the gas logs to get some heat going.  Then I can get a hat, coat, gloves and insulated boots and take the kero heater outside to be filled and lit.  What's the temperature in the bedroom?  60F.  That's warmer than I expected but I was up an hour or so later than I had originally intended to be so the kero heater and the gas logs were on that much longer.  Probably be colder in here tomorrow morning.

Press the "On" button on the remote for the gas logs and I'm rewarded with blue flames.  Swap the slippers for insulated boots and then hat, coat and gloves and take the kero heater outside.  There's just enough light to see what I'm doing but I did pick up the three-AA head light to be able to see the fuel level as I fill the heater's tank.  Fuel cap off the heater's tank.  Cap off the kerosene jug, big funnel in place in the tank filler and slowly pour the liquid future warmth into the tank.  It's almost full, so cap back on the kero jug, paper towel to catch any drips from the funnel and cap back on the heater's tank.  Kero jug to the far wall, wick in the "Light" position, press the "Light" button... and we have flames.  Give the heater a minute or so to warm up and the flames to become stable and then adequate gloves on so I can pick it up by the now-hot bail and get it back in the house.  

The heater's in place and I did find the RV ceiling fan.  For testing, I have a 10AH battery but it will be more than adequate for a few hours and that's all I need to verify whether this fan will work.  Check the temperature of the floor tiles with the IR thermometer and make a note that they are 61F at 07:40.  Turn the fan speed to "High" and check back in an hour or so.  Meanwhile, I have some light from the kero heater so add just a bit more light from the rechargeable flashlight with a magnetic base - stick that to the side of the microwave oven and I have light for the gas cooktop.  Fill the whistling teakettle with filtered water - clean water doesn't leave difficult-to-remove deposits inside the teakettle - and light that burner with the long-nosed grill lighter.  

Meanwhile, open the fridge and get out a couple of eggs and some shredded cheddar cheese.  Then open the freezer section of the fridge and take a strip of cooked bacon out of a zipper bag so I can have an egg, cheese and bacon omelet - being without commercial power shouldn't prevent you from having a good meal.  This would be a little faster if I could use the microwave oven to heat that strip of bacon for 25 seconds or so but it heats just fine in a skillet over a low flame and the grease from the bacon ensures that the non-stick skillet actually stays non-stick when the omelet has cheese in it.  Still waiting on the teakettle to boil and I'll start cooking when my tea starts steeping so everything will be ready at once.


A few minutes later, I have a hot meal on a warm plate - thanks to some hot water from the teakettle and a quick dry with a dishtowel - as well as a hot beverage.  I can tell the kero heater is producing good heat as my back, which is to the heater, is warmer than my hands.  I think I'll be in those fingerless gloves when I'm not eating.  I will go down to the basement after I eat and power up the UVerse phone and internet equipment to see if we have service, although I don't expect anything in less than a week, and I'll bring up the rechargeable seven inch HDTV.  It works just fine for the local stations - if any are on the air.  I'll also check the status of the solar backup system and see if I need to add more solar panels - perhaps adequate if we have sun all day and I don't have to shovel much snow to do that - or if I'll need to run a generator for a few hours to top off the batteries so they can provide another night's power.  That's just a quick check of the amp hours and watt hours used since it was turned on last night and some mental arithmetic based on the amount of sun in the forecast.  If there's not enough sun, then a bit of mental arithmetic on the hours to run the generator.  I'll use the cell phone to check the forecast after I eat.

I'm not doing badly for an old man who'll be snowbound for several days but I do wonder how others are doing.  Practically, there's little I can do for anyone who hasn't already had the thought "No one knows my needs better than I do.  It's up to me to ensure those needs are met regardless of circumstances."  That's also the first paragraph of the "How To" pamphlet on preparedness that I've been working on for a while.  I'd never call twenty pages a "book" but the smaller designation is appropriate.  I shared an early copy with our adult kids but got about 50% "The government (or FEMA or Red Cross or {your choice here}) will take care of that."  Sorry, but I doubt that they'll have food lines with "Vegan", "Gluten Free" or "Type 1 and 2 Diabetics" signs on them.  I also got "We'll come to your house" which absolutely doesn't work for someone who's hundreds of miles away when the locals can't get through the snow - and with that marvelous layer of "It can't possibly be that slick!" ice under the snow.  

Having grown up in an area known for its ice storms, freezing rain and black ice, I know how slick the ice can be under the snow - and how hard that ice gets after it "cures" for a few days.  If the ice on the driveway doesn't melt before I have a need to leave the property, I may be out with a long rubber hose connected to the hot water line for the clothes washer.  Yes, I'll have hot water as long as County Water is available: that's also heated with natural gas.  Melting the ice that way is slow but so much easier for me than trying to break it up with force.  I probably have enough of the "ice melter" crystals to make two tracks down the drive.  That would be adequate for getting the truck out and back in which is all I'm likely to need, although the chains in the box on the back seat of the truck would be a much better choice if I decide to drive somewhere - but after the sun has melted most of the snow because the truck only has eight inches of clearance.  As of now, there's nowhere I can drive to that's worth the effort of jacking up the rear wheels so I can put the chains on securely without driving over them, something I would normally do outside but there's too much snow for that.


---


Tuesday, 14 December, 09:20


There's a noisy vehicle in the distance that's moving at what appears to be a good speed.  Maybe one of the very few snowmobiles in this area?  Sounds like it's right outside.


Knock!  Knock!


That sounds like law enforcement.  Did someone complain that I have a bit of light in the house?  In a jacket to go to the door as that part of the house is closed off to make it easier to heat the limited space I'm living in.


"Yes, Deputy Bell?"

"Mr. Wilson, can you get the generator at the Sheriff's Office started?  We've tried until the battery is dead but it just sputters and dies."

"Gasoline or diesel?"

"Diesel."

"Was the diesel treated with a preservative or was any kerosene or other additive added to prevent gelling of the diesel in cold weather?  It shouldn't be cold enough for the diesel to gel but I don't know how old that diesel is."

"I don't know and we can't contact any of the mechanics.  I remember being at one of your seminars at a gun show a few years ago and you talking about 'no communications' being a very real possibility in bad weather but most of us just laughed that off.  I think the laugh is on us.  Can you help us?"

"How big is the cargo area on that snowmobile?"

"It's about three feet long, two and a half feet wide and three feet high."

"Take the machine around back - there's another drive back there - and park it in front of the yellow shed.  I need some tools and chemicals from the basement and some things from the shed.  I'll be a little slow - takes me a while to bundle up adequately for travel on a snowmobile."

"Take your time, sir.  You are the County's only resource and we need to keep you safe and warm while we get you to and from the Sheriff's Office."

"I'll also hand you out some shovels so we can make a path to get into the shed.  First though, try this battery-powered blower to move the dry snow at the top of the pile while I get other things."

"Meet you down at the basement door."


I'll also take the time to turn off the gas logs and take the kero heater out on the porch and turn it off.  The house will be somewhat cooler when I return but that's better than having a fire going with no one watching it.  

They probably have tools but I know what's in my very heavy small toolbox - something no one has ever offered to move a second time, as they don't expect a small hiproof toolbox to weigh more than 35lbs.  I need a box for the Pri-D, the compact lithium-powered jump starter and the starting fluid that's in the shed.  There are also a couple gallons of fresh diesel out there so we should take that and some of the kerosene.  Two gallons of diesel probably isn't much run time when a diesel generator providing 5,000 watts uses about 0.6 gallon/hour - maybe a ballpark figure of three hours on two gallons?  But I could mix that 50/50 with kerosene and double the amount of useful fuel and run time.  Plenty for testing.  Refilling the gen's tank is their problem.  Rechargeable work lights, two batteries for the drill/driver, a couple of big wrenches - just in case.  I do have a small 12 volt fuel pump so maybe use it to tap the underground tanks at a gas station?  Does the Madison County Garage have fuel pumps?  If so, they may have underground tanks.  The little pump's not that big - or fast - but it beats having fuel under your feet and no way to access it.  If nothing else, I can refill my diesel can and have plenty for the parking heater if I need it.  OK, thermal underwear, two layers of shirts and trousers, down vest, balaclava, scarf, coat, hat, gloves, goggles.  29F isn't that cold until you're moving at 20MPH on a snowmobile and it feels like 16F (-9C) and even colder if you're moving faster.


First hand out the shovels and then my toolbox - which he almost dropped - and then follow with the box of Pri-D and other things.


"Mr. Wilson, the blower worked great on the dry snow!  We just have an inch or so of ice to get through."

"Deputy, that's why MAPP gas torches and rubber hammers were invented.  Watch."


Several minutes and a few hammer blows later, the lock and hasp are clear of ice and my key unlocks the doors.  Now to melt and break the ice at the bottom of the doors.  

That took a bit longer but it worked just as well.  Inside to get the diesel can from the floor and the starting fluid from the shelf above it.


"How'd you do that so fast, sir?"

"I grew up in an area that had lots of ice storms.  I learned early to use heat and controlled force to get through ice.  It still works and it's lots easier on my old hands than continuous hammering and yanking."

"I think my ten-year-old might have been able to do that."

"Perhaps you should get her/him out to try it today?  I expect there will be a lot of 'Can't get it open' things this week."

"It's 'her'.  Her name's Katie and she's always asking 'How do I?' about something new."

"Sounds like a fun kid to be around."

"She's a lot of work to provide answers to."

"Then some of your 'How to' should be 'How to find answers'."

"You're probably right.  I'll suggest that when I get home - but there's no place to get answers with the internet down."

"But there is.  When you bring me back, there's a hardback 1980 Encyclopedia Britannica in the basement that I'll loan her for a while.  She'll find some answers there but she'll also probably find more difficult questions for you."

"I'll take it!  She loves to read so she'll stay busy for a while.  I did buy one of the 'solar generators' you recommended and your suggested number of solar panels.  We're running the fridge, a laptop and charging two phones with it and it was at 53% this morning.  We'll have enough sun today to recharge it?"

"That's a maybe.  A forecast of 'Partly Cloudy' could be half sun and half clouds and half the normal winter sun won’t be adequate to recharge that unit.  How much fuel in your personal vehicle?"

"Full tank - that's about 19 gallons."

"That solar generator charges faster with a 24 volt or higher input.  Use this 12 volt to 24 volt up-converter to charge it from your vehicle - with the engine running.  Just remember where you got it."

"I'll remember.  Katie may be talking about 'Grandpa Wilson' when she gets an encyclopedia and a better charger from you."

"I think I can stand that.  Is the tank full on the snowmobile?"

"About half.  Should be enough to get back to the Sheriff's Office."

"'Should be' isn't good enough in this weather.  This can has five gallons of treated gas in it, so slowly top off the tank."

"Yes sir."


"Deputy, I don't think this machine has an eight gallon tank, so the four gallons it took tell me we'd have been stranded."

"I'm glad that you practice what you preach about being prepared!  I filled it before I left the house and didn't think I'd gone that far."

"You probably haven't.  Look over here."

"The gas line is leaking on the engine side of the shutoff!"

"Close the shutoff and let's check that piece of fuel line."


"It's cracked."

"Then some new fuel line from the next shelf up in the shed and some tools to cut and attach it with."


"That's better, Mr. Wilson.  No drips and it just doubled the gas mileage."

"So let's get going.  My feet are getting cold even with battery-heated socks so I'd like to get them out of the snow."

"Your ride awaits."


---


"How much gear did he bring, Bell?"

"The cargo area is full, Sheriff.  He also was aware that the snowmobile didn't get the gas mileage it should have and he found the bad piece of fuel line."

"He does know what he's talking about?"

"Very much so.  Do you remember him mentioning 'No communications during bad weather' at that gun show?"

"Ouch!  I was so certain we had backups for everything but this storm very quickly meant no internet, no cable TV, no power to charge cell phones, no broadcast TV or radio - except the one radio station with a generator.  How many thousand dollars will his trip cost us?"

"So far, he's asked that we replace the gas he put in the snowmobile and that we replace the diesel and kerosene he brought if he uses it."

"No hourly fee?"

"None mentioned."

"I'll ask when or if the generator is running."


Whir-r-r-r-r.  Pop!

Psst!

Whir-r-r. Sputter. Roar!


"Sheriff Thomas, the lights are on so it's time to go ask."

"So it is, Deputy."


"Mr. Wilson, what do we owe you?"

"Keeping the County safe and as many people as possible alive."

"'Alive'?"

"Most of the people in this county have no experience with this much snow.  They'll run vehicle engines to get the vehicles and the people in them warm and maybe charge their phones but they won't think to shovel the snow away from the tailpipe.  I know there was at least twenty inches of snow across the road from me this morning because most of a fire hydrant was hidden."

"Closer to thirty inches some places, based on what's been reported to us."

"Then you need to find a way to notify people.  Maybe update the old concept of a 'sound truck' with a 'sound drone' that you can fly over neighborhoods and give a short recorded message - max of five minutes - covering the things that can kill you in the cold.  Even better, use Reverse-911 and the Amber Alert systems to notify as many people as possible."

"What was wrong with the generator?"

"What the fuel gauge told you, if anyone had looked."

"Huh?"

"The tank was empty.  I put in about two gallons of diesel and a gallon of kerosene.  That should give you three, maybe four hours to get more diesel."

"The pumps at the County Garage don't have power and no one ever mentioned providing a generator there."

"I have a small 12 volt diesel pump.  It has 25 feet of suction hose and pumps about four gallons a minute.  If that hose is long enough to reach the diesel in the underground tank, you could power the pump from the snowmobile, fill whatever containers are available and bring them back here.  That may be slow, as the generator's tank looks to be more than 30 gallons."

"You show Bell how to do that, and then you come inside where it's warm for some of today's coffee and yesterday's donuts."

"Deal."


---

[papaof2]

Chapter 4


Tuesday, 14 December, 13:12


I'm back home and my heat sources are working slowly against the cold.  I did fix that Thermos of hot tea this morning so I had an instant warm beverage when I opened the Thermos.  I got a can of chicken noodle soup out of the pantry, dumped it in a sauce pan, added a can of filtered water and a few minutes later I had hot soup to go with my hot tea and a grilled cheese sandwich cooked in a skillet while the soup heated.  Nice to be able to cook things the "old-fashioned" way without a toaster oven, microwave oven or air fryer that needs large amounts of electricity.  

I now have ten gallons of diesel, five gallons of fresh gasoline and two new fuel containers, courtesy of the Sheriff's Office.  They'll bring me five gallons of 1-K kerosene and a can of starting fluid as soon as they can find a place that's open to get it.  Always good to have "the powers that be" indebted to you - and a bit embarrassed that you know something they did - maybe that was "failed to do"? - that was really stupid.  That bit is covered in my pamphlet - if an engine doesn’t start, first you check for fuel being present.  If the gauge says it's full, you remove the cap from the tank and check, if possible.  There, it was easily possible to "remove the cap and check" but I just needed to tap the tank with my flashlight to know the tank was empty or nearly so.  They found several five gallon containers and they had a steady shuttle of getting empties to my small pump at their garage and the full containers back to the generator for about an hour.  The generator tank was filled and they have six five gallon containers under shelter nearby.  They also asked about a proposal for a generator at the County Garage so I rode over one trip and made a quick check of the power they'd need there.  Something in the 10kW to 20kW range, depending on how many things they do at the same time - something they'll have to ask the mechanics about.  I did clip a business card to that draft proposal - never pass up a chance for paying work.


Bzzt!Bzzt! Bzzt!Bzzt! Bzzt!Bzzt! Bzzt!Bzzt! Bzzt!Bzzt! Bzzt!Bzzt!


That's an Amber Alert.  Maybe the Sheriff took my suggestions to heart?



I think it reads like what I told the Sheriff and as much else as he could put in the message from one of the FEMA "Weather Emergency" documents.  That might keep a few people safe.  If they're in their cars to get warm, they're probably using the car to charge their phones - at least the ones that still have service.  Speaking of service, I should go down and turn on the UVerse equipment for a couple minutes to see if any of it is back up.


Oh, well.  Another mostly wasted trip from the standpoint of communications but knowing what doesn't work is also useful knowledge.  I checked the solar system and could see that the sun had been out while I was working on power at the Sheriff's Office.  I will still need to run the generator for a while - Maybe three hours? - but the sun has replaced about half the power that was used overnight and we still have an hour or so of useful sun.  Set the alarm on my phone for an hour from now and check status again.  Then I'll know how long the gen will need to run.  Add all this to my paper notes and then I want some more comfort food.  I'll get a Walker's Shortbread cookie and cover it with Nutella.  That's a sugar high for almost anyone.  I might take a nap after two of those but I'd have to turn off the heat to nap, so I'll nix the second cookie and keep the house warm.

However, I will get into the hydrocodone-acetaminophen tablets which remain from the hand surgery I had months ago.  My body is complaining strongly about being in the cold, moving multiple cans of diesel and riding too many miles on a snowmobile.  I had cut the remaining tablets in half to be able to take "just enough" for my level of pain so half a tablet of the hydro/acet plus one 500mg acetaminophen tablet and see where my pain level is in thirty minutes.  I think some "Snowman Soup" - hot chocolate with snowman shaped marshmallows and a bit of cinnamon - might be a spirit lifter as well and it's a nice way to spend some time watching the fire.  The fingerless gloves have worked well today.  Perhaps another pair or two will be a future online purchase, but only at the point when I know how long it will take to get them delivered.  Maybe if I lived in a city that gets drone delivery from Amazon?



---


Tuesday, 14 December, 14:30


Beep!  Beep!  Beep!


That's my alarm to check the solar system status.  I can do that remotely and not need to go to the basement unless I need to run the generator.  Nice that I had Deputy Bell to help with shoveling the snow earlier today - I can much more easily get to the generator and there's a place to put it while it runs.  The snow banked up around the shed's entrance will also serve as a sound barrier so the quiet inverter gen will be even quieter.  That's good, as I've not heard another gen running since we lost commercial power.  I really don't want anyone asking to run an extension cord so they can power their house - had two people ask that after a big thunderstorm last summer.  Sorry, folks; a 1600 watt generator can run my fridge, freezer, furnace and recharge the batteries but that's it.  It can't run your whole house air conditioning or heat pump or your spa.  

So what do the numbers tell me?  I'll need the gen for about three hours.  I'll decide when to turn it off by watching the AH meter on the battery bank.  When the total shows at least 10% more charge than was discharged, it's good for the night.*  That's something I'll have to make the trip down to check as the remote display for that meter has about ten feet too little range to have its display in the kitchen.  It does work when set up there, but only about half the time.  More useful to have it directly connected and plan the times for the fewest trips on the stairs.  For now, my plan is to get the gen started and connected to the transfer switch, then power the fridge, freezer and a few lights plus the battery charger.  Set the phone to alarm every hour until the battery bank status is good enough to make the night.

Jacket, hat, scarf, gloves, boots.  Out to the shed.  Gen outside in the cleared space.  Vent on gas tank open.  Engine control to "Choke".  Pull the cord...  Pull the cord...  Hit the "Prime" button.  Pull the cord...  Pull the cord...  It's running, if not well.  Engine control slowly over to "Run" and it sounds better.  12/3 extension cord from the transfer switch to the gen.  Breakers for fridge, freezer and limited lights to the "Gen" position.  I can skip the furnace breaker and save the few watts the thermostat uses until I want to run that blower to move some heat to the basement.  Plug the 60 amp, 12 volt battery charger into the outlet on the transfer switch.  The gen sounds loaded, which is what I would expect at this point with the charger pumping 720 watts into the battery bank.  Get me back upstairs where it's warm.  Shed the outdoor layers.  Check the solar system remotely and the battery status looks good.  Add all this to my paper notes.  Now to wait for the first hourly reminder.


---


Three hours later, the battery bank has received 12% more charge than the discharge of the overnight and sunless hours so it's good.  Bundle up, head down the stairs, move the 12/3 extension cord from the generator to the inverter on the solar backup system and go turn off the gen.  We're back on silent power.  Let the gen cool five minutes and then refill its tank - it used just under a half gallon of gas - and put it back in the shed.  Shed locked and me back inside the warm space until tomorrow - I hope.  Nothing was done on the fallen trees today so no one else has the tools or the knowledge or having that road blocked doesn't inconvenience them.  I'll consider walking around that mess tomorrow to see how much work is needed. and how many people are needed to do that work.  But only serious 4WD vehicles can get up that hill in this much snow so traffic won't be greatly affected by the trees until most of the snow is gone.  I should stop long enough to check the ten day weather and see when or if we get a thaw.


Looks like Saturday's high will be above 50F so some thawing then.  If the Sheriff's thirty inches of snow is correct, we could have snow in shaded places for a couple of weeks.   With those trees now down, Cedar Bluff Road will get sun much of the days we have sun so Saturday might be a good day to start cutting and moving pieces of trees.  Who owns a tractor or other big machine that could help with that?  I should make a list and figure out what would work the best at this locat...


Bee-Doo.


I think my phone just said it's hungry.  Grab the red USB-A to USB-C cable from the side of the fridge and connect the phone to one of the USB jacks on the outlet that's powered when any backup power source is in use.  Not as fast as the phone's original charger but I don’t need a place to store that charger in here.  Phone says about three hours to full charge.  That's fine.  I think I'll go read for a while.


---


Ring! Ring!


That's the unknown caller ring so go...


Ring! Ring!


...unplug the charger cord and turn the phone face up...


Ring!  Ring!


"Whitside ARB"?  Guess I should answer that.


'This is Jack.'

'Mr. Wilson, this is Colonel Dempsey at Whitside ARB.  We're in the process of reactivating the base and need power to do so.  I spoke with Sheriff Thomas about finding someone who could get our generator running again.  By the way, the mechanic did check the fuel gauge and the tank and it's at least half full."

'Symptoms?'

'The mechanic's note is "Spins and sputters but doesn't stay running".'

'You have a way to charge the generator's battery?'

'A running deuce and a half and jumper cables.'

'What's your transport?  This old body won't attempt a trip that long by snowmobile.'

'Six place copter.  We can move you and 400lbs of equipment.  I'll send a couple of strong young bucks with shovels to clear a path from the copter to your door if you can show me a place to land it.'

'You have access to, or a copy of, the Madison County GIS records?'

'Yes.'

'It's reasonable to assume Sheriff Thomas gave you my address, so have someone check the aerial images for the widths of the roads and the distances to the trees near me.'

'I'm on speaker and Corporal Jenkins is checking now.  I think the Sheriff may have been right when he said that you know something about almost everything.'

'I'm still learning.'

'If you're "still learning", then you probably do know something about almost everything.  Jenkins says we can be there in 30 minutes.  Does that work for you?'

'Yes.  Time to collect tools and an extra layer of outdoor clothing and then turn off the gas logs and the kerosene heater.'

'You don't have power?'

'I have adequate backup power to run the furnace but I don't yet have the replacement for the induction blower that died a few hours before I lost commercial power so I'm using alternate means of heating.'

'You have enough kerosene?'

'For maybe two weeks.'

'I'll send out ten gallons of our "universal" vehicle fuel which is basically a higher grade of kerosene.  Let me know if your supply drops below a week.'

'Thank you in advance, but if the weather forecast is correct, thawing should start on Saturday.'

'That was updated in the past ten minutes and should be on the weather radio in the next ten minutes.  There's a cold front coming in tomorrow afternoon.  Expect lows in the single digits and highs in the teens for five to seven days.  An unexpected but not-unheard-of "Arctic Express" is moving down our way.'

'That will hurt and it will probably kill a number of people.  Do you have fuel and people to fly one or more copters with a PA system over the affected counties and give them a weather warning and some "How to" on staying warm?'

'Something like the Amber Alert your sheriff sent out?'

'Just updated with the much colder weather and info on staying warm without burning down the house.'

'I buzzed my PR guy and he's been making notes.  We can do that tomorrow after daylight.  The Corporal says he's located what looks to be a good place to land so listen for the bird and watch for the snow tornado when it lands.'

'I'll collect my things and be at the garage door when they get here.  That's probably the shortest shovel path to the road.'

'See you soon.  Dempsey out.'


Interesting that the Colonel ended that conversation like a military exchange but maybe talking with a non-typical civilian moved him to that mindset.  Take the starting fluid, the Pri-D and the anemometer - for checking air flow into the engine or its supercharger, if it has one - and the clamp-on DC ammeter because it's a quick way to check glowplugs without removing them.  He said they have diesel but I'll take a couple gallons of fresh, treated diesel just in case.  Their "kero equivalent" should be fine for preventing gelling of the diesel at one part kero to one or two parts diesel.  We'll be outside after dark so add the three-AA-cell head light and some heated gloves.  Swap my slippers for insulated boots, turn off the gas logs, move the kero heater to the porch and turn it off, move the stack of gear to the garage and grab the garage door remotes from the truck while I'm there.  Now to the porch and refill the heater's tank.  That's done and the heater will be ready for use when I return.


Whump!  Whump!  Whump!  Whump!


I think my taxi is almost here.  It does generate a "snow tornado" when it lands.  The guys are leaving the copter with shovels in hand so use the big flashlight to get their attention so they can head directly to the garage door.  One less bit of snow shovelling for me to do later.  

A few minutes later and I open the garage door, they grab the toolbox and the crates, I'm out the door and use the opener remote to close the garage door and the X10 remote to turn off the opener and reduce the idle drain on the solar backup system.  Even if it is "only five watts" that's still five watts of unnecessary continuous power usage - any unnecessary power usage is important with limited power.


It's not quite a Rolls but the copter is warm inside and it has decent seats.  It even has a degree of sound insulation.  One of the guys is the mechanic so we can discuss what he saw and heard as we go back.  I think the Colonel has his act together - maybe why he made Colonel?


We're at the base and they've apparently used a dozer or something else with a blade to clear most of the helipad and then followed up with a large leaf blower or something similar as we landed with no snow storm.  There's even a vehicle here to meet us.  The guys quickly move my gear to the back of the Suburban and whisk me to the generator behind the first hangar.

I get out the roll of twine with a large steel nut on the end and drop it into the fuel filler of the generator's diesel tank.  Pulling it back up, the diesel doesn't look that great.

"Corporal Davis, how old is this diesel?"

"Probably left from before they closed the base about five years ago.  There should be a tag on the filler neck."

"There is and it's ten years old.  There's a place on the tag for noting the preservative used and the date but there's nothing there so it's probably a valid assumption that this fuel was never treated.  How many gallons in this tank?"

"The sign on the end has '100 gallons' and it's about half full."

"Is there a reserve tank?"

"Looks to be about five gallons but it's empty."

"Then put the fresh diesel I brought in the reserve tank and we'll get the gen running on that while I add Pri-D and some of your kerosene-equivalent to the main tank.  That will take a while to act but there will be power while we wait."


Five minutes and a squirt of starting fluid later, the gen is running on the reserve tank.  I measure and add the Pri-D and their "kero" to the main tank and stir it a bit with a piece of 1X2.  


"Corporal, stir this for a minute every five minutes and pull the 1X2 out every twenty minutes to check what the fuel at the bottom looks like.  Come get me when that looks more like normal diesel."

"Yes sir."


An hour later:


"Mr. Wilson?  I think it's good now."

"Then I'll get my coat and go out with you."

"I just turn the valve from 'Reserve' to 'Main'?"

"That should be all you need to do.  We don't know how much sludge is in or near the valve so it may not run well for a few minutes."

"I notified the Colonel that we'd be doing this and that the power might be affected.  He said to turn off the main breaker until the gen was running OK so I'll do that now."


THUNK!


And the area goes dark except for my little head light but it does provide enough light for the Corporal to move the valve to "Main" - and the gen does run poorly for a few minutes until it gets that old fuel out of the line.  

The generator's frequency meter has been steady on 60Hz for about a minute so...


"OK to put the load back on, sir?"

"Yes, Corporal.  I was just about to suggest that."


THUNK!


And we have light - plus heat plus the ability to cook and preserve food and perhaps some communications?  If the hangars can be heated, how many people could sleep in them?  That, and what means of transportation they have available, are questions for the Colonel.


"Mr. Wilson, we have hot coffee inside."

"Sounds good, Colonel.  I also have some questions for you when I've warmed up enough to make some notes."

"Ask away."

"How many hours of fuel do you have?"

"The measuring stick says we have almost 2,000 gallons of diesel in the underground tank but Corporal Davis says it looks almost as bad as what was in the generator's tank."

"There's enough Pri-D to treat that much fuel.  The problem will be in getting it mixed in well.  Is there a powered diesel pump close enough to the filler or do you have a long enough hose to pump the diesel out of and back into the storage tank?"

"That's not a question I never imagined hearing.  Let me get Davis."

'Corporal Davis to the Colonel's office.'

"It's nice to have the intercom and PA systems working and not have to send runners to find people."

"We have become dependent on our little electric slaves, Colonel."

"Good description for services we expect 24/7 without question or delay, Mr. Wilson."

"But a lot of people in seven counties don't have any of those services and will be cold and hungry - possibly dead - in the next few days.  If the hangars can be heated, how many people can you sleep there and do you have water supplies and sanitation facilities for maybe a thousand people?"

"I expected this to be an expensive fix but you're not asking for anything for yourself.  We can heat two of the hangars.  The portable outhouses used at the last air show were left here and that company folded shortly after that so I guess those boxes are now ours.  We have a water truck with reverse osmosis filters so we can make lake or pond water potable.  We have two 5,000 gallon water trailers.  I think there's a snowplow in one of the hangars so we could do some road clearing to get buses to those people and get them here but using diesel for that might impact the number of hours we can run the generator.  You have any ideas?"

"If you're clearing the roads, the County Road Departments should contribute the fuel for that.  What about food?"

"There's an old nuclear war bunker with cans of twenty year old freeze-dried foods.  Is that even usable?"

"The current estimate is that most of those foods are good for 30 years.  There's enough for a week or two?"

"The documents I have say '200 people for 180 days'."

"That translates to a thousand people for more than a month.  They may not have their favorite foods but they won't go hungry or freeze if we can get them here.  You have someone in logistics who can put this together?"

"Sergeant Rodman.  She's very good at what she does so I added her via the intercom when you mentioned people and sleeping space.  You got all this, Rodman?"

"Yes sir.  I'm pulling up the KP documents on preparing LTS food for a large number of people.  I'll need to know how many buses are running and the capacity of each, but based on a combat loadout to allow for people bringing all the 'stuff' you need when traveling with kids."

"Davis, figure out how to pump the diesel out of the underground tank and back in its filler to mix in the Pri-D and some JP-8.  Think about that while you give Sergeant Rodman the info she needs about the buses and probably the snowplow in hangar 3."

"Sir."


---


Thirty minutes later, the Colonel's people are at white boards and digging through documents for details.  They should have this worked out before the colder weather gets here.  


I'm now back in the copter and headed home.  Same two guys to carry gear for me...

"Mr. Wilson, do you have anything else that needs to be moved?"

"The kerosene heater, after it's lit and warmed up enough that it doesn't smell."

"A kerosene heater that doesn't smell bad?"

"How much kero do you smell in the house?"

"Almost none."

"If you always light it and let it warm up outside before you bring it in and you take it outside to turn it off, it won't smell bad.  The 'off' part requires knowing how long a tank of kero lasts or checking the fuel gauge frequently."

"Teach me?"

"Sure.  My LED head light on so I can see what I'm doing.  Wick to the 'Light' position.  Press the 'Light' button until... we have flame.  Give it a minute or two and make any wick adjustments needed for a stable flame.  Now it can go inside.  Stop!  You need serious gloves to move it as that bail rapidly gets hot - easily 300F or more."

"It doesn't look hot."

"Neither does a skillet that's ready to fry eggs."

"Good point.  We're taking it to?"

"This space on the ceramic tile floor.  Now to turn on the little ceiling fan..."

"Ceiling fan?  When it's this cold?"

"The fan moves the hot air down and warms the tile.  The heated tile is a 'heat bank' for the hours the kero heater and the gas logs will be off while I sleep."

"That big fireplace is also a 'heat bank'?"

"Correct.  Most successful alternate heating solutions are primarily concerned with managing the long term use of the heat created, because many of those solutions aren't things you can leave unattended overnight."

"That is the most simple and logical explanation of alternate heating I've ever heard!  You must be some kind of genius."

"I'm just an old guy that has a lot of experience keeping myself warm and fed when the things that are 'always' there suddenly aren't there.  Thank you for being my pack mules today.  That whistle is the teakettle telling me the water is hot so some plastic mugs with lids for some 'Snowman Soup'."

"Huh?"

"Hot chocolate with snowman shaped marshmallows in it.  The kids and the grands loved it when they were small and anything warm probably sounds good to you."

"Yes sir!"

"The 'extra' mugs are for your pilot and the Colonel."

"Right on target, sir.  The Colonel loves hot chocolate."

"Time for you to be back in your chariot.  I think the pilot 'revving' the engine might be a 'Hurry up' signal."

"This is good!  What's in it?"

"A bit of cinnamon and just a touch of cayenne - not something we put in the kids' 'soup' but some adults like it."

"Sure do!  Thank you, sir."

"Follow the lights to find your way out."

"Sir."


Now to close and lock doors and move the extra lights so anyone who saw the lights will know it wasn't "whole house" power that they saw.  Don't think anyone will bother me with a military copter being here twice in one day - sometimes it's good to have powerful friends and a peaceful display of force.  I don't know whether any of the locals noticed, but that bird had eight rockets loaded.  Wonder if it also has a mount for a machine gun?  It seems the colonel is quietly getting loaded for bear.

Now for supper - it's long past my usual mealtime as the windup clock just struck 9PM.  Sarah and I put together a pot of sausage bean chowder last week so I'd have easy leftovers for the days she was gone and I think I'll heat a bowl of that for supper.  Not as easy as hitting the microwave oven's buttons for "three minutes, half power" to reheat that bowlful, but in a small saucepan and over the simmer burner to have a small flame for several minutes and slowly heat the chowder completely - not the "Turn it up and heat it quick" outlook that can boil the broth before the potatoes are warm - you need to know how to warm things thoroughly over a 'fire'.  This way takes longer than three minutes but I'll enjoy it more while I'm eating it.  Add some water to the teakettle and let it heat while the chowder warms to have something warm to drink.  After the time I've spent outside today, maybe something for my scratchy throat?  Either the "Throat Tamer" or the "Throat Comfort" tea if available or chamomile if neither of those is in the cabinet.  Looks like chamomile tonight.  Add the others to my Walmart list for a week or whatever out.  Update my paper notes for the day while I wait.  No, I'm not totally paranoid.  Ink on paper can last hundreds of years.  Anything "saved" on digital memory of any type needs power to be read but ink on paper can be read by firelight.

Think I'll read for an hour or so to let supper settle and then go to bed - it's been a long and cold day for me.


---


* www.cdtechno.com/pdf/ref/41_2128_0212.pdf

"It only requires between 107% and 115% of the ampere hours energy removed from a lead acid battery to be restored to achieve a fully charged system capable of delivering 100% of its rated capacity."  (A charge of at least 10% more than the discharge is an easily remembered ballpark figure.)

[papaof2]

Chapter 5


Wednesday, 15 December, 06:40


Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!  Bee-Doop!


That's the SAME weather radio.  What watch/warning are we under at this hour?


'This is the National Weather Service with an Extreme Cold Warning for the following counties: Cherokee, Cochise, Dekalb, Eastman, Greene, Harrison, and Madison.  The current overnight low of 27 degrees will be today's high temperature.  Temperatures will plummet to an expected 8 degrees or lower tonight as an "Arctic Express" front moves across the state.  For the next four or five days, the highs will be in the teens and the overnight lows will be single digits, possibly zero in the northern portions of these counties.  This is a dangerous storm and if you are not certain that you can keep warm enough, the Air Force Reserve unit at Whitside ARB is setting up shelters in two of its heated hangars.  Water and sanitation facilities will be provided, along with a limited menu of food items.  Do NOT expect to find "Vegan" or "Gluten free" selections when eating from military supplies.  You must provide any medications, baby food, diapers, personal hygiene and similar supplies that are needed.  The Reserve is working with the Sheriff's Office in each county to coordinate limited road clearing and the use of school buses to get people to the shelters as soon as possible.  If you need shelter, call your local Sheriff's Office and give them your address and then tie a large red ribbon, red shirt or other red clothing to a tree limb or porch rail in front of your residence.  Please tell your neighbors and call for them if they do not have phone service.  This message is also going out by the Reverse-911 and Amber Alert systems.'


It seems that having the military involved means they also have access to the weather radio system.  Points for whomever contributed that idea.  Also points for getting the school buses in use because that greatly increases the number of people who can be moved at the same time in each county with the Reserve's buses filling in as needed. The school buses should have fuel for the first few loads and maybe more if their garages have power.  Be nice if I could have afforded those two "solar trailer" power units but vehicle maintenance and property taxes were more important at the time so I missed both those auctions.  For the intermittent power usage of pumping fuel, those should work very well and, if there's sun, they might recharge fully before the buses returned for refueling.  Maybe another time.


It's earlier than I planned to be awake but I think I'll go turn off the alarm clock and start the warmup process - but first I need to check the air temperature in the basement without any enhancement for at least six hours and then interpolate today's basement temp with the outside being 27F versus tomorrow's possible basement temp with the outside temp being perhaps a single digit.  BRRRR!  Makes me cold to think about that temperature!  On the bright side, all my outside work the past day or so has been in relatively warmer conditions: 31F is MUCH warmer than any single digit temperature.

OK, 27 degrees overnight and six hours with no heat added and the air temperature is 46F while the battery bank is 48F so I'll make a working assumption that the air is about 2 degrees cooler than the battery bank.  That may not be an absolute value but it's useful when I can check the battery temp remotely and subtract a couple of degrees to see what the air and pipe temperatures might be.  I should use the IR thermometer to see what temperature the pipes in the unconditioned area actually are after no heat being on and no water use for six hours.  I'll need a short ladder to get just the temperatures of the pipes.  The pipes are several feet above the thermometer on the wall and part of them run under the portion of the kitchen floor that's heated by the ceiling fan so they're in a potentially slightly warmer place - and they are showing the 48F of the battery bank.  

I should check where the pipe from the water meter enters the basement as that's the point closest to the actual ground temperature.  Work my way through that storage area and the pipe there is 42F.  This will be the key point for checking pipe temps as it's at whatever the County Water System's recommended distance below ground is for service lines - which should be below the "frost line".  The mains are several feet lower as one runs through the edge of our property and we had flags for water, sewer, gas, electric, phone, cable TV and whatever else runs down this side of the road when they did wholesale replacement of the water mains in this area about ten years ago.  They did a lot of digging along there to be able to use the pneumatic pipe drillers/pushers to get pipe under our driveway and under the road to a house on the other side.  

Thinking about temperatures down here, if the battery temperature drops much from where it is, the battery bank's capacity could be reduced significantly.  I'm sure I have the graph for that on the solar monitor laptop so go there and look under C:\downloads\battery for the UPG UB121000 battery datasheet.  Got it!  Queue just the page with that graph to the inkjet printer and then I need to be back upstairs getting heat going - I'm cold!

OK, back to the main level, burner lit under the whistling teakettle as I go by the stove, gas logs "On", bundle up for lighting the kero heater and out to the porch.  Wick to the "Light" position, press the "Light" button... press the "Light" button...  Back in the house to the small battery tote for two C cells.  Now back outside and I'll need one hand out of the glove for this.  Battery case open, old cells out, new cells in - being sure that they're oriented correctly, battery case closed.  Press "Light"... and we have a flame.  Get that glove back on.  Guess the morning's colder temperature was more than three-year-old batteries could handle - that's why I have two small totes of common battery sizes.  Jiggle the burner a bit to get the flame stable.  Another minute and the heater's good to go.  

Heater's in place.  Turn the RV ceiling fan on - well, it would be on if the battery was charged.  Guess the recharging of that battery got lost in yesterday's offsite busy-ness.  OK, take this battery down to the solar system and connect a buck-boost converter and set it to get this battery back up to 11.4 volts and then take that up a half volt each hour or so until it gets to 14.4 volts.  I have a couple of 7AH batteries so I can get about four hours from each of those and the first one can be charged normally when the second one is put into use.  

If I'll be doing this for perhaps a week, I should put in a 12 volt feed from the solar battery bank.  There's plenty of 16 gauge wire and it's good for almost four amps at twenty feet so it'll be fine for the 0.6 amp load of the fan.  I can probably fish that wire up beside the plumbing in the wall behind the sink and provide a couple of low power outlets under the lip of the countertop to also have power for a fan moving warm air to the bedroom and maybe a small LED strip as a nightlight for the kitchen and hall.  I have a fuse block that can be mounted near the battery bank and a five amp fuse is more than enough.  The simple process of turning the fan on has now generated several hours of work.  I think that work can wait until I've had breakfast.  Maybe a blueberry bagel with some orange marmalade and a slice of bacon to make a bagel sandwich?  And a cup of Earl Grey tea?  First pour up the water from the loudly whistling teakettle and let the tea steep while I warm the bacon and the bagel - using a skillet, not the microwave or the toaster oven.  While I eat, try to work out the relationship of the outside temperature to the unconditioned basement space temperature with and without some level of heat.  

I've tried several things but they all wind up leaving the battery bank too cold when the outside temperature is below 25F and there's been no heat moved to the basement.  I think that just moved the diesel parking heater to the top of today's list.  At full output, that heater uses 0.5 liter/hour which is 0.132 gallon/hour.  I need that online BTU versus cubic feet and level of insulation calculator.  I left the phone on charge last night so it should be ready to go.  Meanwhile, there are some calculations I can do with a basic calculator.  I have 10 gallons of diesel which should be good for 10/0.132 = 75 hours continuous operation at full output.  That's just over three days at maximum power.  But I can block off part of the space so that heater is only heating a small portion of it and then I can see how warm the batteries are with the heater running at maybe half power.  

I'm not trying to get an entire RV up to 68F, just keep a somewhat smaller area at 50F or above.  Be nice if the parking heater's controller worked in degrees - I should read the specs on this one again so add that to my paper notes.  The heater could be mounted "through" a window if I take out one sash of one of the smaller windows down there and make a plywood filler with 1X2 edges to fill the sash track for air sealing.  The heater can be mounted on its side - glowplug UP - and get its combustion air from outside and send its exhaust there.  I don't think I want the diesel tank outside when we may have zero degree weather, so also run the fuel line out through the plywood filler plate.*  

I'll use the factory mounting bracket for the heater because it will fully cover the clearance hole in the plywood filler.  On second thought, I'd like to have the exhaust more than the mounting plate's less-than-an-inch clearance from the plywood filler - that needs a larger metal plate under it.  First I take out one sash, take some pictures and make some measurements then the sash back in place to cover that very cold hole in the wall while I do my thinking in a warmer space.  I need a refill on my tea.  I should fill the teakettle and make another Thermos of hot tea as I'll be going between the warm space and the cold spaces today while I'm working.  Nice to have cordless tools and clean power (pure sine wave inverter) to charge them so I should ensure that all the batteries are charged before I start building.


---


Many pictures and measurements, three cardboard prototypes and several cups of tea later, I think I have the design - one that I'm comfortable will be as safe and sturdy as mounting the heater to the metal floor of a delivery van.  It won't be pretty unless I paint it but it's in a protected space (under a bay window that's on the main level) so the plywood won't get wet in typical rain, the exhaust can be run to one side and be out from under the bay window in free air and the intake can be several feet above the ground and out of any potential dust.  There's an eight inch square of sheet aluminum in the center of the plywood filler - maybe 1/16 inch thick, but sturdy enough when using two pieces and it's easy to cut and drill by hand.   The heater's intake and exhaust tubing can be secured as needed and the fuel pump can be mounted inside the basement along with the included ten liter (2.6 gallon) diesel tank.

My check of the UB121000 battery datasheet** tells me that 50F is also the temperature where the battery's power drops to 85% of its label rating for higher discharge - such as the heater's startup and shutdown.  That makes it the minimum acceptable temperature for the battery bank with the loading it will have overnight.  

My reading of the parking heater's manual tells me that the heater's controller can be switched to "temperature" mode, in "Degrees C ONLY", but that's OK for my use because 50F is 10C and that's easy enough to remember.    Having the parking heater in "temperature" mode means it will throttle back if the day is warmer or there's a useful amount of heat coming from the rest of the basement when the furnace blower is running.  That also means the parking heater will be working hardest when the other heat is off, but that's fine as I'll check what the maximum fuel feed frequency should be at the coldest point - probably around 7AM - and set that as the heater's maximum heat level if that level of adjustment is possible.  It might take a day or two to optimize things but I'm not planning to go anywhere for the next week or ten days.  Of course, I didn't originally plan to be traveling by snowmobile or armed helicopter either.  There is a smoke/CO alarm above the solar power system and it's only a few feet from the parking heater so that bit of safety is covered.

I hear the clock striking twelve.  Have I really been at this that long?  From the stack of paper and cardboard, I have been "thinking with my fingers" but I'm comfortable with my solution.  Leftovers for lunch or supper today?  Supper I think, and I'll make pancakes for lunch.  The Thermos is empty - again - so fill the teakettle and make another Thermos of tea, but decaf this time as a concession to this old body.  That's in progress, so mix up the pancake batter.  Enough for ten pancakes - by the recipe's measurement - but that's only two stacks of three pancakes in the size I make them, a size the kids and grands all loved ;-)  I'll put the leftovers in a freezer bag with waxed paper between the pancakes and freeze them for future use - when or if we again have power for the microwave or toaster oven.

Water has boiled, tea is steeping - both for my lunch cup and the Thermos - and the pancakes are in progress.  Pour a little maple syrup from the jug in the fridge into a small glass bowl and set that bowl in a larger bowl of hot water from the teakettle to have some warm syrup - no microwave oven or power needed.  When the pancakes are ready, the maple syrup and the tea will be also.


---


Lunch was good.  I think I'll do a bit of web searching for things I noted yesterday and this morning - if my phone still has service.  Only one bar, so we've lost the nearest cell tower for whatever reason.  The BTU versus space versus insulation level site is usable on the phone, so plug in my numbers...  If I put up tarps in two places to reduce the space being heated, the maximum BTU needed is 12,000.  That's about 70% of the parking heater's 17,000BTU rating.  On paper, it appears that everything will work but no plan survives contact with the enemy and this time that enemy is the cold that I am trying to keep at bay.  Doing the math, 17.000BTU / 12,000BTU * 75 hours gives about 106 hours or a little over four days from 10 gallons of diesel.  Maybe 50/50 diesel and kerosene to get eight days of fuel that's less cold-sensitive than straight diesel?  

What's the status of my hands?  Probably OK for an hour or so of physical labor but then they'll need a break.  Now to take the full-scale drawings and use them to mark, cut and drill the plywood filler and the aluminum plates.  Then assemble those with the 1X2 strips for the air seal with the sash frame.  I have some pins that will work on the sides of the plywood but I'll need to make the brackets to hold the filler against bottom of the upper sash for a good seal there.  First, I get that filler panel assembled and test-fitted, then take a break.  Then see if I can get the other "hour" of assembly done in the remaining two hours of daylight.  Maybe then eat supper and come back for another hour so the batteries will be warm tonight?  


I hate being old and things taking three times as long to get done...


---


* YouTube video of similar installation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRLgBq8njuY


** Temperature versus rated capacity of the UPG UB121000 (12 volt, 100AH) AGM battery. at

0.05C discharge (20 hour rate) 0.1C discharge (10 hour rate)

77F 100% 77F 100%

50F  95% 50F  85%

32F  87% 32F  77%

14F  78% 14F  68%

 -4F  65%  -4F  50%


The maximum safe discharge for long AGM battery life is 50% of the battery's rated capacity.  I designed my solar systems using the 20 hour rate of the battery because I'm looking for "Wait until daylight" run time, which could be a long time in December.  At 32F, you have 87% of the battery's capacity in July.  If your 400AH battery bank is enough for 12 hours of backup at 77F, at 32F you would only have 400 * 0.87 = 348AH or 12 * 0.87 = 10.44 hours of backup.  9.3 hours at 14F.  7.8 hours at -4F.  Keeping the batteries warm is an absolute necessity to have power overnight.  Lithium batteries provide greater output at lower temperatures but some can ONLY be charged when their temperature is above 32F (0C) and the proper BMS (Battery Management System) will enforce those temperature limits.  If your LiFePO4 batteries are too low to run the heater and they're too cold to be charged, you're in serious trouble.  AGM batteries may be "ancient" technology but they can be recharged regardless of low temperatures - as long as they're not frozen.  You must know all of your circumstances to pick the best backup system for your needs.

[CountryGuy]

Interesting but from my experiences there seem to be a few more realistic and simpler options.

Unless the Deputy has Covid and can't smell, he would have been about knocked over by the smell of raw gas spilling from a cracked hose. Especially as the wind would be blowing it all over as he rode along. Not to mention it likely would have have soaked his pant leg so he'd feel the wetness and cold followed by the burning sensation of the raw gas on his bare skin. Been there done that...

With it being a basement, even a walkout, the insulation and gain from the ground temp would help keep things towards the upper 40's. Having natural gas or propane readily available, with all the preparedness of the main character, I was surprised that he'd spend money on and mess with a diesel powered truck heater when he simply could have installed a simple wall mounted ceramic heater which would keep the basement warm and thru heat convection, the floors above. With a few floor registers to let the heat to rise fully and then return it'd be improved further. Many of those heaters, merely with the pilot light going will raise temps several degrees in a small area within a several foot circle. One of those with a built in fan could be rigged up fairly easily to be on the back up power system.

As proof, years ago in my Dad's unheated 60'x 120' pole barn truck garage I finished up the small bathroom it had that also served as our storage area for anything that couldn't freeze and also housed the pressure tank for the well. It is fondly dubbed the 'shit house'. It's the only area in the building with water and the only heated area. When we worked on the truck he had a large diesel fired torpedo heater we could put in the area we were working. For the shit house, I insulated the outer walls filling it with sheets of insulation board, to fill the 1 1/2 cavity formed by the 2x4 stringers and then another piece of 1" R-max over that. The inner 2x4 stud walls got standard 4" pink insulation and the 2x6 ceiling joists got 6" pink. I finished the walls and ceiling with 7/16" OSB sheeting. The entire room is about 7'x12'. The only heat in it is one of those wall mounted units. It was an old propane unit and just the pilot light on will keep it at around 42-44 when weather outside was in the teens. When it was going to get colder we'd turn it up to where 1 of the 3 'bricks' were lit and that would push and hold the temp into the upper 50's/ low 60's when it was say, with windchill, around negative 20 outside. I think he replaced it a few years ago with a unit that has a thermostat, so he can set it and forget it.

I mean if he was bent on using fuel get another kerosene heater and put it down there, after a few hours the basement will be pushing low to mid 70's and if sweating CO, crack one of the windows.

[papaof2]

CG,
I try to explore many ways of doing things in my stories - and possible obstacles to doing that - but not every member of the cast is an expert in everything and some may not notice the obvious, just like the people we deal with daily :-(

In the story, Jack had an immediate need for heat and used what he had on hand. With a week's notice that temperatures would be 30-40 degrees below normal, he likely would have done something different.

While I can install the black pipe natural gas lines that code requires here (I had to do cleanup after the plumber who installed the gas logs because I smelled gas the next season) but that's not something that everyone can do.

The story's circumstances also allowed me to make note of the effects temperature can have on systems using battery backup and one of the reasons heat was needed.

Not every basement is insulated. Having foundation walls of cement-filled CMU with a brick exterior on the above-ground portions, some basement walls have NO insulation - very much depends on location and year of construction. I can point you to a nice 3BR, 3 bath, 2400 sq ft, mostly brick two story plus basement house with no insulation on the inside of the basement walls. I tend to use houses that I have lived in or worked on because they represent the real world in specific areas. One of the houses I lived in as a kid had no insulation and the "heating system" was a not-very-big blue flame heater in the center of the house - not much different from having a pot bellied stove in the same place, other than requiring much less work. That house later became part of an "urban renewal" site.

[texican]

pp2,

You are a wealth of knowledge. Some of the items you discuss, I am up on and others are new.

Thanks.

Texican....

[papaof2]

Chapter 6


Wednesday, 15 December, 21:17


I'm tired and everything hurts, but the heater is in place and the temperature in the tarp-enclosed area is slowly rising.  It's time for a very late supper so it's good that I chose to have the leftovers now.  Ladle some chowder into a saucepan, light the simmer burner, turn it down, put the saucepan in place and set the windup timer for six minutes while I go get two 500mg acetaminophen tablets.  In about thirty minutes, I'll feel much better, as I'll have had a meal of comfort food and the acetaminophen will have started working.  I'll get one of the home made cornbread muffins out of the bag in the breadbasket and have that with the chowder.  For now, set the paper notes and the laptop aside and just concentrate on the warm food and beverage.


---


There was some excitement while I ate - the weather radio had an update and the new overnight low is -4F.   It's been years since we've had temperatures that low.  Seems that it may truly have been worth the extra effort to get the parking heater in place to keep the battery bank and the pipes warm.  I don't hurt any less but I do feel better about pushing myself that hard.  I would skip setting the alarm for tomorrow morning but I need to know what the heater does during the coldest part of the night.  

On second thought, I could connect an eLog device to one of the solar charge controllers and let it record all the status info every eleven minutes so I would know what the battery temperature and the air temperature were all night long.  I should go spend five minutes doing that and set the morning alarm for at least an hour later than usual.  I need to move a can of diesel from the shed to the basement to keep it from gelling in the single-digit temperatures.  I may be dragging my body back up the stairs by pulling myself up the hand rail hand-over-hand...  


I hate being old.


---

[papaof2]

Chapter 7


Thursday, 16 December, 08:30


Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!


Annoying little alarm clock - but I did get that other hour of sleep.  I should get the heat going up here, go down and get the eLog device and bring it up to transfer its data to a spreadsheet.  I should also check the diesel level in the parking heater's tank to see how much was used last night.


Bzzt!Bzzt!


A text - from Sheriff Thomas.


{Jack, the Reserves had almost 1200 people in their shelters last night.  Thank you for having us get our butts in gear to do that quickly.  More than half of them had no heat, no water (well with only an electric pump) and no means to cook (electric stove) so your "sixth sense" or whatever was right on.  There are several hundred more that the people we rescued have told us about.  Heads up for you: the Governor asked me if you would accept a "Citizen of the Year" award.  I said "Probably not" but that he should ask you himself.}


 I'm not interested in any fanfare but if the Governor wants to talk, I do have a long list of things he can work on for the often neglected and ignored counties in this remote corner of the state.  My list will probably be more expensive than even a solid platinum trophy.

Back to the practical things of surviving when snowbound.  Get dressed, put water on to heat as I go through the kitchen, get both heat sources going, then to the basement to check the air temperature, the UVerse status and retrieve the eLog device - that data can be transferred while I cook breakfast and analyzed while I eat.

Ten minutes later, I'm cooking my omelet as the Earl Grey tea steeps and the gas logs plus kero heater try to get the 57F of the kitchen - 54F in the bedroom - up to something more comfortable.  UVerse is still down.  The basement air temperature was 49F so the parking heater was almost able to keep up with the cold and it was probably a bit warmer up at pipe level - I need to set the maximum fuel flow up just a bit to keep the batteries at or above 50F - and that heater's fuel tank was about 2/3 full so the heater ran at roughly 70% output most of the night.  When the temperature on this level gets up to 65F, I'll go down and operate the transfer switch for the furnace and run its blower for maybe twenty minutes and see what, if anything, that does for the conditioned and unconditioned basement spaces.  It may need to run longer than that but I won't be able to estimate how much longer until the first run has finished.  The data transfer from the eLog device has finished so I'll need to format some of the columns and rename part of them to make a useful graph of the overnight temperatures.  That can wait until I finish eating the omelet I just moved to a warm plate.


---


I enjoyed that meal - probably helps that I got more sleep last night - and now I need to tweak the spreadsheet.  Need the dates and times in a better format for printing a graph and the graph setup will be easier if the column order is adjusted.  

Those things done.  Spreadsheet saved as "ParkingHeater16Dec.xls".  Now to add the graph and tell it "New Page" so the graph will be the only thing on that page.  I can duplicate this for the next night and see how well my adjustments to the parking heater work.  Send the graph to the inkjet printer.  Save the spreadsheet and close it.  The printer is off but all the computers are configured to queue print jobs and hold them until the printer is ready.  I'll go turn that printer on long enough for it to print what's been queued and then turn it back off.  That printer's idle power is only two watts but that two watts is used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so the printer is turned off when we're on alternate power.


Graph has about what I expected.  If I power the parking heater from the "Load" terminals of one of the solar charge controllers, I can also collect its power usage (volts, amps and watts) on the eLog device at those same eleven minute intervals so I'll have power usage - which roughly correlates to heat output - at the various air temperatures overnight.  I should go make that change.  That requires turning the heater off - a "soft" off so it goes through the full cooldown cycle - and then a restart.  Takes a little longer and uses a little more power but it's cheaper than replacing the internal controller board that may overheat and die if you do a sudden "all power off" shutdown.  Jacket and gloves on, down the stairs.  Press the heater's "Off" button until it responds and wait until the controller displays "Off" - maybe five to ten minutes.


I waited, the heater cooled down and now I can move the parking heater's power connection from the battery bank's fuse block to the "Load" terminals of the second charge controller because it's the one closest to the heater and allows for the shortest wire run and the least loss in the wiring: the fan and the glowplug together draw almost ten amps during startup and shutdown.  Wires in place.  The charge controller's "Load" terminals active.  Press the heater's "On" button until it responds.  Now I can indirectly monitor basement air temperature and parking heater output via the solar charge controller's monitor.  The heater is back to normal running so time for me to be back where it's warmer.

Outdoor gear off, fingerless gloves on, thermometer in the kitchen is up to 62 near the kero heater but the floor has only risen one degree from the efforts of the little ceiling fan - but any increase is helpful.  The room with the gas logs is up to 63 - the gas logs are in a slightly larger space but they are rated at 30,000BTU versus the kero heater's 22,000BTU so they would be able to heat that space a little faster.  Together, that's 52,000BTU but the furnace sized to heat this level and the conditioned space in the basement is 95,000BTU so I don't expect the alternate heat sources to quickly heat this level and the basement to a comfortable temperature.  I'm just interested keeping part of this level comfortable and the heated area of the basement warm enough to keep the pipes there from freezing.  Then the parking heater for the battery bank and the pipes in the unconditioned space down there.  If that heater used 1/3 of 2.6 gallons, that's about 0.9 gallon overnight and the heat moved by the furnace blower might help some during the day, so even with the heater turned up a bit ten gallons might last about a week at the current temperatures and - until the weather radio says otherwise - we might be out of the worst of the cold before then.  If things get colder or it lasts longer, I'll definitely be running 50/50 diesel and kero to have more days of fuel.  My $120 gamble on the parking heater seems to have paid off big time ;-)  I think I'll call that a good investment: I learned something and I had what was needed in unexpected circumstances.  This event is probably worthy of its own entry in the preparedness pamphlet I'm working on.  I should go ahead and order a spare fuel pump, controller board, wired temperature controller and a good glowplug for the parking heater to have spares.  I expect all the original active pieces to last at least a week so the delivery date for the spares shouldn't be critical.


---


Thursday, 16 December, 14:00


My muse has been very active, with me getting about 4,000 words of a new story entered since breakfast.  I think the headache I have now is from being so engrossed in writing the story that I missed lunch.  Oh, well, I can't think of a better reason to miss a meal - it's a rare day that my muse delivers that much inspiration.  Time for acetaminophen, food and checking the fuel gauge on the kero heater.  I also need to check the voltage on the battery powering the RV ceiling fan and then will probably need to swap batteries and put that one on charge.  It's also time to up the charge on the battery that was excessively discharged yesterday.  I think I'll bring up one of the LS1024B PWM solar charge controllers to use with the battery plus ceiling fan configuration until I get the 12 volt line run from the battery bank.  That controller can be set for the battery voltage at which it should disconnect the "Load" terminals and that will be protection for the next battery if my muse is again this prolific and I lose track of time.  Disconnect the in-service battery.  Jacket and gloves for the trip to the basement.  I'm down the stairs.  Get the charged battery, connect it to the LS1024B, connect that to the solar monitor on the laptop down here, set the "Load disconnect" value to 12.35 volts, save that change, disconnect from the laptop, disconnect the LS1024B for the trip up the stairs, put the discharged battery on charge.  Less than five minutes down here in the cold - helps to know exactly where all the pieces are.  Back up the stairs and put the battery and the LS1024B in place and connect the fan.  Turn the fan's switch to "High" and it's again warming the floor.  


knock.  knock.  knock.  knock.  knock.  knock.


"You in 'ere, Jack?  I need pow'r and a plaze to cook th' stuff from Omaha Steaks 'fore it thaws!  Jack, you listnin' to me?  Jack!  Jack, don'chu dare ignore me!"


I know that neighbor's voice, the front camera tells me she's out in just a sweater and the slur tells me she's had half a bottle of vodka and probably brought the other half of that bottle with her in the Yeti mug.  I'll let the cold force her back home as I'll never get rid of her if she discovers that I have any level of heat.  Just as well that I was in the basement with no obvious light or motion for a while as there are tracks from the road to both doors.  I wonder: Do people who don't plan for the unexpected just wrap up in a blanket and hope for rescue as they freeze or starve to death?  Nothing you can do to move some of them from their "Can't happen to me" mindset.  Their income has to be several times ours but they never seem to have much beyond the latest iPhones and the biggest TV on the block.  I've passed along "How To" sheets on food storage, alternate heating, alternate lighting, alternate cooking and alternate power but I've never seen any evidence of them following up on it.  Guess their iPhones weren't charged enough to get the Amber Alert about a warm place to stay and hot food - or maybe they're too good to sleep in a warm hangar instead of in a near- or below-freezing house.  I know the snowplow and a bus made it through here while I was gone because you just can't miss the evidence of a snowplow in twenty inches or more of snow.  Do I text Sheriff Thomas?  Probably should.  The death of Ginny's significant other would bother me - a lot more than hers.


{Sheriff.  Just noticed that one of my neighbors is out drunk banging on doors looking for a place to cook food.  I'll guess their iPhones were dead from being on Facebook and Twitter, probably complaining about the power being off, so they didn't get the Amber Alert and I doubt that they cranked the weather radio I gave them to be able to hear those alerts.  It's the house just West of me - usually has a Volvo and an Audi in the drive.  Jack}


That's sent, if a bit slower than usual.  Will I be without cell service soon?  No way to know until the phone beeps or I check it and find "No service" on the screen.  If that happens, I'll ensure that the phone is charged, turned off and put where I can find it so I can check it a couple of times a day.  There's a cell phone booster in the basement.  One antenna should be on the roof of the house for separation from the other antenna but, as a concession to the snow on the roof, maybe I could put one antenna on the shed and point it at the strongest cell tower and point the other antenna at the house?  How long are the coax cables on those antennas?  Add that to my paper notes and worry about it later.  For now, empty the cabinet under the kitchen sink and run a fish tape down alongside the plumbing to the basement.  That cabinet's almost directly over the shelving unit with the solar system on it, so it should be a very short run to the battery bank.  

Twenty minutes later, the cabinet has been emptied and the tape is down eight feet which should be about the right place.  Jacket and gloves on and down to the basement to check.  

It's right where I wanted it!  Grab rolls of red and black 16 gauge wire, loop them over the hook on the fish tape and tape them to it.  Add a wrap of Scotch #33 electrical tape every couple of feet to keep the wires together neatly as I walk the rolls of wire out about twenty feet.  That's enough to get up to the kitchen and out to the edge of the countertop where I want the power connectors so I add a small weight on the wires to keep them taut and then me back up to the warm space to pull the fish tape back up.


Fish tape is up and back on its reel.  Wire is stapled along the upper edge of the cabinet walls - the countertop is quartz so no quick and easy way of attaching wire to it.  I added an XT30 chassis mount female connector and two 2.1mm/5.1mm chassis mount female coaxial connectors on the sinkfront and a terminal strip inside the cabinet.  That last item is for the LED strip lighting I've considered for the lower cabinets - it would have a switch on each door or drawer that operated a common LED strip light on that switch's side of the sink.  There would always be some level of light for the lower cabinets and drawers when one was opened.  Unless I'm totally bored one day while snowbound, that's probably a warm weather project because there's a lot of heavy stuff (serious cast iron cookware, bread-dough-kneading-capable mixer) that must be moved to provide enough access inside the cabinets.

The XT30 and the two 2.1/5.1 each have individual three amp fuses.  The fan will be on one of the 2.1/5.1.  The other 2.1/5.1 can be for a "nightlight" LED strip in the kitchen.  The XT30 will be a generic "low power 12 volt source" - charging/testing a GPS or a CB or whatever.  If I'd had 10 gauge wire, the XT30 could have had a 15 amp fuse and the 10 gauge wire a 30 amp fuse.  But, for now, I'm just using what I have on hand to meet the immediate need.

One more trip to the basement to connect the other ends of the 16 gauge wire to the fuseblock and check the batteries that are on charge.  Then bring up the tools to add the male 2.1/5.1 plug to the fan's cord.


An hour after I started, it's all done and I'll take the tools - and the other 7AH battery - down when I make the next check on the batteries that are now on charge.  In my immediate future, I see two acetaminophen, a cup of hot tea, a gingerbread cookie and some time on a heating pad - nice that I know exactly what the backup system status is when that heating pad starts at 150 watts and then drops back to the heat level you've chosen.


I've finished the cookie and the tea so I think I'll stretch out here on the sofa for a few minutes and let the heat work on me.


---


Thursday, 16 December, 17:00


I think my body segued to a nap without notifying me.  That's OK, I missed some sleep earlier this week and this old body is trying to make up for that.  I'm a bit stiff - this sofa is sleepable but not as good as the Sleep Number mattress.  I am mentally refreshed and not quite as tired as when I sat down about two hours ago - good that the heating pads have auto-shutoff.  Guess I should make the rounds and check that the parking heater is still working, see if UVerse is back up - not likely - and note the reported basement temperatures on the solar monitor and the wall thermometer down there.  Jacket and gloves before I head down.

The solar monitor's graph of the "Load" current shows the parking heater's current draw rapidly going up to ten amps when I started it and then settling down to less than an amp - but that has started back up as we approach sundown and lose the bit of sun on part of the basement that faces West.  I think I'll know a great deal more about parking heater power usage versus temperature after 24 hours.  I will need to note the time whenever I run the furnace blower to circulate the warm air from upstairs so I can correlate that with any basement temperature changes and the parking heater's power level.   Be nice if my weather station was working so I'd also have the outside temperature and any wind recorded at ten minute intervals - it'll be a much warmer day before I'm up on a ladder to check that.  I need to reset the continuously appending graph of the solar monitor so I have better time resolution on that graph.  Print the current graph from each controller and then reset both of them.  Remember to add a note that the "Load" usage on the second controller is associated with startup of the parking heater so I'll have that when I start a spreadsheet for the time, temperature, power and estimated fuel use.  Graphs are queued for printing; monitors reset on both solar charge controllers so anything that changes is at basically the same time (give or take a few seconds) on both graphs.  Take the fuel pulse frequency on the parking heater's control panel up by 0.2 pulses per second and see if that's all that's needed for it to maintain 50F.  Power up the UVerse equipment.   No connection in two minutes so it's not back and that can all be turned off until tomorrow.  I'm cold, so time to go back up to a warmer space.  


The clock is striking 7PM as I go up the stairs.  Reasonable that I'm cold if I was down there almost two hours.  Time to put some water on for hot tea and warm up some of that comfort food chowder.  I think with a bit of shredded cheddar and some crumbled bacon on it after it's hot.  Get those things on to heat and then turn on the inkjet printer to get the graph printouts.  Printing done and printer back off.  Pen in hand to note "Parking heater startup" on the proper graph.  The whistling teakettle is calling, so back to my kitchen duties.

Supper is good - again...


Bee-Bee-Doo


What's my phone complaining about now?


Screen shows "No service."


"Not the '911 service only' of an unregistered or unpaid phone but the 'No service' of 'You are out of range of any cell tower'."


That one's self-explanatory if unexpected - my power has been off less than 96 hours.  I would have thought the cell towers had more backup than that but we lost the closest one earlier - at something like 48 hours after I lost power.  After 20+ years, I've been retired too long to still have any phone company contacts who could supply me with that sort of info about the local phone infrastructure.  Could it be just our cell service provider?  I have that older Galaxy phone that I use with the Wallabot so maybe see if it...  It needs to be charged.  Connect it to the USB charging port that's powered when any backup power is on and come back in twenty minutes or so.

I would rather be watching another episode of "How It's Made" but the TV averages 100 watts and the DVR averages 20 watts so better to use that thirty minutes of power for the heating pad on my back.  Meanwhile, what does my remote access to the solar monitor laptop tell me about the parking heater?

The battery temperature is 50F.  The parking heater is using 1.1 amps so it's producing more heat - pumping fuel more often to burn that fuel for more heat and running the fan faster to move that heat into the designated space.  


---


The Galaxy 6 is at 34%, so more than enough to test it.  Power it up and let it search for service...

After five minutes, that screen has "No service" so not a problem with a single provider.  Add the cell phone booster to my paper list for tomorrow.  I do know where the nearest towers are in each direction so maybe test it with the "To tower" antenna in the attic and the "To house" antenna in the basement?  On second thought, I can set that up tonight - first all the things that can be done on the main level or in the basement and then taking the "To tower" antenna to the attic and pointing it in the right direction(s) looking for a signal.  I do have that "cell signal strength" app on my phone that simply looks for cell signals regardless of carrier.  I should try that before moving any pieces up or down the stairs.


The app sees two very weak signals that it graphs in blue (for AT&T).  That's not my provider but many cell towers are shared, so I can try aiming the "To tower" antenna in those directions and see if there's anything from my carrier.  Back to the basement for that box of goodies.

I'll need to see where in the attic I can best aim the antenna at the strongest of the two weak signals and where that would put the "To house" antenna at their widest separation.  Lots more stair climbing and attic crawling than I had planned on.  This will probably be a hydrocodone night.  


---


I hate being old, especially when all my stair climbing and attic crawling did NOT get me cell service - my carrier just "isn't there".  This is definitely a hydrocodone night.


---

[papaof2]

Chapter 8


Friday, 17 December, 08:00


Beep!Beep!  Beep!Beep!


My annoying little clock is still working.  I think the overnight low made its forecast negative number as it was COLD in this bedroom when I put my hand out to silence the alarm.  Again, the day's clothes are in the bed with me so get into my uniform of the day before flipping the covers back and putting my double-wool-socked feet into those cold wool-lined slippers.  Get the "blanket with sleeves" housecoat on and then check the temperature.  51F.  Not too bad with a forecast of -4F overnight and no heat on this level.  I should go work on heat and other warm things.  Fill the whistling teakettle as I go through the kitchen - thermometer in there has 53F - and light the burner for the teakettle.  Then to the remote for the gas logs and hit "On".  Once again, blue flames.  Nice to have reliable alternate heat.

Into the outdoor garb and insulated boots and out to light the kero heater.  Wick to "Light".  Press the "Light" button - and it slowly gets that heating element hot enough to get a flame.  Those almost new C cells aren't happy with -4F or whatever it is out here.  Aim my light at the big dial thermometer...  -12F?  Double BRRRR!!  No wonder the house is cold and the batteries were having a hard time lighting the heater.  Glad that I did turn off the inside shutoffs for all the outside hydrants and let them drain when freezing rain was predicted - not likely to have any of that plumbing damaged by the cold.  The kero heater is having its own slow start, as it's taking much longer than usual to get a "normal" flame.  OK, leave the heater as is and I'll go inside for five minutes to get warm.  It's very cold out here for me.


I hate being old.


---


I'm now slightly less cold thanks to a few minutes sitting in front of the flames of the gas logs, so bundle up and out to get the heater.  The flame is stable - HOORAH!  Now to get it inside and put that stable flame to work warming people space.

Heater's in, boots and other outdoor gear off - except for the down vest - fingerless gloves on and the whistling teakettle is now screaming for attention.  That's poured up for my breakfast cup of tea and the morning's Thermos of hot tea.  Get the eggs and cheese from the fridge and a slice of frozen pre-cooked bacon.  Burner lit.  Skillet on the burner.  Bacon in over low heat until it sizzles then on a paper towel while the eggs and cheese go into the skillet for an omelet and the bacon is crumbled in at the last minute.  Think I'd like to have biscuits tomorrow so either dig out the folding camp stove oven or bake the biscuits in a Dutch oven - the Dutch oven doesn't require yet another trip to the basement so it wins that debate.  That's a cooking project for when this space is somewhat warmer.  If I had enough extra power to use the gas stove's oven (electric igniter is 380 watts and is on about half the time the oven is in use), I'd have the oven on to bake biscuits now and add to the heat in here.  Warm a plate and then slide the omelet onto that plate.  My tea is ready in the same minute so me to the table.  Boot my laptop so I can check the solar monitor.  Interesting.  I'll want to print these graphs individually for the best time resolution.  Queue those now and I can turn on the printer when I finish eating.  I need to turn the RV ceiling fan on to heat the floor.

My first impression from the graphs is that I need to run the generator this morning because the parking heater was running hard most of the night and overall it used noticeably more power than the previous night: A) the heater was set to produce more heat and B) the overnight low was much lower.  Plus the video on heater power usage was done on a similar but not identical heater.  I'll have the power usage details for this specific heater when I have the paper copies of the graphs.  Don't think I want to try starting the little gen with it at -12F so I'll bring it into the basement and put it inside the parking heater's somewhat warmer area for two hours to let it warm up some.  That should make it much easier to start.

Last sip of my cup of tea so my dishes to the sink and I'll need to wash dishes today.  I'll need to fill the teakettle again to have hot water for that.  I'll run some very cold water into the sink - if County Water is still running - and add the hot water to get a sinkful of usefully warm water.  If no running water, I'll bring up five gallons of not-as-cold water and use some of it.

Teakettle filled and back on the burner.  That long-nosed grill lighter is getting a lot of use - good that I have two more of them.

Shouldn't the weather radio have notified people of the much colder low temperature?  I should check it.  Nothing but static when I press the "Listen" bar.  OK, click through the other NWS frequencies in the area and see if any of them are...


'... Repeating: The NWS transmitters for Cherokee, Cochise, Dekalb, Eastman, Greene, Harrison, and Madison Counties have been down since 22:30 on 15 December for unknown reasons.  This station will provide reports and alerts for those counties until their normal transmitters are restored.  Be advised that this station does not have complete coverage of those counties so please notify your neighbors if possible.  Repeating: Cherokee, Cochise, Dekalb, Eastman, Greene, Harrison, and Madison Counties will have a high today of no more than 8 degrees and a low tonight of -17 or lower.  These can be deadly temperatures so find better shelter if you are not certain that you can keep yourself warm.  If possible, contact your Sheriff's Office for transport to the shelters at Whitside ARB.'


OK, lock that in as the primary channel and see what updates I get.  Missing 24 hours of weather information truly could be deadly for some people.  My info is now current and I've also made entries in my paper log.  This is getting scary - more for others than for myself, as I can "shrink in" even more if needed and sleep in a tent in the room with the gas logs.  Not my first choice, but I do have some options - not so much for most other people.  I need to know how much fuel the parking heater used overnight.  I had marked the tank yesterday so I can interpolate from there and I'm sure I'll need to refill that tank today.  I added a fuel shutoff valve to that tank so I can disconnect it and take it outside and fill it with a siphon to avoid most of the drips and spills of getting any fuel from a full five gallon "safety" container into anything smaller than a four inch diameter opening.  The people setting "safety" standards apparently think that two-year-olds will be turning up a five gallon can that weighs twice what they do and drinking from its spout.  Idiots!


I hear that snowmobile again.  What does Sheriff Thomas want now?


Knock!  Knock!


Yup, there's that law enforcement knock again.  I already have my jacket on and I'm at the door.


"Yes, Deputy Bell?"

"Two things Mr. Wilson.  First the weather radio station..."

"Died about 36 hours ago.  Already found that by scanning the other NWS channels when the predicted -4 was -12 on my thermometer."

"There was an explosion at their transmitter.  No one killed or injured but they don't yet know exactly what happened."

"Possibly anything from trying to put gas in a running generator to trying to use gasoline in a kerosene heater.  What's the other thing?"

"They don't know when any of the cell towers will be back up, so Colonel Dempsey sent you this satellite phone.  It's charged and the usage minutes will be paid by FEMA.  Can you charge it if needed?"

"Yes, I can charge it.  Thank you, thank the sheriff and I'm not yet sure about whether to thank the Colonel as he may just want to pick my brain."

"Uh, um..."

"That's what Sheriff Thomas said?"

"Yes sir.  By the way, Katie says she has thirty hugs for you - one for each volume of the encyclopedia."

"Tell her I'm very glad to have made her happy.  She's a bright and precious girl."

"'Precious girl' - that what my Dad called her when he was alive.  I think she'll definitely be saying 'Grandpa Wilson'."

"If she does, tell her I'm honored to be included in her family."

"I will.  You're OK with the minus whatever temperatures?"

"I can manage around them.  It was 51 in my bedroom this morning but I had planned for that.  Just like when tent camping: you have your day clothes in bed with you so they're warm and you dress for the day before you throw the covers back or unzip your sleeping bag."

"I'll have to remind my family of that.  Katie was Little Miss Mullygrumps with 'I'm cold!', 'It's cold!' and 'Will I ever be warm again?' until she got her first cup of hot chocolate."

"I have an improvement for the hot chocolate.  Come with me."

"You can 'manage'.  This is warmer than our place.  How'd you do it?"

"You noticed that I answered the door in a jacket, hat and gloves?"

"Yes..."

"I've closed off almost half of this level.  There's no plumbing in that space so the temperature there isn't important.  The kero heater is 22,000BTU.  The gas logs in the fireplace are 30,000BTU.  That's 52,000BTU but the house's furnace is rated at 95,000BTU.  I need to keep the basement warm enough to keep the pipes there from freezing and to keep the battery bank for the solar system warm enough to provide a useful amount of pow..."

"I never thought about that.  The solar generator should be in heated space?"

"Yes..."

"But how do you heat just a little of the basement?"

"Two things.  One, when this level is comfortable, I can run the furnace blower for a few minutes each hour and keep the conditioned area of the basement above freezing.  Two, I have a diesel parking heater - what semis and RVs use - that's set up in a small portion of the unconditioned space to keep the batteries at 50F and that also protects the pipes there."

"How?"

"Couple of tarps in the right places.  I need to run the inverter generator to bring the batteries back up to full charge as the parking heater was working hard all night and used more power than I had estimated.  That gen is now in that heated space so it'll be a little easier to start when I take it outside."

"Hard to make an accurate estimate unless you know it'll be -12."

"Correct.  Anyway, the purpose of your walk to here:  some snowman shaped marshmallows and a recipe for 'Snowman Soup' hot chocolate.  The kid version has a little cinnamon in it.  The adult version also has just a touch of cayenne."

"That sounds good!  You will definitely be 'Grandpa Wilson'."

"I will definitely like that.  Will Katie include my wife?  The 'Snowman Soup' recipe is hers."

"I think that'll be upgraded to 'Grandma and Grandpa Wilson'."

"You should go have fun with this terrific kid I've never met."

"I'd really like to play hooky and do that but I have a scouting or maybe a search and rescue mission.  You texted the sheriff some time before the cell towers died?"

"The house where there's smoke coming from their gas grill so maybe they've burned breakfast?  I guess it's also possible that they're making burnt sacrifices in an attempt placate the weather gods."

"I like your sense of humor!  There are two heated snowmobile suits in size XXL so they should work for almost anyone.  The cargo box can be folded down to make room for another passenger.  There's a warm Reserve bus with medics and food waiting about two miles from here for this morning's collection of people so I'll take them there to get any needed care and then the Reserve will get them to the shelter."

"Thanks, Deputy."

"Thank you, 'Grandpa'."


---


"How much stuff can we take with us?"

"Ma'am, you're allowed whatever will fit in one piece of carry-on luggage.  No alcohol, no tobacco, no recreational drugs.  The military strictly enforces that and they WILL put you in a cell if you're in violation."

"But I need my vodka..."

"It stays or you can stay with it.  I don't make the rules; I just drive the taxi.  Leave it and be fed and warm or stay with it and freeze.  Your choice.  My next stop is to pick up a family with two small children so I won't waste time here.  I'll be leaving in five minutes, with or without you."

"Bubba, he can't do that!"

"He can, Ginny.  He's working under the constraints of the military and the Sheriff's Office so you do as he says or you stay here and freeze.  I'm packed.  You've whined away two of your five minutes so you better pack quickly."

"But I need more clothes than that little suitcase..."

"Who are you planning to impress?  The privates that are cooking the food or the ones that are serving it?  I seriously doubt that you will see any of the officers unless you do something worthy of being cuffed and jailed."

"But..."

"No more buts or you'll be staying here and freezing yours off.  I know how cold 17 below zero is and we can't keep any space here warm enough.  You have two minutes to pack."

"I hate you!  I hate him!  I hate this stupid weather!"

"You chose this location over my objections so your choices are coming back to bite you.  One minute."

"Bubba, Honey, I need at least an hour to pack!"

"Better hurry and fit all that into your last minute."


---


I hear the snowmobile leaving.  I couldn't make out what they were saying but from the volume of Ginny's whining, I'll guess she was unhappy with the military's probable "No booze" limitation, the reasonable "one piece" luggage limit on the snowmobile and the likely "No dietary restrictions accommodated" meal plan.  Note when they were picked up and that I think they're the last people near me.  

It seems the "crazy old man" in the area is the only one who has what's needed to manage in less-than-normal conditions.  No one has ever said that to my face but I've heard the younger kids asking in a whisper 'Is he that "crazy old man"?'  Not that most of the people who were evacuated will do anything different when they get back home.  They'll take the media's "once in 100 years" storm description as gospel and "just know" that it can't happen again.  But it hasn't been 100 years since the last storm this bad - it's been less than 40 years.  The adage of "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is unfortunately true.  

I think I may have contributed all I can to this event, with more than 1500 people now in the shelters at Whitside.  That may not sound like many, but it's maybe half the total population of these sparsely populated rural counties.


---


I think I had planned to check the fuel level in the parking heater's tank.  Bundle up, go down and check the tank.

At full output, the parking heater burns through the 2.6 gallon tank in about 19 hours.  There's just over an inch (quick guess: half a liter or about a pint) left in the tank so I'll guess that the heater spent most its time at close to full output.  Hit the "Off" switch on the heater's controller and wait for it to cool down and turn off. Then turn off the fuel valve, disconnect the tank, grab the can of diesel that's in the 30 gallon galvanized can, get the key to the shed, go out to the shed for a siphon and spend the five minutes or so it takes to transfer that much fuel.  I can use the kerosene siphon, as the film of diesel left on the siphon's surfaces won't matter to the kero heater.

I need to transfer the eLog data to a spreadsheet and work out how much fuel is being used at each level of electric power usage and temperature.  That should allow me to generate some useful predictions that are based on real world usage.  Work some of that out in my head while I wait for the diesel transfer to complete.  If the parking heater becomes a long term heat source, I'll need to set up a much larger tank for it - filling this one every 24 hours will get old quickly.  Maybe a ten gallon tank with a fuel gauge on it?

Little tank's full so cap the diesel can.  Siphon back over its drip pan, diesel can and parking heater fuel tank back to the basement.  Little tank back in its mount, fuel line connected, fuel valve open.  Press "On" on the heater's controller and the heater's starting up.  I should have printed the power usage graph before restarting the heater.  That's OK, I can pull the every-eleven-minutes data snapshots from the eLog device and make a graph of any time period in its memory.  Just let the heater run and come down to get the eLog data tomorrow about this time to have a 24 hour run with a high of 6F and a low of -18F, if the weather-guessers are correct.  Good that I have the additional diesel for the heater and that it's been treated.  But not treated enough to handle -18F overnight.  Need to remember to move the other diesel can to the basement when the first one is empty.

Back up the stairs to the warm space and process some data.  The windup clock is striking twelve as I top the stairs so maybe time for lunch?  I'd really like a freshly grilled homemade onion burger and we have perhaps a half-dozen in the freezer along with a bag of frozen whole wheat hamburger buns.  If I grilled all of the burgers, I could have one every day for almost a week.  Heating them on the stove takes a bit of patience compared to using the microwave oven but I think it'll be worth the effort.  Don't think I'll have burgers today as they'll need to thaw for a while - maybe four hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge - so I can separate them.  The waxed paper separators weren't big enough and the patties are frozen together at the edges.  These may have been the ones leftover from the July 4th party and we were at the end of the roll of waxed paper.  I think that convinced Sarah to always buy two of the biggest boxes of waxed paper at Costco and not one little box at the grocery store.  If the burgers are on tomorrow's menu, what's on the menu today?  The easiest thing is that bowl of chicken noodle soup in the fridge.  I can grill a cheese sandwich on pumpernickel while the soup heats and there's still one cup of warm tea in the Thermos - need to refill the teakettle and heat it to brew another Thermos of tea.


---


Warm meal; warm body.  Good combination.  The thermometer on the covered porch is up to 2F.  Still very cold but a little better than the negative numbers from the standpoint of heating.  We also have intermittent sun today which will help with warming the house and charging the battery bank.

I still feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Nothing specific, just a tingle in my "sixth sense" or whatever it is that keeps you alive on the field of battle.  Guess I'll know what it is in another day or so.


---

[bluefox2]

Liking this story. As my Dad would have said, "Getting old isn't for Wussies"

[gipsy]

Enjoying this saga for sure

[papaof2]

Chapter 9


Friday, 17 December, 14:10


I should call Sarah and give her status - and my new phone number.  Open the backpack and there's the phone, a wall charger with a half dozen adapters for different countries, a spare battery pack, a 12/24 volt mobile charger, a solar panel and a paper manual.  The number is on peel-off labels on the front of the manual and on the back of the phone.  The manual was printed last year so does this phone include a camera?  Yes.  Turn the phone on - and the battery is at 50% so it should be OK for a few calls.  Take a picture of the manual with the number readable.  Text Sarah with "Call me, Love.  See new number." and attach that picture.  A minute or two and that is done and the text is on its way.


Ring!Ring!Ring!


That ring sounds very much like the bell in an ancient 300 series telephone.  Caller ID is Sarah's number.


'Jack?'

'Yes, Sarah.  My responses may seem slow because this is a satellite phone and there is some delay between you speaking and me responding to you and between me speaking and you responding to me.'

'Like that awful satellite internet service?'

'Similar but not as bad.  Someone else is paying for this.'

'How?'

'I got the generator running at the Sheriff's Office, which led to me getting the generator running at Whitside ARB, which led to them following my suggestion that they turn the heated hangars into shelters for the people without power, which led to them using the weather radio plus Reverse-911 and Amber Alert to tell people about the shelters and they used the Reserve's snowplow to clear 30 inches of snow so the school buses could be used to move about 1200 people into the shelters before this morning's low of -12.  They're still moving people as Deputy Bell was out on a snowmobile earlier to drop off this phone before going over to get Bubba and Ginny per my text request just before my cell phone service died.  Seems Colonel Dempsey may want to pick my brain again so he sent the sat phone because all the cell phone towers are down."

'I think I want the original hardback book version of this because the 'condensed books' version gave me more questions than answers.'

'Be glad to sit and tell you all about it when you get back.'

'I think -12 degrees and 30 inches of snow tell me that very little is moving.'

'Snowmobiles, copters and things that can easily follow a snowplow.'

'How are you staying warm with no power and -12 lows?'

'Sleeping under a lot of cover and keeping the next day's clothes in bed with me.'

'What about heat?'

'Kero heater, gas logs and the diesel parking heater running to keep the solar battery bank and some of the pipes warm.'

'You have enough information for another book yet?'

'More than 4,000 words of inspiration one day.'

'Then you're doing OK.'

'How about you, Love?'

'Enjoying being great-grandma.  Kelly's a good baby, only complaining when her tummy is empty or her diaper is full.'

'Reminds me of her mother - but don't tell her I said that.'

'I already said it.  The new mother took it as a compliment.  We're having a late lunch here and they're putting it on the table now.  Can I call you back later?'

'Of course.  Just wanted you to know status and my new phone number.  Love you.'

'I'll share the number selectively.  Love you too.'


That's better.  I know she's OK.  She knows I'm OK and she can contact me if needed.  I'll share the possible new 'Grandma and Grandpa' when she gets back.


I should put the sat phone on charge.  Does the spare battery have a charging port or can it only be charged when it's in the phone?  It has a charge port!  I'll plan to charge it after the battery in the phone is charged.  Might as well have the phone configured with some "backup power".


---


I hear that snowmobile again but this time it sputtered to a stop a little ways up the road.  I can check that via a camera.  


DAMN!  I gotta go fix this!!


---

[texican]

I hear that snowmobile again but this time it sputtered to a stop a little ways up the road. I can check that via a camera.


DAMN! I gotta go fix this!!

pp2,

A kliff. Your muse is setting us up.

We have propane, propane heaters and the stove is propane and can be lighted with a lighter, so heating is not a problem.

Thanks for the chapters.

Texican...

[papaof2]

Chapter 10


Friday, 17 December, 19:50


Ring!Ring!Ring!


'This is Jack.'

'Where are you, Jack?  The background noise isn't familiar.'

'The infirmary at Whitside ARB.'

'You're in a hospital, Jack?  What happened?'

'A little too much time out in the snow.'

'Explain "too much time".  You have too much experience in cold weather to do anything stupid.'

'Katie Bell decided she had to thank me in person for the encyclopedia I sent home with her dad, Deputy Bell.'

'And how did she get through 30 inches of snow?'

'Her dad's snowmobile but she ran out of gas about a quarter mile from here.  I heard the machine, so I checked the cameras when it stopped and I saw her floundering in the too-deep-for-her snow.  I put on snowshoes, went out and picked her up and brought her to the house to get warm - she wasn't quite well enough covered for snowmobile travel in 6F weather.'

'So your "I gotta fix this!" took over and you got her warm, treated the potential frostbite, found dry clothes for her, carried five gallons of gas to the snowmobile to fill it up, then drove it back to the house, topped off the gas can, called Colonel Dempsey looking for the closest place to get care for her and decided to take her to Whitside because you could do no less for a girl who sounds like a clone of one of your daughters?'

'You read me too well, but we also had two heated snowmobile suits and enough gas to make the trip and return.  Katie's fine.  I'm dealing with a little too much time in the cold but mostly too much of the bouncing and banging of snowmobile travel over poor surfaces at high speeds for an old man, but the good doctor said "NO!" to my request to just let me go home so I got the full exam, including some xrays and them taking five vials of blood for automated testing.  She'll probably release me first thing tomorrow but with the minimum travel vehicle being one of their heated Suburbans with the snowmobile to be delivered to Deputy Bell.  Katie also gets delivered there, although she said she'd rather stay with me because it's warmer at my house and I cook "good stuff": the sausage bean chowder with a cup of "Snowman Soup" as her warm beverage.'

'She's how old?'

'Ten.'

'And just full of "How?" and "Why?" questions?'

'Correct.'

'No surprise that you risked your life for a clone of one of your daughters.  I want to meet this young lady.'

'She wants to call us "Grandma and Grandpa Wilson".'

'I think I can live with that.'

'Me too, Love.'

'Keep me posted about where you are.  The house will be OK with no one there?'

'The Colonel sent one of the guys that had helped me with the kero heater the day the copter was there to keep an eye on things and refill that heater as needed.  Private Gershwin ("No, I'm not musical") stopped by before he left for the house to ask about the gas logs and other things, so I wrote out a brief schedule of what to do when.  The parking heater got a full tank of diesel today so it's good for maybe 19 hours and I should be home by then.  I had planned to run the inverter gen today so I told him how to and how long.  The battery bank should be good overnight.'

'Katie lucked out that you were home and watching and you lucked out that there was someone available to watch the house.'

'Perhaps a bit of divine intervention?'

'Perhaps some divine "Thank you" for keeping 1500 people alive?  You'll be the state's "Citizen of the Year"?'

'Not if I can avoid it, but I would like an hour or so with the Governor to present my list of things needed by the "ignored counties".'

'You might get that.  You need to rest, Mr. Wilson.'

'I do, Mrs. Wilson.  Love you.'

'Love you too.'


---


The food isn’t bad for mass feeding of this many people but I might be prejudiced by my mealtime company.  Katie has hardly left my side since they checked her in the ER.  The first aid I gave her was almost all she needed - helps to have lived, worked and practiced war in some very cold places.  We talked for a couple hours about how and why the living space in my house was warmer than the space in her house.  I had her draw a sketch of her house and I provided a sketch of my house.  I then marked out the spaces at my house that got no heat or very little heat and gave her the numbers for the heat provided by the kero heater, the gas logs and the parking heater.  She added up the numbers and did a mental estimate how much of the house was actually being heated and she understood those numbers.  I don't know what grade they teach percentages in but she came up with me having about 60% of the amount of heat the furnace provides so about that much of the house could be heated if I closed off the other 40%.  I then had her do the same for her house...



"But the 'open floor plan' makes it difficult to close off anything.  You used tarps in the basement.  Could we do that with something else?

"What if you put ropes here, here and here and hung blankets, quilts, shower curtains or tarps from them?'

"That oughta work."

"Yes, smart girl, it 'oughta'."

"I'm gonna like having you in the family!"

"I might like you a little bit also."

"'Like me a little bit'?  But the doctor said you saved my life!"

"Liking you and saving your life are two entirely different things."

"Huh?"

"Think about it for a few minutes."

"OK, I guess."


---


"Grandpa, I need a hug."

"OK, one Katie-size hug coming up but you'll have to get a little closer to the bed - my arms aren't quite long enough for where you are standing."


"Thank you for the hug.  And thank you for making me think.  Firefighters, paramedics and doctors save people they don't know all the time because they care about keeping people alive.  You care like that, but you also like me or you wouldn't have sent an encyclopedia and the 'Snowman Soup' recipe to a kid you'd never met."

"I think I might like this smart girl."

"I like being told I'm smart for what Daddy calls 'Thinking outside the box'.  Some people think I'm strange or weird for doing that."

"That happens, Katie.  Our kids were always encouraged to think broadly about problems and they did a lot of 'Thinking outside the box'.  Some people thought they were strange or weird but our kids turned out just fine.  Some people never get exposed to much outside a narrow range of people and ideas so they don't know that other ideas or ways of doing things exist.  The first 'different' person their age they encounter will seem 'strange' or 'weird' to them because they haven't learned to think that way.  Sadly, some people never do, so the 'outside the box' people tend to be very successful in their life choices - they can figure out the best way to get things done."

"Like you getting me warm and the patchy extra-cold places treated and finding a place that had doctors and getting me there - even if that snowmobile suit did swallow me."

"That heated suit did swallow you, but it kept you warm.  That was the important thing.  You were back out in the cold on the snowmobile but you were warm for the entire trip."


knock.  knock.


"Yes?"

"Mr. Wilson, Katie's transport is available.  Katie, you need to tell Mr. Wilson 'bye' and you'll be home in less than an hour."

"Do I hafta?"

"Katie?"

"Yes, Grandpa?"

"I think your Mom and Dad might want to see that you're OK."

"But I'll be in trouble for taking the snowmobile without permission!"

"Will that 'trouble' be any different tomorrow or the next day?"

"Probably not, but I wanna stay with you!"

"You go home and talk to them.  Ask them if you can visit me so they'll know where you are and when you'll be back and then we'll see what can be arranged.  Here's my phone number..."

"I memorized it when I looked at the phone."

"I thought this smart girl might have done that from the serious expression on her face because there's very little else of interest on the back of that phone."

"You're smart!"

"I have to be to keep up with this smart girl."

"Lean over so I can hug you 'bye'."

"OK."


Smooch!


"I love you, Grandpa."

"Katie, I don't think I'll wash that cheek for a while.  I don't get many kisses from pretty girls."

"You're silly!"

"Would you rather have a silly grandfather or a crotchety old curmudgeon grandfather?"

"What's a 'crotchety old curmudgeon'?

"That's something for you to look up in a dictionary or the encyclopedia."

"I think that means 'silly' is the best choice.  Bye, Grandpa."

"Bye, Katie."


---

[papaof2]

Chapter 11


Saturday, 18 December, 07:10


knock.  knock.


"Mr. Wilson?"

"Yes, nurse?"

"Your transport is available.  Do need help with anything?"

"Getting my coat buttoned.  My hands are still not happy from flying the snowmobile here yesterday."

"You described it well - I saw the video of the jump you made over the snow plowed up around the edges of the parking lot.  I'm surprised you could handle that."

"Didn't have a choice.  I had precious cargo on board that needed immediate medical attention and going cross-country was faster than taking the very iffy roads."

"She also thinks that about you.  I'd say you two deserve each other."

"And you read a lot of romance novels."

"You are an astute judge of reading choices."

"The 'deserve each other' gave you away.  You almost never see that used positively anywhere else."

"You must be a writer to have noticed that."

"Yes, but any romance in my stories is often totally incidental to staying alive."

"You're that C. J. Wilson!  I've read all your books.  I think I imagined you twenty years younger and six inches taller, but you certainly looked like that when the snowmobile was coming down at the ER entrance after the jump."

"Glad to have lived up to a reader's fantasy."

"I've been hiding a paper copy of your latest book here so my husband doesn't find it before his birthday.  Could I get you to autograph it?"

"Certainly.  His name?"

"Jason Bell."

"Any kin to Deputy Bell?"

"Cousins."


'To Jason,

Happy birthday!

C. J. Wilson... '


"Your name?"

"Kathryn."


' and your thoughtful wife, Kathryn.'


"Thank you!  He's always wanted an autographed copy but no one seems to know where you live."

"Ask Katie."

"She was your 'precious cargo'?  We heard that a child was here on unusual transport but the military is even stricter about protecting kids' privacy than the civilian medical people so we didn't know who.  That gets you a hug!  Tell me where it won't hurt."

"The least bruising is here and here."

"You didn't say 'no bruising' so a gentle hug that lasts a bit longer.  Thank you for saving Katie!"

'You're welcome, but I think I gained a bright and beautiful granddaughter."

"You deserve each other."


(Shared laughter.)


"And I'll bet that Jason likes your sense of humor."

"He does.  You are good at reading people."

"That often comes with career in the military that's followed by a career as a civilian."

"You served in some cold places?"

"Yes.  Why?"

"One of the ER docs mentioned the 'good care' that had been given to 'that child' before she got here."

"Just glad I was in the right place at the right time.  Can you convince that young man outside the door that I'm perfectly capable of walking to the building's exit and he can provide wheelchair service for someone else?"

"Perkins?"

"Ma'am?"

"Just let Mr. Wilson hold your arm as needed as he gets his legs back under him."

"Yes, Ma'am.  Sir, how can I help you?"

"Just stay close enough that I can grab your arm if needed.  I haven't jumped a snowmobile in a long time."

"You brought Katie in!"

"I didn't think the military disclosed kids' names."

"They don't.  I'm her uncle Austin, her mother's younger brother.  Amy called to tell us that Katie had been 'found' and that she was being treated here after they discovered she'd taken the snowmobile.  The whole family was at their house when Katie got home.  She rather reluctantly told the story but we could tell that she was excited that she got to spend time with you.  There aren't a lot of people who see anything positive in a kid that's always asking 'How?' or 'Why?'"

"I enjoyed being with a smart kid that I had to work to stay ahead of."

"She did tell them that she wants to call you 'Grandpa'.  They said they'd think about it so I'd guess that's what you'll hear the next time you see her."

"I think I can deal with that."

"Says the man with the biggest smile I've seen since all this snow and ice started.  You can unwrap a layer or two when we're in the Suburban - it's been running long enough to be comfortable inside: Colonel's orders."


---


I'm back home and the military members are on their way back to Whitside.  Private Gershwin ("No, I'm not musical") took care of everything on the list.  He even made a Thermos of Earl Grey tea for me this morning.  He refilled the inverter gen after its run late yesterday and brought it back inside so it would be easy to start this morning and that run is still in progress.  I'll need to take care of that when the battery bank's AH meter shows enough charge.  He refilled the parking heater's tank this morning after the other heat was going and it's been slowly reducing its output as a bit of the other heat gets to the basement.  Guess having the can of diesel in the basement is all the warmth it needs to be pourable.  Be nice if I could hire Gershwin until I get over yesterday's "flying".



Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!


What's that four beat "Beep!"?  It's coming from the kitchen table where Perkins put the things he carried in for me.  Is it the sat phone?  Hit the "Display" button and it seems I have a text.


{Mr. Wilson,

Thank you for saving Katie's life.  We think her choice of "Grandpa" is appropriate as you unquestionably cared for her as "family".  She is grounded for a couple of weeks but contact with you is NOT included in that grounding.  You're welcome here and, when she's fully recovered, we'll even let her use the snowmobile again - just not in dangerously cold weather.  Thank you again - and welcome to the family!

Amy Bell}


Nice to have more "family".


---


Now to get my notebook and the laptop to add yesterday's events to both logs - and read through what may not have gotten taken care of yesterday.  Anything requiring much physical effort will probably be delayed until I feel better - but the good doctor at the Whitside infirmary understood "old body", "arthritic hands" and "scored tablets" so I can more finely control the doses of painkiller.  I think he may have stretched the extent of some of the bruising but who'd doubt the doctor when the hospital's security cameras recorded the snowmobile moving fast and jumping far?  I think the angle of what little sunlight we had at that hour and the angle of that camera may have exaggerated both the apparent height and distance of that jump but I chose not mention that, just take the bottle of sixty 5/325 hydrocodone-acetaminophen tablets with "1 or 2 tablets every 4 to 6 hours as needed for pain" on the label.  I may have all the serious painkiller I'll need for the next year or two.  I'll also need to take a Colace any day I take two full tablets or more of the hydrocodone-acetaminophen: this old body's digestive system tends to slow down when it receives much Rx painkiller.


Get a jacket and go check the battery bank's charging status.  I'm guessing the inverter gen has been running at least two hours.  

Somewhat slowly down the stairs and it looks like two hours was a good guess.  Maybe another hour?  Set the phone alarm to remind me then.  Head back up to warmer space and my body is suddenly very aware of all the bruising from yesterday's wild ride.  Maybe the good doctor knew more about how my injuries would feel today than I did and he wasn't just "being nice to the old man"?  Having dragged myself to the top of the stairs, I think I'll start with one full tablet and see what my pain level is in 30 minutes.


---


It's been a while since my generic breakfast at the infirmary so maybe lunch is due?  The Rx painkiller is effective as I didn't slow down in the middle of standing up as I had been doing earlier.  Maybe stay on a full tablet until bedtime and only do a half tablet then because there'll be less stress on my body when I'm horizontal?  The onion burgers are thawed and it's time to go light the gas grill so I can cook all six of them and just be doing warmups on the others the rest of the week.  Bundle up - it's a little easier to button my coat when my hands don't hurt as much - and head out with one of the grill lighters in a coat pocket in case the batteries in the grill's spark lighter are too cold to function.

Grill's lit.  Give it eight or ten minutes to reach 400F on its thermometer and then the burgers on to cook for about four or five minutes on each side: that might take longer with the ambient temperature being in single digits.  I do have an electronic meat thermometer that I can use to check the burgers' internal temperature.

Nine minutes after taking the burgers to the grill I have a plate of burgers that smell very good.  I probably should set the cameras to "alert on motion" because this very pleasant and easily identified scent will travel with the wind.

Burgers inside to the table.  Buns heated using a lightly greased skillet - your local diner would use the griddle, so basically the same thing.  


Ding!Ding!


We have motion in front of a camera.  What does the laptop's display tell me?  We have two dogs, two coyotes and a wolf - maybe two? - somewhat farther away.  The dogs are locals that people turned loose when they went to the shelters at Whitside.  The coyotes have no easily accessible garbage cans to dig through.  The wolves probably have no easy prey with this much snow.  I need to add animal warnings to any travel Katie might be doing.  Get the sat phone and reply to Amy Bell's text.


{Mrs. Bell,

Unless Katie is traveling armed, she is at risk from the local dogs, coyotes and wolves who are getting hungry with the snow preventing them from finding easy food sources.  I grilled some burgers and had two of each animal follow the scent to the house.  They didn't approach me, but I'm a lot bigger than Katie and the animals will get hungrier by the day.

Jack Wilson}


That's sent.  Now to take time to enjoy my burger.


---


I spent longer than usual on lunch so maybe I didn't want to get up and move again?  The phone's alarm just beeped so time to get a jacket and go check the AH meter.  Having the Rx painkiller makes going down the stairs a little easier.  Maybe it'll also help as I go back up?  What's the meter have?  11% more charge than discharge says I can turn off the gen, transfer the essential things back to the solar backup, go out and refill the gen and bring it back into the parking heater's slightly warmer space.

The gen used a little more gas this time - guess the structure of the house in the unconditioned space has continued to drop in temperature with below zero outside temperatures and that had the parking heater running harder and longer.  I think I can expect that to not improve until the overnight lows are back in their normal mid-twenties and daytime highs are well above freezing.  I may need more gas for the gen but I can get that from the truck for a week or more.  Need to add the actual numbers and my thoughts to the laptop log and the paper log.  Going back up the stairs is still harder than coming down was but the Rx meds help.  Need to shed the jacket, get a cup of hot tea and update those logs.


---


My muse has given me another couple thousand words of inspiration on the in-progress story - that makes for a pleasant afternoon.  Not having easy internet access, I saved all the new and changed documents on two different thumb drives to have local backup.  Can the sat phone be used as a hotspot and, if so, at what speed?  I should check the manual.



Twenty minutes later, the sat phone is in hotpsot mode, my laptop has a somewhat slow but stable internet connection and the files for the new story are on their way to backed-up storage on my website; I use most of the 10GB of "web space" for backing up important things on the laptop and tablet.  That provides two layers of backup because those web servers are backed up daily.  A couple minutes later and that is done.  Shutdown hotspot mode and put the sat phone back on charge.  Maybe swap the phone's batteries and put the battery that was in use on charge via its charge port so I know that it can be charged that way?  Done, and the charge indicator lights tell me it's in progress.  The battery I just put in the phone is at 99% so it should be fine for a number of hours.


---


Seems strange that there's "nothing to do" - at least nothing immediately essential.  The trees across the side road still need attention but I can't physically get to that until the snow melts some and I'll need mechanical assistance.  I think a started a list of people with large machinery...

Four names and what they own isn't much of a list but I did identify some other pieces of equipment in the area that I'm not sure who the owners are.  Sheriff Thomas might know.  There was a hand-written card of "Useful Numbers" in the sat phone's backpack...  Colonel Dempsey and Sheriff Thomas have these phones.  There's one at the Whitside Infirmary and a couple other people that I recognize for their knowledge of the area have them.  Tom Graves is the head mechanic at the Deere dealer and he probably knows more about who has what equipment than anyone else in the group of affected counties.


Ring!Ring!Ring!


'This is Tom.'

'Tom, it's Jack Wilson.'

'You probably have some trees down and are looking for big equipment.'

'I don't have trees down but a neighbor does.  Multiple trees blocking Cedar Bluff Road at its steepest point.'

'You won't be out trying to cut that until things have melted some?'

'No, I won't.  Just trying to line up someone who can move big pieces when the snow has cleared enough to make a place I can work.'

'How big are the trees?'

'Tallest one covers the road and about ten or fifteen feet on either side.  Base on that one is the rootball and it's appreciably more than ten feet in diameter.  That will need some fill dirt; the others may also.  I can limb much of it but it'll need a bigger saw than my 30" to easily cut up the bottom twenty or thirty feet.'

'I'm keeping a list of what's down for the sheriff and I'll add this.  Probably a minor impact on traffic with so many people in the shelters at Whitside but everybody out that way will be wanting to drive to the grocery when they get back home and the roads have started to clear.'

'I had planned to do some work on it Saturday if the snow has melted enough but I'm moving a bit slowly right now.'

'You were the one flying that bat-out-of-hell snowmobile that went by my place yesterday!'

'You know about that?'

'My cousin, Amy Bell, called me just bubbling over about "that wonderful Jack Wilson".  You are a bit of a hero.'

'Nah, just doing what was needed when it was needed.'

'That's what makes heroes, you stubborn old man!  I agree with Amy.  Your request just got moved to the top of my list and there's nothing you can do to change that.  I've added your sat phone number to the request so I can contact you when someone is available.  Probably several someones because I remember what that patch of trees looked like and there were some sixty-footers there.  You wait until I get you some help.'

'Guess I'll have to.'

'You will.  Thank you for saving Katie.'

'Just did what needed doing.'

'Not when you spent several hours answering her "How?" and "Why?" questions.  That's someone caring enough to spend time with a smart kid who wants to learn and a lot more than "Just did what needed doing".  I'll call you when I have people and equipment lined up.'

'Thanks, Tom.'

'You're welcome, "Grandpa".'


How many other people will be calling me "Grandpa"?


---

[papaof2]

Chapter 12


Saturday, 18 December, 11:23


Ring!Ring!Ring!


Caller ID is Sarah's number.


'This is Jack.'

'Hello, "Grandpa".'

'That's already public?'

'On Amy Bell's Facebook page.  There's also a post on the Sheriff's Office site with a "Thank you" for getting their generator running and for organizing the Whitside shelters that now house about 1600 people.  You "done good", Jack.'

'I had a lot of people helping me.  I'm surprised that people still have internet access.'

'There's also a post from "Imnotmusical" about you suggesting they set up wifi in the shelters using military networks if possible.  He told his sergeant who took it up the line and the people do have limited internet access.  Their access is primarily limited by how few people brought a charger or even a power bank to be able to charge their phones.'

'That's a briarpatch* of "Me first!", "No, me!", "No, me first!" privilege, entitlement and "Wrong cord!" that I'm happy to not be dealing with.'

'I can imagine.  Kelly was a bit fussy so I played Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" on my phone and she went right off to sleep.  She must be just like you if that's already her favorite song.'

'Then I shall claim her.  Anything else I need to know?'

'The weather here will be like the weather there, starting in about six or eight hours.  I went shopping before the first of the rain got here and didn't have to fight the lines when I loaded up the SUV with things I know will be needed over a "potential multi-day power outage".  That comment was from the City Manager here, not the power company.'

'Possibly trying to get ahead of things a bit after the Texas power and cold problems in February of 2021?'

'Rob thought so - seems the City Manager is former military and was stationed in Alaska, among other cold and icy places.'

'Good experience for the guy charged with keeping people alive.  Anything he shouldn't have recommended?'

'Nope.  He sounded almost exactly as I would have imagined you handling the situation for 30,000 people in a small city.  The gas logs here are similar to ours and they work totally from battery power.  I got a kerosene heater and 20 gallons of fuel at Tractor Supply for less than Lowes or Walmart and a two burner Coleman propane stove plus hose, regulator and two 20lb tanks of propane, plus a couple of battery powered fans and a pack of 20 D cells to power them.  Also picked up rice, beans, canned and dried meats, spices, 20 gallons of water and some Mountain House cans and pouches at Walmart to have some very quick and easy meals if things put us in a small space with limited cooking ability.'

'Good thinking.  You might even be able to persuade them to keep that stock up after you leave.  No one will be doing sitdown, delivery or takeout food for the better part of a week and, unless you're cooking on an antique or a stove modified for pilot use, gas ovens need electric power to light the oven burner.'

'You've not used the oven?'

'Nor do I plan to.  I did biscuits on top of the stove in a Dutch oven and managed to only scorch one of them a bit.'

'Pretty good for the first time in a long time baking biscuits that way.'

'That's what I thought - and I'll have fresh "leftovers" for a few days.'

'Good that your mother taught you to cook when you were a kid.'

'That's always useful knowledge - perhaps on a par with sewing up tears or sewing on buttons so some part of your anatomy doesn't freeze?'

'Our new mother when she was about eight and tore the seat out of her jeans in that tree-climbing incident?'

'"Just doing what Grandpa did" is what she said - but Grandpa had checked for there being barbed wire or any other fencing attached to his tree before climbing it.  I'm almost certain that three-inch long memento on her right lower cheek is a strong reminder about checking things in advance.'

'That one needed medical stitches - too jagged a tear to put back together with skin glue but glue would have been more pleasant for her than the stitches - even if they were self-dissolving.'

'Only one medical trip to get the stitches put in and not the second trip that I mentioned and got a suddenly-going-modest "But he'll see my bare butt!" response about getting the stitches out.  I think she was insulted by my laughter that she hadn't noticed that situation when she got the stitches.'

'Possibly, but she very much appreciated that you found a way to carry her that didn't press on the stitched area.'

'And she slept on her stomach for a few nights.  Painful lesson but it only did minor cosmetic damage.'

'May we be able to continue that legacy of "minor cosmetic damage".'

'I fully agree.  Your travel plans, if any?'

'I've noted several routes on paper maps and I've collected reported and forecast types and amounts of precip along those routes.  I think State Highway 14 here until it meets US 41 might be the most level route.'

'Sounds good.  I'd like to have you back tomorrow but I'd rather have you back safe.'

'Thought you might think that.  We'll talk again before I leave if the cell service stays up.  Don't think anyone will be dropping off a sat phone for me.'

'That wasn't something I expected to get but I will make the most of it.  I used the "hotspot" mode on the sat phone to save copies of the new story and supporting documents online.'

'Belt and suspenders?'

'Yes, including two thumb drives here.'

'Love you, Mr. Wilson.'

'You too, Mrs. Wilson.'


---


Another quick check of the solar monitor...  It's 45F down there?  How'd that happen?  What does the "Load" graph have for power usage in the past couple of hours?  Power usage increased as the afternoon cooled down but then it went to almost zero - need to go check that now!


There's an error message on the heater's control panel.  Open the manual to the list of error messages and that number is "No fuel feed".  Empty tank?  No.  Kinked hose?  No.  Clogged filter?  No.  Bad pump?  Possibly, but failing in 72 hours or less makes this a vendor to put on my personal "Do not buy" list unless he responds quickly with a replacement pump.  Does the pump respond to power on its coil?  No.  Where's the pump I acquired to make the inverter generator work with a large remote tank?  It's a similar pump and might work.  

OK, two totes of parts later, I have that pump and it seems to be identical - let's hope it lasts somewhat longer than the original.  The fuel tubing is already full so almost no time to prime the new pump once it's in place - and the heater is again making heat.  Continue to watch the temperature down here and see if the parking heater can catch up those lost degrees - but do that watching from the warmer space.



---



It's been two hours and the parking heater's space is up two degrees so it may be able to catch up - if slowly.  I think that means the heater will be working full out for a while longer and I'll need to run the inverter gen to top off the battery bank before dark.  Something else did break but I had a spare part that would work.  Need to add this to the logs and be sure that the spare parts have been ordered.


---


My list of spare parts has been ordered using the laptop with the sat phone providing the hotspot - mostly from Amazon because they had the best price on a genuine Eberspacher glowplug.  It's more than twice the price of the Chinese clone glowplug but should have three or four times the service life of the clone and that's the most important characteristic for something essential - the parking heater is absolutely essential when I'd lose so much battery capacity if the battery bank can't be kept warm.  Oh, well - what's another $80 for "spare parts" when the heater was only $120?  I'll keep the original glowplug as the "spare".  I checked the ten-day weather while I had internet access and the warming trend has disappeared from the forecast.  Nothing on the weather radio about that change, just that Saturday no longer has a high of 50 - it's now 32.  No explanation.  I called Colonel Dempsey and he's not heard any explanation either.  Is it time for some "Twilight Zone" music?  I've made electronic and paper notes and I'll just add to those notes when or if I learn anything else.  My "sixth sense" is tingling again...


---


The windup clock just struck 6PM so perhaps it's time for supper?  The chowder is easy to fix and it tastes good - think that makes it my first choice.  Chowder in saucepan, simmer burner on low flame, windup timer set for six minutes.  Teakettle filled, but I think hot chocolate tonight instead of tea - need some variety in my life.  


I enjoyed that - and having the battery-powered CD player cranking out Christmas music while I ate.  There's a solar panel that can power the charger for those batteries during the day tomorrow - and that panel's big enough to do the recharge from daylight, no direct sun required.  Any other batteries that need charging?  The NiMH AA in my Fenix E12 and the ones in the other E12s in various places through the house.  Add that note to the top of tomorrow's "To Do" list and start the charging process first thing.  I could recharge those batteries from the battery bank but better to use independent power sources where I can and save the battery bank for the essentials of fridge and heating.

I did check the weather radio and the transmitter in the other county is still functional.  I should also charge the backup batteries for that radio - another sudden change in weather might be disastrous or fatal if I don't know about it.  Note added - looks like I might have several hours of charging in my future.


---


Saturday, 18 December, 21:10


I should check the inverter gen's hour meter because we could be close to its every-25-hours oil change.  Jacket and gloves and to the basement yet again.  The hour meter is on 123.3 and the P-Touch label has "Oil changed 102.1 hours".  Tomorrow morning's roughly three hour run will have that time very close to 25 hours so plan on draining the oil while the gen is still warm.  Refill of about 14oz of oil and then a short run and then check the oil level and then top off the gas tank.  I'll make the new label then to have the exact hour count on that label.  That note also pointing at the top of tomorrow's "To Do" list.  


---


* briar - any thorny plant.  Brier is more specific.  wikidiff.com/briar/brier

[gipsy]

Fine update.

[papaof2]

Chapter 13


Sunday, 19 December, Dark-thirty


I'm cold - even with the extra blanket and quilt I added before I went to bed.  Damn!  That flashlight is cold!  Time is 02:43.  Temperature is 42!?!  How cold is it outside for it to be this cold inside?  Go ahead and dress for the day?  Might as well, as I'm sure I'll be checking things in the basement and going out to light the kero heater.  At least the day's clothes are warm from being in the bed with me.  Wool-lined slippers and down vest on and head to the kitchen to start the teakettle heating.  Kettle's empty?  Fill it from the Brita pitcher and then teakettle to the back burner and light it with the grill lighter.  At least that still works.  To the remote for the gas logs.  Press "On", there's the "Thunk!" and we have blue flames.  Dress to be outside in FYBO (freeze-your-butt-off) temperatures.  I can check that thermometer through the window of the French doors.  

-26F?  This area hasn't had temperatures that low in over 100 years!  Guess the "Arctic Express" was even bigger and colder than they thought - but no alert on the weather radio?  First I get the kero heater going and then I can check the weather radio.  Bundle up well and tuck in every nook and cranny: that's a dangerous to deadly temperature, even more so if there's wind.

Heater on the porch.  Tank is filled.  Kero jug to the far wall.  Wick to "Light" position.  Press "Light"...  Well, it is heating v-e-r-y slowly.  Smoke.  Smolder.  Finally a flame.  I'll be back inside while this warms up and stabilizes.

Ten minutes warming my body in front of the gas logs and bundle up again to get the heater off the porch and back into the kitchen.  Even with earmuffs and a stocking cap down over my ears, they're cold enough to hurt.  Not much reference for the wind - no visible flag or the like - but it must be 15MPH or more and gusting above 30MPH.  I think "painfully cold" might be the accurate description.  Heater's flame is stable so get it back to the kitchen.   RV ceiling fan running.  Shed part of my outdoor layers but retain enough for a trip to the basement.


Hey, the thermometer down here shows 46F!  It's warmer in this little space than upstairs!  Wonder how much fuel the parking heater has gone through - looks like more than a third of the tank.  That probably means it's been running full out most of the short night so far and it will stay at that level for a while.  Grab the IR thermometer and go check where the County Water feed enters the house.  36F.  So far, so good.  Should I leave some faucets dripping slowly to keep that temperature from dropping further?  Just need three or four drops per minute to keep slightly-less-cold water coming in from below street level.  How much damage will the unattended and unheated houses have from this?  That's not a place my thoughts want to go.

OK, paper notes of temperatures and diesel tank level.  Quick trip around the house to have the faucets with plumbing on outside walls dripping slowly.  Check the weather radio; pressing "Listen" only gets static - again.  Scan through all the NWS frequencies and they only have static.  What's the story on that?

Fix breakfast?  Might as well, as I'll be up checking on the heater and the gas logs until the house is acceptably warm.  If it's now -26F, how much colder will it be at sunrise?  Probably safe to assume -30F and plan from there.  Plug my outside temperature measurements and estimated wind speeds into the "windchill" formula from NOAA: -26F with 15MPH wind is -52F windchill and -26F with 30MPH wind is -60F windchill.  Both of those are potentially deadly in a very short time so I'll be bundling up carefully to get diesel for the parking heater and gasoline for the inverter generator.  Maybe stay in the shed and out of the wind while using siphons to move fuel for both of those?  Probably the best choice.  I should put down a plastic tarp and some newspaper to catch any drips while I'm doing that.  

Been nice if I had gotten some HotShot or Pri-Flow to keep the diesel from gelling.  Depending on the quality of the diesel, gelling can start at 32F and is almost guaranteed in the 10-15F range with untreated diesel.**  I should move the diesel can and its round "Flammables cabinet" to the parking heater's warmer space and let it warm up to be sure it's liquid when I try to transfer it to the parking heater's tank - no doubt the can of diesel still in the shed could be well on its way to being a solid block when sitting outside at -26F.  I should bring that can into the basement and maybe add some more kerosene to ensure the diesel stays liquid.  Probably won't be able to do anything with that can of diesel until it warms up some.  Been nice if I'd thought of this sooner so I wouldn't be outside doing things in potentially deadly cold.  Been even nicer if I'd had notice that things were headed for this cold.  At least the folks at the Whitside shelters should be OK as the diesel there did get some serious Pri-D plus kero treatment and it's stored underground so maybe still at the 36F of the water line and no concerns yet about it gelling?


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My usual breakfast was pleasant - but eaten with my hands in the fingerless gloves because it's still cold in here.  I'm certain there are places that 30MPH wind can penetrate this almost 50-year-old house, even after me putting the better part of a case of caulking in place at all the seams and joints.  30MPH wind pushing -26F air makes for a very cold air leak even if it is too small to see.  Other than the window over the kitchen sink that can be "locked" when 1/16" away from fully closed (Poor latch design?  But I did add Sharpie marker lines on the sash and the frame to show the proper closed position.), all the other double-pane replacement windows close securely and all are well caulked.  There's a "blackout" plus insulation curtain over that window as no one needs to know that I have light at this hour.  Had I known we'd have winters like this, I'd have spent the $$$ for triple-pane windows - but we don't normally have winters like this!  Just as well I'm here or I'd be stewing about the state of the house without power or manually controlled heat.  Speaking of heat - it's up to 53F in here at 04:12.  What's it doing outside?  Lift the blackout plus insulation quilt I put over the French doors and use the Fenix E12 to illuminate the thermometer and it's now -29F.  BRRRRR! in shivering ice-blue letters at least a foot tall.

Back to the sofa across from the gas logs and the 57F of that room - much better than the 42F I woke up in.  I need to put the 12 volt fan back in place moving warm air to the bedroom - I no sooner get comfortable than I think of something else that needs to be done.  I'm moving a bit slowly when getting up, so plan on taking half a tablet of hydrocodone/acetaminophen while I'm up.

Fan's in place - nice to have almost unlimited power for it when things are this cold.  Will we have sun today?  Don't think the night would be this cold if we had cloud cover so maybe there will be sun during the day?  I do miss the weather radio.  Is that AM station still running on low power?  I should check.  The radio is still tuned to that station so power on - and we only have static.  Hit the "Scan" button and let it check for signals.  Two passes across the AM band and nothing.  I should check again after sunrise - they might be on a daylight-to-dark schedule.  Glass of water from the Brita pitcher and that half tablet is on its way to do good.


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Ring!Ring!Ring!


Caller ID is Sarah?


'This is Jack.'

'You have FYBO cold weather?'

'-29F outside the last time I checked.  Windchill in the -52F or colder range when it was -26F.'

'You're probably not concerned about anyone coming to the house on foot.'

'Only if I'm required to go out and rescue them.'

'We're at the forecast -18F but expecting it to continue to drop until sunrise.'

'Me also.  Power status?'

'A few flickers but it has come back, if a bit slower each time.  I'm not confident that it will "come back" the next time.'

'Your backup options, Love?'

'Two 500WH 'solar generators' and 500 watts of solar panels for each of them.  Might keep the fridge running but not the furnace because it's been on 50 minutes of each hour since the outside temperature dropped below -10F.'

'Try setting the thermostat to 60F if you want to use the furnace.  Then drop back 5 degrees until the 'generator' can run it a useful amount of time - or do what I'm doing and use the kero heater and gas logs for heat and just run the furnace blower a few minutes each hour to keep the spaces with plumbing above freezing.'

'I think "above freezing" might be the better option.  Really wish we were there because they've had two neighbors come to the door with "You have light so where do we plug in our furnace?" questions.  They were sorely disappointed to discover the light was from the kerosene heater.  They said it "smelled awful" and that they couldn't possibly stay "in such a horribly polluted environment".'

'Nice that they found a reason to leave.'

'I had my hand on another reason for them to leave but haven't needed it yet.  Don't know if another group might be more aggressive so I'll stay armed and aware.'

'I noted your "yet".  "Castle Doctrine" applies in that state also, so try to keep the cleanup as small and close to the door as possible.'

'Already thought of that.  The college baseball scholarship winner has his bat ready for use.'

'That'd be scary for anyone that ever saw him put the ball out of the park.'

'Your size or armament doesn't matter if the tip of that bat contacts your head at its 90+MPH.  That's an immediate out.'

'And a potentially permanent "out".  Hope you don't need it.'

'Me too, but we'll have someone on watch all night, just in case.  Stay warm.'

'I will.  You too.'

'Love you, Mr. Wilson.'

'You too, Mrs. Wilson.'


Good to hear her voice and to know that they are aware of the potential problems.  Having most of the area around me evacuated means that most of the problem children are under military control.  Only the dregs of the dregs would still be out in this, but there are a few who wouldn't think twice about risking death for a bigger TV or some "free" beer.  Probably good that I have the windows blacked out.


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** knowhow.napaonline.com/at-what-temperature-does-diesel-fuel-gel/

petroleumservicecompany.com/blog/at-what-temperature-does-diesel-fuel-gel/