Other than that, the best RantWoman can manage on the party front: one piece of disaster preparedness advice, and an epic tale of water vs leaky roof, water in reasonably-sized containers, and water wherever else it might go.
First the disaster preparedness advice: plan for windstorms as well as snow:
RantWoman knows many people who have moved to Seattle from places where snow removal and people cleaning off their sidewalks are widely understood as part of the civic landscape. RantWoman herself took a good while when she first came to get used to local standards. It is easy to shut the entire region down with a snowfall that just looks to RantWoman, by Montana standards, like heavy frost. RantWoman is now used to believing local emergency planners. Just GO HOME if one is out when snow starts to fall. GO HOME before the bus system shuts down. Do any absolutely necessary shopping on the way but just go home.Once you are home, if you are worried about a power outage, take some time to turn ingredients into food you like. In RantWoman's case that means for instance things RantWoman has prepared with more fiber and MUCH less salt and sugar than recipes or commercial products provide. Turning ingredients into food also means a little bit of a balancing act about food handling temperature management issues; RantWoman promises at some point to blog about her strategies on this score, but not tonight.
But really plan ahead.
RantWoman is all for planning ahead: make sure to have a snow shovel or to know who among one's neighbors has a snow shovel, who is physically able to clear sidewalks, and what help different people might need. Follow local media reports about forecasts, snowfall, and road conditions. But if you don't absolutely have to travel stay home and watch television / your preferred media channel to see people struggling to drive.But don't just get to know your neighbors because you are waiting around for snow. Get to know your neighbors; chat them up about the history of power outages in your neighborhood. Plan ahead; have strategies for anything in your household that might be critically impacted by power outages: wheelchair and other medical device batteries, oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines but also tropical fish tanks, grow lights. Snowstorms are one thing but Seattle does not get crippling shut the region down for days snowstorms as often as we experience strong winds that can cause power outages.
There. Free Advice. Isn't RantWoman just a giant party animal?
And now, risk of FLOODING!
Flooding? Out on the, Snohomish, Skykomish or the Stilaguamish rivers? Probably, but also MUCH closer to home, like just down the hall from the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing There are several leaks in a glass wall just down the hall from the Friendly Neighborhood Center. Water always pours in when it rains. Usually some kind of containers get deployed to catch the leaks. Friday afternoon RantWoman noticed both that two trash cans had been deployed and that the trash cans were getting very full while it was still pouring down rain.It was late Friday afternoon. Lots of people RantWoman might have checked with had already gone home. RantWoman herself was not particularly thinking with all her brain cells at least at first. The containers were almost full of water, filling fast and even splashing over. RantWoman had no idea who to call and sent email saying so. Email got routed to an email address about work orders and eventually there were phone connections to on-call carpenters. Eventually.
The almost overflowing containers were too heavy for RantWoman to try to move herself. Worrying about flooding in the computer lab down the hall, the first thing RantWoman did was walk around and get as many cords and surge protectors off the floor as possible. Then RantWoman went home and grabbed a bite of supper.
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| Party with the water management effort! |
Somewhere mid-sandwich, it dawned on RantWoman that she has cooking pots. Cooking pots can bail and dump water outside. It will take awhile, but it is better than a flood in the hallway and the computer lab. Back RantWoman went with a cooking pot and a coat she did not mind getting wet. The cooking pot was not very big, but it was still heavier than RantWoman wanted to wield too long with her injured arm. Still, bail and dump, bail and dump.
RantWoman looked around for another bigger container and settled on an office-sized trash can. RantWoman did not notice a substantial crack part way up the trash can, but it still worked better as an intermediate step with the cooking pot. Bail, Bail, Bail, Bail and then dump.
Eventually RantWoman managed to bail enough water out that she could wrestle the trash containers outside and dump them directly. RantWoman also listened to the roar and splash of the pouring rain and decided to see whether there were even bigger trash containers available in the hall. Eureka! Yes!
RantWoman went home for the night and decided if the containers overflowed they would just have to overflow unless someone else could come by and check. RantWoman checked in the morning. The large trash container under the bigger leak was about half full; the other container was maybe a third full. Even better, the bigger containers were ON WHEELS so it was MUCH easier to take them outside, roll them along the concrete a good ways away from the building and then dump.
RantWoman is VERY grateful it seems to have stopped pouring! Now if only RantWoman could work in that level of all-body exercise every day, and maybe even without high risk of indoor flooding.
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