It's Great to be Back!!!!

[piperpilot]

Wow! It's been one very long week since I have been able to access PPCT. I live in a semi-rural area of Maryland and because of storm damage from Hurricane Isabel, I have not had electricity or cable--hence, no Internet--since last Thursday night. I didn't really realize how much entertainment I derive from PPCT until I didn't have it for a week. I couldn't use my iPAQ very much during the power outage even though I have a spare battery because I didn't know how long it would be until the power came back on and I wanted to conserve battery power as much as possible. As a result, it was a dark, boring week without my iPAQ and PPCT.

All I can say now is, it's great to be back! :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

A week? :crazyeyes: That's really tough. Sorry to hear that, and welcome back.

(How did you manage? ;))

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

Car charger??? :wink:

Welcome back!!!

Steve

[piperpilot]

It was rough! Very rough--no TV, no VCR, no DVD, no PC, no iPAQ or any other acronymed electronic device. I didn't even have any books to read because all of my books are ebooks. Worse than the lack of technology, however, was the lack of water. We have a well, which depends on an electric pump to get the water to the house. Had a backpacking stove for cooking so at least we had hot food. Electricity, cable and water are all back on now; all that remains now is to clean up the 12 trees that fell down during the storm. :cry:

[piperpilot]

Car charger??? :wink:

Don't have one, but you can sure bet that I'm gonna get one before ice storm season starts :wink:

[Janak Parekh]

Well, either that or a generator... ;)

I'm sure that running hot water was a much-missed amenity.

--janak

[piperpilot]

I'm sure that running hot water was a much-missed amenity.

More than you will ever know! I had some water stored in collapsible containers that we used for washing up, brushing teeth, drinking and cooking, but there was certainly not enough to fill up the toilets so that we could flush them. I will spare our readers the details on that situation!

[Janak Parekh]

I will spare our readers the details on that situation!
Please do spare us :lol: One day of no running water was enough for me this August. Thank goodness it's much cooler now, at least... trying to sleep as a sweatball is no fun.

--janak

[disconnected]

One thing I was really happy to have in a few similar situations was Data-nation's battery pack. It was pretty inexpensive, and over the past few years, I've found many occasions to use it, both on plane trips and during power outages. I have half a dozen rechargeable AA batteries that I try to keep charged, and in a pinch, can use regular AAs. It's a very secure feeling to have virtually unlimited battery power for my iPAQ. Once, a hotel I was staying at had a power outage; I felt very happy (and smug :D ) to have my iPAQ with ebooks and games.

[piperpilot]

One thing I was really happy to have in a few similar situations was Data-nation's battery pack. It's a very secure feeling to have virtually unlimited battery power for my iPAQ. Once, a hotel I was staying at had a power outage; I felt very happy (and smug :D ) to have my iPAQ with ebooks and games.

That's a good idea. We do a lot of camping and have a large, rechargeable battery that will run a light, the portable DVD player and my iPAQ. It died in August after several years of use and we haven't had a chance to buy another one yet, but you can bet that we will be going down to Sears this weekend to get one. Hopefully they won't be sold out of them because of the storm. There are still people in the area that don't have electricity yet and it's already been a week.

[Thinkingmandavid]

Howdy, I recently moved to Baltimore for grad school. Where I live there was some rain, but most wind. There are those with out power near us, but we have power thank God:) Yeah, having a good back battery system would sure make you feel better for whatever may or may not come during the coming months. I havent been able to post much because of how busy I have been. It seems sometimes I just come to this site, look at it, and then hurry on to life. Hopefully I will be able to do more posting and reading of the articles.

[Steven Cedrone]

You may also want an inverter for your car (not sure what the highest rated one is), at least you can keep your Pocket PC charged, watch the TV and maybe run a light (not really sure if it could run the pump for your well though)...

Maybe a nice Honda Generator!!! (http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/gen.htm)

Steve

[maximus]

Maybe a nice Honda Generator!!! (http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/gen.htm)

Uh, that idea is copyrighted by me. Now you are in trouble ! :mrgreen:

Back on topic: The electricity service is very bad down here in Indonesia. 4-5 hours outtage averagely on a week. BAD BAD BAD. Now that I am living in an apartment ... portable generators are out of the question. Perhaps I have to buy one of those 5000 KVA sinewave UPS.

[Kati Compton]

Back on topic: The electricity service is very bad down here in Indonesia. 4-5 hours outtage averagely on a week. BAD BAD BAD. Now that I am living in an apartment ... portable generators are out of the question. Perhaps I have to buy one of those 5000 KVA sinewave UPS.
Sucks for alarm clocks. I assume you use a lot of batteries. :(

[maximus]

I am one of those guys that are blessed with an 'integrated' biological alarm. :mrgreen: Before I went to bed, I only need to think what time do I want to wake up in the morning, and usually I woke myself up around that preset time. he heh.

You are correct about the batteries though. Between all those mobilephones, cameras, PPC and Laptop ... I think the world will be such a better place if all electronics are running on AA batteries ...