Standard Mischief

I might as well paste it up here too:

ETA: The first bit of light rain started at about 11 AM today. Peak of the storm is predicted for 2 AM tomorrow.

ETA: First beer at 2:30 PM

17:13 update: We’ve got high winds and sometimes heavy rain, but no lighting as of yet. That means I’m comfortable leaving my main power on, though I will be switching to the laptop shortly.

06:44 next day: Never lost power. No lighting, no exploding power transformers. Buying dry ice as a magic amulet against power loss worked again!

X• Hit the ATM up for some cash, enough for a few days
X• Make sure vehicle gas tanks are full.
X• Check around outside of house and take trashcans and any loose items inside.
X• Charge up everything: phones, laptop, those car batteries I keep handy as an ersatz DC stick welder, those extra gel cells I have lying around.
X• Sort through my LED flashlight collection. I’m going to need it.
X• Clean out gutters.
X• Tape an X across windows to limit the spread of any broken glass.
X• Pack the empty space in freezer with water bottles to form ice.
X• Pick-up that dry ice if possible
X• Fill tub with water, then shut off the water main. I can use the tub water for flushing, and by sealing off the main I trap gallons of potable water in case a “boil water” order goes in to effect.
X• Unplug main computer, NAS, etc. to protect against lighting strikes. Leave the wireless router powered up and use laptop for storm progress data.
• Throw main breaker at some point before the peak of the storm if lighting is present. You know you will lose power anyway, might as well protect your equipment from lighting strikes too.

The earthquake wasn’t, the aftershocks personally haven’t been even noticed, but Irene is another story altogether.

We haven’t even had a real hurricane since Agnes, and that was back in 1974. While Agnes stalled over the area just north of home and rained for several days straight, Isabel, a mere tropical storm from a few years ago took my power out for 4 days and had most of the traffic lights fscked up for over a week.

Now if you will excuse me, I’m off to score some dry ice.

…OK, well I guess I can cross something off my bucket list.

The DC area was nudged by an earthquake centered about 82 miles southwest in Virginia. A 5.8 one, down there. The shake lasted a few seconds, long enough to know it wasn’t a bomb blast.

While we did have a tiny earthquake last year, that one barely woke me out of a sound sleep, so I never counted it.

At work, someone suggested that people move to the doorways. I think the current behavior in vogue is to move close to a solid wall instead. In any event, most east-coast office walls are made of gypsum and steel 2x4s with all the thickness of a tin can.

Traffic lights went out in DC, but parking ticket meter-maids continued their crucial work undeterred.

A few bricks fell from really old stone buildings downtown. Everyone who was embarrassed last winter when a half inch of white stuff closed schools in their district can start laughing. Five seconds of rumbling today has managed to close all the public schools for tomorrow for inspection, but officials assure me that the dozen bridges I crossed on the way home today were perfectly safe.

I had a few things knocked off my desk on the third floor at home.

We had the snowpocalypse a year and a half ago, the “earthquake of the century” today, and I suppose a good chance of a hurricane at the end of this week.