A
Anonymous
Guest
The outlaws finally left this morning...a good thing! Then about noon all hell broke loose weatherwise. EBS cut in on the radio and said something along the line of, put yo head between yo legs and kiss yo ass goodbye type of crap.
I went outside after looking at the radar and sure enough, nastyness was rolling in.
After a few pics of the oncoming Armageddon, the wind picked up and I could see the wall of water coming so I went inside, grabbed the puter and watched.
After just a couple of minutes I could tell this was not an ordinary Heartland blow, the wind was howling, tree parts were flying and the power went bye bye. The screens in the west facing windows got blown out and tossed far away, the storm door was twisted and practically ripped off. I look out the south window just as my large temp gauge goes flying off into the netherworld. Downspouts and their drains vanish and I decided it was time to head for the basement.
As I'm in the basement listening to what sounded like the house being ripped apart, the hail starts beating the snot out of the metal siding. I'm thinking to myself; it really does sound similar to a train (said rednecky with toof stickin out).
15 - 20 minutes go by and it's still howling and I'm thinking that can't be tornadic....doesn't last that long. Another 5 minutes goes by and I can tell it's letting up, so I go back upstairs. Now the wind is just beating the tattered storm door, slapping the side of the house...how the glass never broke is beyond me.
I let the wind die down a little more and headed outside to check for damage, amazingly enough, the worst was the storm door, a few screens and downspouts and lots of trees and limbs down. Deb's garden was stripped clean, looked like someone cut everything off at the ground. All the trees were damn near stripped of all their leaves. The nearby corn and soybean fields...nothing but sticks standing.
After about an hour of checking damage, I call the local power company and they tell me power will be out for some time, possibly days due to all the snapped power poles. No problem, I'll just fire up the generator I've had since the last ice storm. I keep it full of gas and start it up regularly to keep it in tip top shape, ready for the next power outage (which happens frequently out here). I fire it up and run it for about 30 minutes, shut it off and take a break.
Deb comes home around 4pm with a trunk load of groceries, I fire the gen. up again to offset the loading of the food into the fridge and then back off after another 30 min running. Another hour goes by and I go to start it up as we eat dinner (cooked on the grill) and NOW it decides to say F you, I'm done. I tear it apart to see what's wrong and for some reason the carb is flooding bad. It's a simple carb, nothing to take apart but a couple of screws....I feel like Duane now, looking at this simple P.O.S. that's going to cause me to loose all that damn food she just bought and loaded into the fridge :expl
After who knows how long, I decide this just ain't gonna happen, so I call my B.I.L. and see if his generator is working...yes it is and they were unaffected by the storms (only 20 minutes away). We hop in the truck, drive there and pick up their generator. Drive back into Council Grove, fill up 3-5 gallon jugs of gas and head home. As a joke to Deb when we left the house I turned on the front porch lights. Since our house is on the highest hill, you can see from a couple miles if the lights are on. As we get closer, I see they are not so we both kinda chuckle and realize that the power may really be out for some time. 1/2 mile from the house, still no lights. Turn down the long drive and round the corner and :wtf the porch lights come on :yikes. We both start laughing our asses off in disbelief :rofl
Moral of the story, if your power goes out for an extended amount of time, go get a generator and fuel.....guaranteed to bring it back on!
Oh yeah, this is the 2nd time in 3 years that the same power deal has happened (get a generator, come home, power comes back on, kick my own ass for driving...buying fuel, etc...)
I went outside after looking at the radar and sure enough, nastyness was rolling in.
After a few pics of the oncoming Armageddon, the wind picked up and I could see the wall of water coming so I went inside, grabbed the puter and watched.
After just a couple of minutes I could tell this was not an ordinary Heartland blow, the wind was howling, tree parts were flying and the power went bye bye. The screens in the west facing windows got blown out and tossed far away, the storm door was twisted and practically ripped off. I look out the south window just as my large temp gauge goes flying off into the netherworld. Downspouts and their drains vanish and I decided it was time to head for the basement.
As I'm in the basement listening to what sounded like the house being ripped apart, the hail starts beating the snot out of the metal siding. I'm thinking to myself; it really does sound similar to a train (said rednecky with toof stickin out).
15 - 20 minutes go by and it's still howling and I'm thinking that can't be tornadic....doesn't last that long. Another 5 minutes goes by and I can tell it's letting up, so I go back upstairs. Now the wind is just beating the tattered storm door, slapping the side of the house...how the glass never broke is beyond me.
I let the wind die down a little more and headed outside to check for damage, amazingly enough, the worst was the storm door, a few screens and downspouts and lots of trees and limbs down. Deb's garden was stripped clean, looked like someone cut everything off at the ground. All the trees were damn near stripped of all their leaves. The nearby corn and soybean fields...nothing but sticks standing.
After about an hour of checking damage, I call the local power company and they tell me power will be out for some time, possibly days due to all the snapped power poles. No problem, I'll just fire up the generator I've had since the last ice storm. I keep it full of gas and start it up regularly to keep it in tip top shape, ready for the next power outage (which happens frequently out here). I fire it up and run it for about 30 minutes, shut it off and take a break.
Deb comes home around 4pm with a trunk load of groceries, I fire the gen. up again to offset the loading of the food into the fridge and then back off after another 30 min running. Another hour goes by and I go to start it up as we eat dinner (cooked on the grill) and NOW it decides to say F you, I'm done. I tear it apart to see what's wrong and for some reason the carb is flooding bad. It's a simple carb, nothing to take apart but a couple of screws....I feel like Duane now, looking at this simple P.O.S. that's going to cause me to loose all that damn food she just bought and loaded into the fridge :expl
After who knows how long, I decide this just ain't gonna happen, so I call my B.I.L. and see if his generator is working...yes it is and they were unaffected by the storms (only 20 minutes away). We hop in the truck, drive there and pick up their generator. Drive back into Council Grove, fill up 3-5 gallon jugs of gas and head home. As a joke to Deb when we left the house I turned on the front porch lights. Since our house is on the highest hill, you can see from a couple miles if the lights are on. As we get closer, I see they are not so we both kinda chuckle and realize that the power may really be out for some time. 1/2 mile from the house, still no lights. Turn down the long drive and round the corner and :wtf the porch lights come on :yikes. We both start laughing our asses off in disbelief :rofl
Moral of the story, if your power goes out for an extended amount of time, go get a generator and fuel.....guaranteed to bring it back on!
Oh yeah, this is the 2nd time in 3 years that the same power deal has happened (get a generator, come home, power comes back on, kick my own ass for driving...buying fuel, etc...)
ep
