Friday, November 1, 2013
November has swept in with a great flourish of energy!
The wind arrived just after 7:00 a.m. this morning, just after Attila left for work. Immediately, within seconds of the first serious gust, the power flickered off, long enough to power down all appliances and clocks in the house. It will be along day where I work, because there is no generator, and the whole business is run from one wonky computer, which is challenging under ideal conditions. Still, no matter, I will be paid for my time, so I’ll be off to work this morning, power or no.
The MacBook Air will work for hours from the battery, so I will need to conserve power and use it judiciously. However, the internet connection is entirely dependent upon electricity, and so all wireless connection with the outside world will cease.
In the time it has taken to write this part of the entry, the wind gusts have increased in intensity. Small objects can be heard hitting the windows and chimney, probably leaves and the last remaining seed pods that have been clinging to the trees.
By 7:30 a.m. the power was cutting out completely for a few minutes, then coming back on, then cutting out again just minutes later. It is difficult to get ready for work in these conditions. It isn’t full light yet, and the house is quite dark without the lights. Also the water pump will not run without electricity, so no power, no water. I do as much as I can in the way of preparation for the day, when the power is briefly on. Being an early riser provides ample time for schedule setbacks. The drive to work should be interesting.
Already a great branch from the neighbours dead birch tree has crashed to the ground. Our front yard is littered with stubborn dead oak branches, which have finally agreed to return to the earth.
Keep safe Attila, out there in all that wind!
Monday, November 4, 2013
Terra and Lares dropped by our little house in the city and checked things over for wind damage. No damage, thank goodness.
Terra sent me a photo of her kitchen counters, which I thought were brand new from looking at the picture. However, they are the old kitchen counters which she refinished with a kit from Walmart, and they look amazing! Terra is one handy girl.
I worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday I was in charge of an office, things went smoothly. Friday I worked at a location which is always unpleasant. I wrote some details about that experience here, then deleted them with glee, be gone! Saturday I was once again in charge of an office, things went smoothly.
I have been spending a lot of time with my three remaining computers, since the fourth, the iBook, crashed and burned. Saturday afternoon and all day yesterday, Sunday, I had all three of them fired up and was busy moving files, and backing things up.
Nerdy Computer Stuff
I have been spending a lot of time with my three computers, since the fourth, the iBook, crashed and burned. There are three remaining computers, an old G4 desktop, an iMac, and the MacBook Air. After upgrading the operating system to Mavericks, the latest, on the MacBook Air, a lot of issues have arisen. Mavericks is not soup yet!
The ability to backup data has been severely compromised in the new Mavericks. Hundreds of Mac users have lost their backup data in failed external drives, which were working perfectly until they upgraded their operating systems. I have been affected less severely, so far. I am working through glitch after glitch after glitch with the new Mavericks. Luckily, all the files on my external backup drives are also on the computer hard drives. It will take about two solid weeks to reorganize the three computers, and adequately back everything up. That is, if Mavericks doesn’t corrupt my new backup drive!
An additional problem at the country house, the electrical power supply, from Hydro One. It cuts out almost every day, sometimes for a short time, often for minutes to hours to days at a time. When you are working with multiple connected computers and backup drives, these power failures cause quite a ruckus. Last Wednesday a power failure completed wiped out the second partition on a Firewire La Cie drive I was using to make a backup. I lost all the data on that partition. Some of it will have been backed up to DVD, and some of it is gone for good.
Just after 10:00 this morning the power cut out again, while I was backing up the iMac on the external Firewire drive. Hydro One cannot blame the weather, the skies are sunny, there is no wind. I think they should be reducing our bills accordingly, considering they cannot supply a reliable electrical supply. They are the only game in town though, so we are stuck with them.
My fingers are crossed that when the power comes back on, the computer is booted up, and the external backup drive examined, that my data will still be there.
I either stop using computers here in the country, or buy an electrical power bar that will allow me lead time to disconnect external drives and shut down computers before the power cuts out. Sigh.
Attila spent his day off work cutting wood for transport. We buy our wood for renovation projects near our country house, to support local business here, and take advantage of a few local deals. (We buy our food near the little house in the city to support business there, and take advantage of a few local deals.) The size of our car limits what we can transport. Attila measures and cuts the wood for projects, purchased here in the country, so that the carefully cut pieces will fit into our car for transport to the little house in the city.
There were a few sunny days this past week, and they provided a window of opportunity to get the leaves raked. After the wind storm there were quite a few small branches to pick up as well. No trees were lost at the country house, during this last storm.
The close of the day and this post has arrived. Here in the bush we will eat our dinner, and sit reading in front of the evening fire.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
2°C
Date: 5:00 PM EST Monday 4 November 2013
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 103.4 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 1.8°C
Dewpoint: -4.2°C
Humidity: 65%
Wind: SE 13 gust 28 km/h
Quote
“In Canada, the Liberals think the glass is half full, the NDP think the glass is half empty, and the Conservatives think the glass is theirs.”
Maggie Turner, 2013