Moments of Awareness

If the radar forecast holds, things'll get good around 11PM MT (provided we don't lose power; see The Grid for more on that). Enjoy! 9:30PM MT: Bit of a lull now, but check back around 10:45PM MT, as it looks like it should pick up again. :) 11:11PM MT: Pish-tosh, the best of the second wave is going to miss us. Looks like there might be more in the AM, though, we shall see. :) Anyway, wanna see somethin' cool? Look at where lightning is striking all over the world at any given time. (Check out the 'stations: on' setting while you're there. :) ) Texas is gettin' pounded .

Meet Garrett Collins from Boise Electric Services . (Use this link to start the video at the point when he arrives.) He came to fix the pipe and wires that got bent and broken when the tree that's on the ground on the other side of him bounced off our house on its way down. (He did great work, too.) It was a little tree, and old and dead and dry, so it didn't do much damage to the house, and missed everything else but the outhouse and the stairs on the way down. Our power's been out twice since Mr. Collins was here about a month ago. When I say 'our power' I mean the ~3100 households affected every time anything happens along our particular trunk line, which is often and sometimes takes days to fix - a scenario that too many, both urban and rural dwellers, can relate to these days. Dude and I have long held that it would make the most sense if every structure were powered using nearby available sustainable resources. Garrett agrees, which is nice to hear from

They were a little anticlimactic video-wise. A power pole ignited and knocked the power out for the same 3100 Idaho Power customers that lose power every time anything happens along Highway 21, but the RCVFD was right on it and got it out quickly, and the power was restored a couple hours later. There wasn't any more real weather activity the rest of the night.