It was frustrating. I could stand on the porch and see lights half a
block to the west. I could see lights half a block to the north. To
the south out the kitchen window, nothing but blackness. Sunday afternoon
it was 83 degrees here in the Salt Lake valley, by monday things changed.
It took a while before the tons of dust in the air, kicked up by winds
gusting into the 80+ mph range, was washed out by the snow. For a while
it was just raining mud. What a mess. At least I didn't come home to
find half a tree in the driveway like I did last year.
What I did find was a house with no electricity. About 2:40 pm MDT we
lost power. Roughly 14 minutes later the UPS powering the autox.team.net
servers ran out of juice. And it took about 20 hours for power to come
back. So while I wish I were spending the day getting a Spitfire ready
for the IVR race this weekend, I'll be spending a lot of time cleaning
up computer stuff. So it goes.
I feel bad that the power loss and subsequent loss of team.net services
happened just after I got the first batch of donation checks out of the
PO box. It just doesn't seem right to have people pay for a service right
before it disappears. But on the other hand, maybe some folks might have
realized what a day without team.net would be like, and might add another
5 or 10 bucks to their donation. I've been meaning to buy a generator to
have in the van for events like IVR races at Wendover, perhaps this incident
underscores the need for one. I was going to upgrade the UPS with some of
the funds from this spring fund drive, but I doubt I'll get enough to get
a unit that will last over 24 hours, and the necessary wiring mods needed
to get it working in the house!
At any rate, power seems to have stabilized, the lists, web site and such
are back on the air. Sorry for the inconvenience.
mjb.
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