gravitylover

There won't be a Santa Claus visit this year, too many travel restrictions.

I barely squeaked out .02 yesterday but finally got some real rain overnight, looks like 1.3. The station on my street went down when the power went out so I had to blend the next nearest 3 stations that didn't lose power. That's the first really good rain I've had since May! Yep, time is skewed badly this year and doesn't feel real in many aspects. I dont quite know how to straighten that out but I'm pretty sure I dont want to keep going through this nebulous space for much longer.

Hopefully the beach won't be elbow to elbow people like when I was there a few weeks ago. I was so uncomfortable I literally sat under our umbrella for almost the whole time we were there other than hopping in the water for like 5 minutes until someone bumped me and swung her head around and whipped me with her hair. The crowd was just overwhelming. This rain is wonderful! It's not adding up to much, .1 so far, but it's at least soaking the surface slowly and actually making things wet. After having my well run dry yesterday for the first time in years I'd be fine with losing an outdoor day if this would continue all day. It takes a heckuva dry spell to drain a 396 foot deep well, I guess 10 weeks with only about 5" was the threshold...

I won't miss it

I was sitting outside last night and the yard was filled with them! That was pretty cool to see this late in the season.

Boy I can't buy more than a few hundredths of an inch of rain lately. I woke up Friday morning and it was wet and I got excited but it was only .09". I could sit and add it up but I don't think I've had 5" total since the beginning of June.

They got us back on around 11am today. We were out buying some new appliances and light fixtures to replace the ones that blew when the power surged before it went down. Gonna do some eatin' now then take a nice hot shower. Yay.

We did for a few years but now that I have the backfeed set up as safely as it can be I'm going to keep on keepin' on with that. It's nice to have running water, can't do that with an extension cord. I'm not saying it's the right solution but it is the best at the moment. Want to know another annoying one? Getting the permit to have a tree cut down by a town authorized tree company is $600.

Just getting the permit to do it correctly starts at over $1k here. Then with the different licensed contractors it's another couple $k, all for a plug. Oh wait, you can't just have it done simply,, the generator has to be able to communicate with the breaker panel to tell it to switch the main so you need a new smart panel. It also can't be done with a portable generator, it has to be a permanent installation like a Generac. By the time you're done it won't be under $10k and if your property won't allow for proper distance from the house and property lines you won't know until after you've paid the licensed surveyor. But don't worry the town has a list of contractors and such to choose from and a few aren't related to members of the entrenched political elite.

Gotta love the generator drone when nearly every house on the hill is running one Thankfully I may not have to listen to it for much longer, apparently they just have to connect one more problem area a block from me and they can turn on the whole hill, NYSEG is being aggressive and telling us 9pm. Of course, now that I figured out how to run the whole house (sans AC) with my 5500 watt generator they're being efficient and getting the job done. I learned how to get 240 volts to the house without blowing things up but the surge when the power went off fried the well pump control box so I also learned how to replace that. I cut out the tree that came down on the back fence but the neighbor won't pull it off from his side so I can bend the fence back into shape, he's saying I need to figure it out from my side. I guess my dogs are gonna get a yappy dog snack sometime soon. I met the person down the street with the weather station so I guess being home most of the day wasn't entirely a bad thing.

I'm having a terrible tomato year, almost lost all the plants, nursed a few back to sort of productive but not like usual. We're at least a few days with no power, they're still assessing but my guess is with all the trees down and a bunch of poles snapped in half it's going to be at least a week. When I kicked the generator on yesterday it fried a bunch of electronics which sucks but it is what it is. This morning everything started up fine but 2 minutes later the well pump shut off and won't come back on so... THIS SUX

Or even northeast, hence noreasters This was just too much and too long from the SE.

Of course.

I don't think the outside damage on my property is too bad, a couple of good sized branches down, it took out 3 sunflowers and 6 cornstalks though All around me it's a mess but mostly large branches rather than whole trees. Like I just posted in the main storm thread I think it's due to the unusual wind direction, we never see 50+ from the ESE so all of these long heavy branches that aren't hardened to wind from that direction gave up. The utility line damage is impressive due to so many branches, in some places the tension on the lines was so high they ripped out from the poles and wrapped around things like a spring popping. They're wrapped around trees that were stripped of their leaves and from jumping around on the ground the streets and lawns are scorched and a few places they stopped when they wrapped around cars and scorched the **** out of them. Crazy stuff for a 4 hour storm.

I got a whole big .65" so not much rain at all really but the wind did some damage. There are trees down everywhere, power lines on the ground that we had to drive over to go out and get dinner and gas lines a half mile long at the 4 stations that have power. There are no traffic lights working around town either which creates chaos. Apparently we aren't expected to get power back for 4-5 days which really sux so I rednecked a way to backfeed power into the house from the generator but it's questionable so I'll shut down overnight. I can at least run the well pump when the gennie is running so that's good. When I flipped the switch the microwave and dehumidifier blew out so I know there's something not quite right but the $10k, plus the cost of the Generac , that it would cost to have it done right is prohibitive. The only other option is run a few extension cords from the portable generator so we have lights but that means no running water and with 4 people you have to be able to flush the toilet.

Garden getting a solid soaking now and the wind is for real. This is turning out to be one of the better summer storms in a few years.

.12! FKNA yeah

75/74 we had a couple of good showers and up to .15 now, that's the most I've had in one episode since Fay.

This time it's drizzling with big enough drops that if one lands in just the right place I might register .001 lol.

I've been dry too, 47 seconds of very light, immeasurable, drizzle. 74/71 now. I'm kinda psyched, someone on my street got a nice weather station and it's on WU so I don't have to patch together reports from around the hill and town to get decent data.

10 miles east of there it's as dry as it gets but it looks like we're gonna get doused in a few minutes.

I got .04, that makes .05 for the week. I should sit down and add it up but I doubt I'm over 3". It's so dry, SO DRY, in the woods near me right now, it's hardpan and dusty and the leaf carpet is crackly. Fire danger is coming up quickly now.

Man, these crazy storms where I get a few hundredths of an inch are awesome Maybe we'll get a hurricane and actually soak the forest for a change rather than just dampen the surface. The fire danger is starting to get scary.

It's pretty cloudy so it's not that searing heat but it's more like an all encompassing energy zapper. Blech...

Is it wearing a mask? 75/72 with the morning low of 72.