Hello out there!

steve k · « **on:** 21 Jul 2006, 02:57 pm »

Any other GAS members out of power??

So far Scott F. and I are blacked out. I had to cancel my mini-meet tonight for lack of electrons. Things are pretty bad here in old St. Lou. Luckily we have power at work so we have internet access. Somehow the Cards managed to win a game Wed. night while most of the rest of us were losing power, and I was hoping they'd get rained out the way Atlanta was whooping them lately.

How is everyone else doing?

steve

drummerwill · « **Reply #1 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 03:31 pm »

Yeah, I have no power at home also.
Good thing I can come to workwhere we have air conditioning and the internet.
Hang in there Steve!
Willie

Scott F. · « **Reply #2 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 05:48 pm »

we still don't have any power at the house or at work (I,m typing this reply from my phone). I did talk to the linesmen working down by the hiway and (cross your fingers), we might have power this afternon

mark@marktwain · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 05:53 pm »

Sorry to hear about all that's going on down there. This is one time that I'm glad I dont live in St. Louie. If any of you gasers need a cool place to stay come on up north, I have two extra beds, a sofa sleeper and of course plenty of room on the floor.

Mark

Bill Baker · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 06:09 pm »

Hey guys, what the reason for no power? Run out?

mark@marktwain · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 06:19 pm »

Too many tube amps.

Storm knocked it out Wednesday night I believe. I don't know why it's taking so long to get it back up other than probably not enough people for the number of lines down I would guess.

Mark

Bill Baker · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 06:22 pm »

Ya see, if you guys would stop paying so much money for those NOS tubes, you could afford to pay the electric bill.

mark@marktwain · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 06:31 pm »

Naw, the problem is Willies 845's are suckin up all the juice! aa

Scott F. · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 07:34 pm »

3---2----1----CONTACT !!!!

Hey, I now have power

Oh Bill, not to worry, no NOS tubes got injured in the filming of this motion picture

...and for those out there that were wondering, Wednesday St Louis got clobbered by a massive storm that came out of nowhere. It was about 50 miles wide and about 20 miles deep. Wind gusts were clocked at around 85 mph. To give you an idea how strong the storm was when you watched the Doppler radar, the red color usually signifies that you've got some pretty serious TStorms happening. The only color stronger than red is purple. Nearly this entire storm was purple.

I heard the peak number of home that were out of power was somewhere near 600,000. As of this morning they had restored about 300,000 then another severe storm rolled through about 2 hours ago. Pretty much everything you would expect from a strong storm happened. Massive, old growth trees were uprooted, roofs were ripped off, power lines were down nearly everywhere, loads of the cities business's were shut down for no power, the panic isles at the grocery stores were opened and buzzing with people, it was pretty much choas for the last few days. Top that off with fact that we had 100^o heat with 80%+ humidity.

Looks as if AmerenUE and linesmen crews from nearly every neighboring state are starting to get everybody connected again. Thank Goodness.

DeadFish · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 08:14 pm »

No power still in the home of Dead Fish....

First gust wednesday took big part of locust tree and flung it on our house wire and pulled the service off the house, burying the DeadFishMobile under said tree. When the power blipped, I think it ate my harddrive and video card as I haven't been able to get either working again.
(Typing from work in 'watch-out-for-customer' mode)
Power finally disappeared at our house when I got the electrical service replaced, but the power cut. They tell us now some 3-6 days to get the wire hung and us back online. With whole neighborhoods, hospitals, etc out, I can understand the need to put us low on priority. It doesn't mean we have to like it.
I sure hope the heat doesn't affect the vinyl!

Ah, I'm just cheerfully whining. My wife walked right beneath our power wire to drag in the blown-away laundry before the storm, maybe 2-3 minutes before it fell down.
We are fortunate people, all told!

Sure glad today's storm cooled things down. Sure would like to hear some tunes....
A/C blower died sunday nite and we finally got A/C tuesday nite....for about 24 hours.
Guess there is no new gear coming to us soon.

Hope y'all get yours up soon, as probably so do your wives.

Have a listen for me, and we'll see you on the airwaves....

DeadFish

steve k · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 Jul 2006, 10:45 pm »

Hey Deadfish,
Glad to hear your Guardian Angelfish was looking out for the Mrs! Thank God its cooled off (a little). I talked to Sturg today. He's been out since Wed as well. He and Cynthia have been hanging in the basement enjoying the cool. He says Cynthia has really grown to like his system now (of course--it's off!)

He says his basement has never been as clean as it is now!

We're still out of commission so no mini gas party tonight. Fortunately we have a friend with a big house and electric who's willing to take Barb and I, 3 teenagers

and a dog and two kittens. We feel like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Sturg is bringing Willie's beloved 845's by this weekend so I'll have to hand them off to Blackmore next Friday (assuming my system still works). My surge protector took a mighty hit Wed. night. I feel like I'm receiving the Holy Grail for safekeeping with all that's going on right now. Willie, I promise I'll protect them well from the tree that's leaning at my house now. If I have too, I'll throw my self over them.

Bill Baker, have you dried out up there yet? Are we contributing to global warming with all our tube amps or what????

Scott glad to hear your up and running again.

I feel for those Ameren crews working 16 hour shifts in this heat! I was wringing wet today just picking up limbs in my yard. I can't imagine what those poor souls in New Orleans had to endure!

steve

steve k · « **Reply #11 on:** 24 Jul 2006, 02:37 pm »

Well, it's Monday morning and we're still out of commission. We did see some out of town power trucks in our area last night so we're hopin. Luckily we spent a Thursday and Friday with a friend but we moved back in last Sat. when it cooled down. At least ice is more easily available now.

I'm still flipping on the bathroom light hoping it will come on. I'm not sure how much more we can play cards in the candelight before we kill each other. I picked up Willie's 845's from Sturg Sat. night and Sturg was back on. He suggested I move to the "Hood". So all I can do is stare it these monsters. Willie, I put one on a scale and it weighs in at 53 pounds!

Hopefully we can take them for a spin on my Insignias Friday night. Ya'll stay cool now.
steve

Scott F. · « **Reply #12 on:** 24 Jul 2006, 03:05 pm »

Hey Steve,

Wanna borrow my generator since we're back up? At least you can use it to plug in some fans and maybe a few lights. If you're careful you might be able to run a small TV at the same time. It's rated at 3700 watts if that helps.

jcrane · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Jul 2006, 05:05 pm »

I got back from mini vacation on thursday night to find one hell of a mess. I had power then lost it but got it back for thursday night, then it was on again off again all weekend. My girlfriend finally got power back yesterday but I just read an article that said as of sunday night 300,000+ still had no power with about 77K of them being on my side of the river. I was very lucky. I am suffering from some torn screens and some water damage but it was all caught in time to prevent damage to any gear.
I snapped some pics of local damage here in Pontoon Beach, posted over at AV123 so if you are wondering....
http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15020
Most of the really bad damage was cleaned up and north of us by the time I got.

Hope all is well for everyone
jamie

steve k · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Jul 2006, 06:10 pm »

Thursday night, I was looking out the back window watching all the maturing trees flapping around and I watched a huge limb come down on the main feeder to the homes on the street behind me. Blue flash, yellow flame and boom boom, out went their lights. Just as I was thinking to myself, "Wow, for once OUR power didn't go out," it did. That's what I get for thinking.

My 90 foot hackberry with treehouse attached was waving so wildly, it came to rest about 18" out of plumb leaning toward our house. The trunk must be a good 40" in diameter.

Scott, let's see what happens today. There are now only 600 people out of 7700 in our zip code still without power, so hopefully that's going to change for the better today. Do you think the wife would care if I borrowed the generator to fire up the system???

steve k · « **Reply #15 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 12:20 pm »

We're back on! Got power back about 7:30 last night thank God. That was really getting old after 5 days. Deadfish, hope things are better your way too. Jamie, looks like you really had it bad in your area. Hope your damage wasn't too bad. Fortunately everything is functional here including AC, computers and stereo. The only thing that took a hit is the power switch on my surge protector/line conditioner. It was great to have tunes again. Thanks for all your kind thoughts.
steve

drummerwill · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 12:55 pm »

Congradulation Steve ! We got our power back on Friday evening it was like the whole world you had lost is found again! Now you've got power again, Chill the Beer and fireup the 845's after listening for about 30 mins and 2 or 3 Beers, that power outage thing will be a vague memory!
Have fun!
Willie

DeadFish · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 03:44 pm »

HEY, we're back on the Funway!

Man, what an adventure.

Here it is tuesday morning, enjoying my campfire coffee when three strangers in boom trucks pulled up.
They said you WILL have power when we leave. (Never, NEVER tempt God!)
When the fellas replaced our service on the side of the house thursday, they said their company would call the inspector (whom we would hear from in 24-48 hours) and the power company.
Bemoaning our fate, my wife called the inspector's office this morning and left a message to make sure we were on the list.
JUST as the power was up and getting reconnected, the inspector pulled in and said 'Stop!"
Apparently NObody called him (until my wife did) NObody got a permit and nothing could happen until we did. Apparently didn't like the disrespect of stepping on his pecker or something... Showed the repair bill and told him our story. He told the power guys to hold on, but they told him it would be several days before returning. You could see the wheels turning in the inspectors mind...and finally let them finish and I got to hear him bitch the electrical contractor out on the phone as they should know they had to have a permit. All to be done after-the-fact now, I'm hot and online!
I used to do this stuff for a living and in fact originally put up my own service entrance, but it was SO
nice to act like a stupid consumer and to 'keep my dog out of that fight'.

Man, I had become 'unstuck in music'. (with apologies to Billy Pilgrim).
No real music since last week, as I dont have stereo worth hearing in the DeadFishMobile.
(a bad case of "So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for YOU (insert 'POWER' here)
Who did that old 60's tune? I'm blank.
But I'm ONline!

Thanks for good wishes folks. Hope no one else got this hung up after the storm.
Jeez, the inside of my fridge STINKS! Haven't had the guts to open the chest freezer, but at least I have light to find it! And hopefull find at least 2 canes and my glasses misplaced in the dark.

Well, I guess that covers it. Time to crank up the squeezebox and rock!!

Best Regards, All Ways

DeadFish

steve k · « **Reply #18 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 03:54 pm »

Hey Deadfish, welcome back from Tralfamadore! Ah yes, the inpspectors and their permits. How would we survive as a species without them? I believe that was the Kinks, BTW.
steve

DeadFish · « **Reply #19 on:** 25 Jul 2006, 06:39 pm »

Man Steve, there's no fooling you!

Yes, I believe you are right, now that you mention the Kinks. Damn, another band I've only got on vinyl!

Hoping all are 'back' and accounted for, little the worse for wear.

I'd say if there were any high points to this misadventure, I spent more time with family and the dog. Lucky has been one luckly critter, always finding someone to walk him for something to do.
Driving around, I've seen a lot more kids out riding bikes or playing ball.

Freezer and 'fridge now cleaned out, and the Trashman might get a hernia picking up the 60lbs of chicken leg quarters melting into the bottom of the can. (tsk!)
Ah, I'd been wanting to clean the freezer anyway....

Needed to make room for some relatives....hehehe.

Regards,
Bill