In article <telecom24.32.18@telecom-digest.org>, david_esan@hotmail.com
says:
> 16.5 inches at the Rochester, New York airport. More is some places
> less at others in the area. Add in 20 mph winds and temperatures
> around 5, it was a wonderful winter weekend. Of course, in true
> upstate tradition no driver slowed down, some people ran to the
> grocery store for milk, eggs and bread (as if the storm would strand
> us for 2 weeks), and the news ran the story as if it was the Storm of
> the Century. Also in true upstate tradition the roads were cleared in
> less than 24 hours and life continues as normal.
> I'm sure that other parts of the Northeast got it worse. But let met
> tell you about the Blizzard of '66, or the non-storm of '77 ...
Ha! Let me tell you that we got 2 feet of the crap in Providence. It
was the second worst storm in recorded history behind the Blizzard of
'78. The only differences this time were:
1) The storm started on a Saturday afternoon. Less traffic on the roads
generally speaking.
2) Better forecasting. They pretty much got the snowfall totals right on
this one.
3) Better preparedness by state and local officials. For once, they
finally got their act together, even shutting down most of the state
today to make sure everything is cleared out.
In article <telecom24.32.19@telecom-digest.org>,
kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net says:
> 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]
I've since found out that the heating system for the store is broken.
Were I in the same situation I would have gone to Home Depot and
bought a kerosene or propane fired heater with the electric blowers on
them along with a nice timer or some type of temp control unit. That
way you can keep the temp above freezing and no more frozen pipes.
Sure, it may cost $500 or so for the heater and controller, and maybe
$200 a month for fuel. So lets say you have to run it for 3 months -
$1,100 is cheaper than the $5,000 you have to pay to get the plumbing
all fixed.
People don't understand opportunity cost, etc. For example, there is an
empty storefront (One of 7 on the street btw.) and an empty apartment.
She wants too much money but they've been empty for at least four months
and show no indication of being occupied anytime soon. So instead of
lowering the prices she'll continue to collect $0 in rental from those
two units.
Sometimes people make no sense at all.
Tony P. (kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net)