I've been without electricity since about 5:30 this morning until about 1:30 this afternoon. This is the third time in about 6 months. In the summer we had a big storm and some people were without electricity for 2 weeks. We personally were out about 3.5 days -- my oldest son and his girlfriend were among the longest with an outage at 16 days. Then, in the beginning of December we had wide spread outages again because of an ice storm. We were out 2.5 days that time and some were longer. The winter time is worse because you have to worry about your pipes freezing and all kinds of extra stuff.

So over night we got some more ice. Didn't even stick to the roads hardly, just the trees and I guess the power lines. Fortunately, last time I went out and bought a generator so we at least had some heat, a couple of lights, the TV, the PC (no internet), and the refrigerator. So we had all we needed, but the last report I heard was 117,000 were without electricity and I guarantee they all do not have generators. AmerenUE (the local electric company) was already under some scrutiny for not keeping their lines clear and keeping the limbs trimmed back.

Now they say we're supposed to get 2 more waves of ice!!!! And we are under an ice storm warning until 6am Monday morning!!! [:@] [:@] [:@]

I wouldn't want to be a big wig at the eletric company because some crazy is gonna be sick of not having power and go nuts on one of them. People are getting fed up.

OK, /rant off --- I just had to get that off my chest, but I feel better now.

 

I was watching the weather and it looks pretty nasty in the Midwest. My mothe-in-law is supposed to be getting some at the end of the weekend and beginning of the week. Hope you and the family stays safe!!!!!

 

No ice storms here, but plenty cold [:@]

 

Triedto let everyone know it was gonna get messy, hang in there.

 

I came by with my chain saw last night and helped the trees find the power lines near your house
I heard a big stink about that on the news several times in the last few months. That sucks hard. Out where I am all of the power lines are in the ground, so we never have outages. If we do, it's only for an hour tops, but it's rare. I hope you at least bought a Honda generator.

 

Well with all the trees in Kirkwood, it's no wonder -- but it's not just around here, as you know.

Generators were mighty hard to come by and I was on 3 waiting lists, so I took the first one I could get. It is a Craftsman, so I'm happy. It puts out electricity, so I'm even happier about that!

It's amazing all the stuff we had hooked up to it and it was only fluctuating between 0 and 10 percent load capacity:
2 lamps
36" HD TV with DirecTV receiver
Blower fan on our gas fireplace
Electric Heater
Telephone system
Alarm system
Refrigerator
My PC and monitor
my son's PC and monitor

Now that the electric is back on, I can enjoy how well it worked for us.

 

GRRRRRRRRR!
Just lost power again for 20 minutes! Just long enough for me to drag everything back out again. And all it's doing is sprinkling rain a little bit. WTF!

 

Check this out guys...I am a salesman for United Rentals and we have seven or eight warehouses across the United States that we can ship things to next day for eight to twenty bucks. If you spend $1000, you get free freight. I am not trying to spam, but if you need something like a generator, power tools, pump, etc (there are 10,000 items in our catalogue) pm me and I can probably get it for you, and help you out on the price. I can drop ship it directly to your house for that shipping cost mentioned above. Anyway, you guys be safe in the Midwest...and no riding on the ice!

 

Hey voodoo, you got some of them tires with spikes in 'em? I need to go riding, ice or no ice. I need some stress relieved.

 

I would suggest a $4 adult video rental. Itonly takes about 35 seconds to relieve my stress while watching them.