[aprssig] 3' snow emergency dumb idea...

[Mark Cheavens]

Snow blowers work well for moving snow. Much easier.

- As do backup generators for backup power!

Sorry,
It had to be said.

Mark
KC5EVE
At 11:29 PM 2/7/2010, you wrote:
>Stupidest Emergecny power Idea for me ever...
>
>With 2'-3' snow forcast, I parked my Prius down at the street end of 
>my driveway so it would be easy to get out.  Went inside.. after 
>suffering through a few hours of my wife's media induced hand 
>wringing and hysteria over possible loss of power and other end of 
>the world scenarios, I assured her that the Prius would power the 
>house - no problem...
>See: www.aprs.org/alternative-energy.html
>
>To show I was doing everything possible, I even went out to pre-run 
>the extension cord from the Prius to the house breaker 
>box...  Looking for the right cord, I could either use a 50' cord 
>that was too short or a 100 foot one that was too long.
>
>Thinking I didn't want to give up any voltage drop... I came up with 
>the IDEA of backing the Prius right up to the garage where the 
>breaker panel is, and that way my 12' male-to-male "emergency power" 
>cord could connect the two directly without needing any long 
>cords...  The wife would see that I had done SOMETHING in 
>preparation, And it would make a nice picture if we used it.
>
>Wind blew, snow flew... power remained for me and you..
>
>...
>
>And then for the next 18 hours I got to shovel a 100' long by 8' 
>wide by 3' deep driveway to get the Prius out....
>
>I think I'll go with the 100' #12 cord next time instead.
>
>As backgroud, the second laughable tale was the euphoric mood we 
>were in as we prepared for the snow... firewood, DVD movies, milk, 
>snacks, chips, popcorn, toilet paper....  As two people with 
>overburdened busy lives we were looking forward to 3 days straight 
>at home with NO OTHER DEMANDS.  We were young again...
>
>Then spent all 3 days digging out (100' of driveway, plus the 
>culdesac), protecting an acre of plants from breaking under the 
>snow, chain-sawing broken limbs across access routes, continuously 
>cleaning and  moping up the water tracked in on every excursion, 
>removing snow from over 200sqft of solar panels, making contraptions 
>to get the snow off the roof in preparation for the next 5" of snow 
>forcast in 2 days, etc, etc...
>
>Then collapsing in exhaustion..
>
>Bob, WB4APR
>
>_______________________________________________
>aprssig mailing list
>aprssig at tapr.org
>https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig