Last day in #AlgonquinPark, started day off with frost and a 0°C stroll through the park; bonus: no mosquitoes at all! I ended up doing a longer loop on my own; half run / half walk, I need to replace my shoes with something with … treads.
On the way home, passing through Eganville, we saw a house with a Trump2024 flag … and a Russian flag 😳 (must be funny there today when they see the news!). Rest of drive back was good until we hit traffic in Ottawa, unloaded, and returned the Communoauto.
A pretty decent thunderstorm rolled through and knocked our power out. Despite their claims to the contrary, our local power company is completely negligent about maintaining their infrastructure, so trees are forever falling on the lines. We’re used to it, but I still get irked about it.
No idea how long we’ll be down, but two hours in and no ETA means it’s going to be awhile.
We’re fine. Cooking steaks on the grill and we’d brought home ingredients for strawberry shortcakes. Not all bad!
Our biggest hardship is while we’re on the grid for water, this neighborhood is all septic systems. A natural spring complicates matters. Holding tanks & leach fields must be uphill, with an interim tank of unknown size that gets periodically pumped uphill into the bigger tank. And that pump? Uses 🔌 electricity!⚡️
There is a septic alarm that sounds if the pump fails. That alarm? Uses 🔌 electricity!⚡️
So, water draining and flushes are guarded. It’s a very shitty game of Russian roulette.
Our outage was not quite 24 hours. They squeaked in under their estimate with just 28 hours to spare. 🎪
Despite my snark, I do really appreciate the linesmen. They’re out there in the heat, working long hours to get people back in service. It’s tough work.
@iaintshootinmis got power back yesterday evening. The real trick for us was the septic pump. For most people, septic is downhill & power isn't a factor, but our natural spring environment makes it challenging.
Our old house had a generator transfer switch installed and that allowed us to power certain circuits in the house. If we had one here, we'd have been fine for days. We'd have wired the septic pump to it as well. Fridge & freezer, well pump, septic pump, wifi, lights & TV.
@iaintshootinmis It's a PowerStroke 5000 watt portable generator. I doubt we used more than a half-gallon of fuel. The calculation is that an unopened refrigerator keeps food safe for up to 4 hours, so I would set an alarm every 3.5 hours or so and run it to allow everything to get back to normal operating temps. Rinse & repeat.
I will say, one thing I've learned is to get some fuel stabilizer to add to your stored fuel. Don't have to drain unused fuel that way.
@bomkatt my wife and I have the misfortune of being spilled in enough breaches that we're able to continue using such guilty offerings in perpetuity.
I think they're pretty useless, mostly about the appearance of reparations, rather than supplying actual reparations.
We freeze our info with the credit bureaus, which does involve the very small hassle of temporary unfreezing when we had to apply for a mortgage, but it seems the most effective defense.
Another terrible run, hot and with my heart rate out of control. I cut it off early in frustrated disgust. I am not myself & I can’t explain it.
My stress and sleep issues have mostly resolved and that two weeks without running shouldn’t have affected my fitness as much as it has.
And while I may not understand it, it’s clear to see. I went through the stages of grief on the walk back & am mostly landed on acceptance. Will now run slower & target zone 2, rebuilding my vanished base. #Running
@sebastianhahn@Johan_Barelds@recollir I bought the audiobook a few months ago, but haven’t listened to it yet. This seems like the universe telling me it’s time.