Happy Birthday!

A Happy 4th of July to you all, in the case you happen to be reading this.

Python Transition Complete

I just finished the move to the TWiki for my Monty Python Repository. Be sure to check it out NOW! I did a real dry run of it myself, and everything looks like it should be just fine. But of course, things are never that predictable. But at least it’s a project knocked off the list.

I’ve placed the appropriate redirects in place on the site, which automatically brings people to the new location, even if they use old bookmarks. I’ve still got on the order of 10-15 skits to place on the site (of my own collection)…and then I’ll look at adding more from other locations online.

The ultimate goal of the site is to become a ‘repository’ for sketch and movie transcripts/screenplays.

One HELL Of A Storm…

Well, two nights ago (Tuesday, the 1st) we had quite a storm come through after 10pm. Produced a significant rainfall for a short period of time…and also a pretty good lightning show. BUT, nothing would compare to what we experienced last night!

We watched a movie late last night, which was over around 11:30. Beth was asleep by that time ( ), so after I got things put away I made one last check of the weather situation (thanks to My-Cast) before hitting the sack, mostly as I’d heard earlier it could get stormy.

This check showed me that indeed, there was a storm heading directly for us, and based upon the radar loop movement, I figured that within an hour and a half, we’d be getting that. It also, I should add, had one large red center…also which was heading directly for us. While this concerned me some, I wasn’t going to stay up until it arrived, so I went to bed.

Approximately 12:30 I was woken by a lightning strike/thunder clap. I proceeded to get up to check on everything, which wasn’t a problem. Of course, then knowing this big ass storm was in the neighborhood, I stayed up. Needless to say, I’m glad I did…

About five minutes later, the front began to move through. This I knew from the tell-tale sign of a heavier breeze — a much cooler one at that. I should again state that there was a buttload of lightning at this time. Lighning fascinates me, and I always like watching it (from as safe a distance possible, that is). Anyway, after a minute or two of the front business, the wind got much stronger. And it didn’t stop there. This was the point in time I put some clothes on, just because I didn’t want to be running around mostly naked (nor did anyone else in the neighborhood want me to be doing that). This is also the time when Beth began to panic a little bit (and rightfully so).

I decided it necessary to turn on the police scanner at this time, only to find out that it was not a good situation. Several ‘cloud patterns’ had been showing up as reported by officers, and these were (more or less) heading right for us.

I guess at this time I should explain something. Matt doesn’t like wind. At all. With that said, I need to clarify some things. My definition of ‘wind’ is anything forceful (e.g. not breezes, winds less than, say 25-30mph). Wind freaks me out. Seriously.

So, I kept an eye to the sky (what little I could see) and kept a cautious ear out. I decided to take a peek out in the hallway, as I’d heard some noise out there. The folks from across the hall were looking out the doors and such. So I went back in to our apartment. This is when the power started to get, for lack of a better term, erratic. For some time it couldn’t decide whether or not to be on or off. This went on for some time (a few minutes). Thank God for batteries! At least the network wouldn’t be affected by this.

At this point in time, it was around 12:45…and the wind was still very strong. In fact, I heard a tree break in our backyard…which is when I knew this was going to be really serious. Beth and George were already located in the bathroom, but after I’d told her there were folks downstairs, she decided that it’d be a good idea to go there, too.

Anyway, it was at this time we grabbed the cat (who was placed in his cage) and went for a chat with the neighbors. We were all hanging out for a while, when the power finally went out. Of course, this meant that the neighbors’ scanner was no longer working. But, after a minute, the power came back on…and we were in an okay situation. Then the power went out again, and I kinda figured this would be the state for some time. Especially when it hadn’t come back on for a few minutes.

I made my way back to our apartment, mostly to bring down our workstations (those batteries last anywhere between 10-20 minutes under load). I have one giant UPS unit which powers the servers and our scanner (so I listened for a bit while I was up there)…so I left those machines up for the time. I unhooked Beth’s UPS unit and brought it down with me…so we could power the neighbors’ scanner…for which that UPS worked nicely.

The wind finally calmed down around 1-1:10am. It was still raining to beat hell, but at least the wind was gone. Of course we had no power, but we all kinda went our separate ways as the major part of the storm was gone.

Well, after that, we were all kinda bored, so we ended up hanging out outside our door for a while. Still no power. By this time, the neighbors had a handheld scanner available, and we could hear ours (as we had the door open and the volume turned way up). Dispatch announced that the power company stated the power would be out for several hours. I decided that I could just as well bring the servers down, as the UPS wasn’t going to withstand a long outage (it’d handle two machines for an hour…which is more than most outages anyway). So I brought down the servers and left the scanner go.

This was also the time when we discovered exactly how much damage there was…via radio. City crews, fire, EMTs, cops, everyone was called out. There seemed to be a few small fires from the downed power lines which needed to be taken care of. This was also the time when we were informed that these personnel were out ‘looking for injuries’. I guess that’s when it hit how bad this storm probably was.

As crews were out and talking, we quickly discovered that the east side of town was in the worst shape (our side), particularly between 4th and 7th streets (we’re on the edge of this band). No wonder it’d seemed bad. Well, we all again after a while (it was around 2am) disbanded and went to bed. This was a particularly good thing as both Beth and I had to work at 8 and 7:30am respectively. Of course, I was too pumped with adrenaline to go to bed…but the alarm for the UPS was pissing me off…and the scanner talk was really all the same…nothing new had been reported in a while.

So, I cut power to the last UPS on the network and we went to bed. This was around 3am.

I woke up again around 5 (when it got light out) and looked outside. Now, I knew there was some damage in our backyard to trees, but wasn’t able to really see (aside from what the flashlight showed). It was pretty amazing. Needless to say, it’s much brighter overall in our bedroom now, as that was the shade tree for the east side.

Still no power, but Beth and I got up around 7 for good…and got ready for the day. As I’m more or less the guy in charge at Subway (and since I was opening the store), I wasn’t planning on being to work on time. Especially since the power was still out. Our power service at home is on the same line as that of the store, so if we don’t have power, neither does the store. Willie’s would be anyone’s guess…but we went for a drive around 7:30 to figure out what was going on.

So, we drove over to Willie’s…to find out that their power had been restored. So it was off to work for Beth… But before we went back home, we drove around just a little more. Needless to say, it’s not a pretty situation. The east side of town (even though crews started on this side before the west side) was still pretty bad.

Well, to bring this to an end here shortly, we both went to work. There was no power and then intermittent power at Subway, but it all got worked out eventually.

After work, I drove around with the camera and took some pictures. I haven’t uploaded them yet, but I imagine that they’ll end up here on the website somewhere. Perhaps that’ll be my Saturday afternoon project.

Before I sign off, though, I should add that there didn’t seem to be any injuries (minus a disloacted shoulder and such) related to the storm…just a lot of clean-up going on in the next few days.

This post was upgraded to the MZ Online Blog on 8/20/07