Friday, November 21, 2008

Power Problem... again.

I am so loving my APC UPS... that would be an uninterruptible power supply. This baby gave me enough time to head on over to the shop, draaaaaag our hundred pound power plant what felt like half a mile over to the house, find two rather shaky looking extension cords, and plug in before it got pitch black tonight.

Our power went out but I think you gathered that, and it's still out. Hydro first said it would be restored at approximately 5:30 PM, now they say 7:00, and you can bet your bottom dollar that will change to 11:00 when I call again. You know one wonders why oh why we don't have plans in place before something happens?? I seriously did not marry a boy scout. I knew there was no way I would be able to lift the power plant into the truck and drive it over to the house but the thought of having no power into the night was enough of an incentive to get me dragging the thing. I seriously think we should build a box beside the house to hold it, along with the two new extension cords I intend to buy, because if I have to do that every time our power goes out I'm going to have a heart attack!

The UPS is a rather handy gadget. Today I was in the middle of computing and our power sort of flicked off and on, nothing skipped a beat. Now we are totally without power and my server with attached port replicator has kept right up. I also have a router and external dvd burner plugged into it. I run the software off of my server, it's called Grid Junction, an excellent program for it, much better than what comes with it. If the power dies on the supply it will gracefully shut down the server, a pretty handy feature. It also keeps track of all the events, and lets you know how much time you have. Oh did I mention the program is free? That's really nice too :) The UPS isn't just for a server, it would work great for a computer and monitor too.

So now I have the UPS plugged into one of the extension cords coming into the house from the power plant. Hopefully we don't run out of gas, but if we do at least the UPS is charging!

It sure would be nice to have one large enough to run my stove, because the way the wind's howling there is no way I'm firing up the barbecue!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get the candles out. be romantic Have fun!!!ab

Oma said...

It is a good thing your hubby married a "can do it" wife.
You always have the wood stove to boil water on or fry eggs on if you have to. :)

Love Ya!

KansasA said...

Aunty B, I would get romantic but it's no fun when Hubby's in camp! ;) And if he were home he'd be the one out there hooking up the power plant!

David T. Macknet said...

You are SO far ahead of the curve, when it comes to technology. Man! I haven't even seen a little UPS like that for probably 13 years!