In article <telecom24.31.13@telecom-digest.org>, ptownson@telecom-
digest.org says ...
> I guess it must have ... at least over much of the northeast areas of
> the USA. The Sunday edition of Independence Reporter had a couple of
> major stories about New York, Boston and Chicago, and points in between
> which were thoroughly buried in snow. We have yet to get even a
> single inch of snow here this winter, but it has been cold and we have
> had rain a few times. Did the snow slow down your spam any?
Not in the least, unless you consider that the cable went out for four
hours. I also know for a fact that lots of circuit switched phones
went out too.
It's hard to tell just how much snow we've gotten in Providence because
of the damned drifting.
For example, when the cable went so went net service and phone service.
Go to use the cell and the battery is dead and the charger is, you
guessed it, at the office.
The nearest pay phone is < 70' from the house but it was buried under
an 8 foot snow drift. Next nearest wouldn't take coins, next one down
was frozen solid. Walking back I noticed three Cox trucks humming down
the road. When I walked in the door the cable was on again - they must
have lost a head end or at least power to it.
To add to the misery the water pipes in the building froze this week.
Now we're down to 1/2 or so of the water pressure, for roughly three
days had no water at all. My landlord doesn't understand that when
temperatures are single digit you CANNOT shut the heat off in the
store below.
Her best bet at this point is to rip it all out and put PEX in. At
least that can handle the freeze/thaw better than rigid copper. Of
course I don't think she realizes just how much it's going to cost in
the long run.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Independence uses some sort of
'plastic pipe' between the meter (typically in a hole in the ground
in the parkway area by the street in front of your house) and where
city connects to your water line under your house, and it is buried
a few feet underground all that time, only emerging from the ground
more or less where it enters your house. Of course I am in an older
part of town (southeast side) where the houses and the water pipes
were constructed/buried about the same time, a century ago. I do not
know how it is done in newer parts of town. The guy who reads our
meters gave me a special tool to keep in my backyard shed. It is
commonly known as a 'street key', a long pole with 'fingers' on one
end of it which reaches down into the ground while you stand above it
and turn a handle to shut the water off in case of an emergency. And
the lady in the water office told me the best thing to do whenever the
temperture gets into the single digits (quite rare, only once or twice
in most winter seasons) is to let the water drip all night long, a
very slow stream, in the kitchen and the bathroom. I asked her why
should *I* have to pay for water I was not using; her response was to
go to her computer and change me from full rate (for the water portion
of the monthly city maintainence tax bill to the senior citizen/hard-
ship rate) which reduced (the water portion) of the bill about five
dollars per month. That did not change the sewer portion of the bill
nor the garbage/trash pickup portion. (Twice per week garbage pick up
and street cleaning; or as the lady explained it to me, that cost
covers all the garbage that falls on the street when they miss the
back of the truck while dumping your cans. No extra charge for that.)
PAT]
Tony P. (kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net)