The following challenge was posted on another forum. What follows it is my response to that challenge.
Premise:
Our local power co-op has 10 meters that have been out since 4:19AM or 17 hours.
Write the first chapter of the story that goes with that ;-)
You can do the lead-up to the event, the event itself, the fallout from the event or cover all the bases.
Have fun!
=========
What caused the outage?
How did people in the dark respond?
How was the outage fixed? (If it was fixable.)
---------------------------------------
Saturday, 23 July, 20:21
"JimBob Parker, can't you do anything about the power? It is your grandpa's company."
"No, SallyMae, it was his company up until 1992 when he sold it to the Anneewakee Power Co-op. It still has 'Parker Power and Light' on the buildings but that's all the influence I have on them."
"Well, it's coming on dark and power was out when the rooster woke me at 5AM so it's been out more than 15 hours and all the app has is 'Assessing Condition'. The thermometer in the shade on the porch had 95 last time I looked at so you know it'll be too hot and muggy to sleep without the A/C. You better do something."
"I'll drive down the road to the KwikMart and see if they have power or if they know anything more. Some of the power guys stop by there for a cold one on their way home from a repair job. Maybe Jake will have heard something."
"What about the generator you was gonna get?"
"You spent that money on that new all-the-bells-and-whistles washing machine when I told you I could fix the old one - and Willie Jenkins told me he only spent $40 for a new water level sensor."
"Well… uh… sorry, JimBob. Guess you did know best. Can you get Uncle Tim's old generator going? I know you said it could only run one thing at a time but would the fridge and freezer be OK without power overnight so we can run that little window A/C?"
"SallyMae, I ordered a new carb for that gen but the vendor's promised '4 day delivery' ended on Thursday. If we're lucky, it might be in the mail Monday."
"Then we'll be hot and miserable until then?"
"Unless the Co-op gets the power fixed before then. Let me run down to the KwikMart and see if Jake's heard anything."
"Take some of the foam coolers and bring back some ice. We can have something cold to drink and keep the fridge cool. Don't think we'd find dry ice for the freezer any closer than Dawkinsville and that's only if that big Kroger grocery there still has it."
"Don't know if they do. We ain't been there in a long time - you like the customer service better at the Publix that's five miles closer. The Kroger's open 'til 10PM?"
"Midnight on Saturday."
"Be back when I get back. If there's dry ice, I'll get some ice cream for the kids."
"You do that. They've been good about playing in the kiddie pool with that battery-powered showerhead and water cooler you put out there. I wondered what you were doing with that little 12 volt pump and fan and the battery out of the pop-up camper but I gotta say that water's cooler than County Water coming out of the hot ground. How long will that battery last?"
"I've had that old Harbor Freight solar system connected to it and it's almost able to keep up with the load of the pump and the fan blowing across the old central air evaporator coil. Probably be too dark for them to play outside in another 20 minutes unless you want me to pump up the Coleman lantern."
"Go ahead and do that. The kids will be cool longer and they'll be tired enough to go right on off to sleep even without A/C."
"Five minutes. I know where the lantern, the fuel, the funnel and the spare mantles are."
---
"Hi, JimBob. What do you need today?"
"Hi, Jake. I could use some info about how long the power will be out and if you know of a place that sells dry ice that's closer than Dawkinsville."
"Power's gonna be out for at least a couple of days. A gas tanker headed for the Exxon about two miles that way was involved in some kind of multi-car accident. Bottom line is that the tanker took down two or three poles as it rolled off the road and then caught fire. The gas and diesel ran down the drainage ditch on that side of the road and there was fire for about a thousand feet that took the VFD a couple of hours to put out. Best guess one of the power guys had was sometime Tuesday or Wednesday for power to be back here - lots of poles and wiring to be replaced."
"Power's out here? You have lights."
"And refrigerators and freezers and the satellite system on the roof for doing credit cards. It's a very quiet Honda inverter generator. It runs on LP and I have a 3000 gallon commercial tank out back that was filled on Tuesday. Good for probably two weeks or more of running that gen 24 hours a day."
"You probably have something like that at home."
"I have backup power, but it's good for twenty years."
"Hunh?"
"Solar power system. It can't power everything, but we have lights, fridge, freezer and a window A/C in the bedroom. Sure beats trying to sleep without any A/C when the heat index is 99 and higher. We tell the kids it's 'Camping with Momma and Daddy night' and they have a little tent and their sleeping bags in our bedroom - the sleeping bags suffice as a mattress for kids in single digit ages."
"That sounds like a great idea. Maybe when the new carb for the old gen gets here Monday? Meanwhile…"
"Meanwhile, load up all your coolers but one with bags of ice. That last one is for the dry ice as I started keeping a little freezer of it last month. I expect it'll all be gone as soon as the Co-op tells people how long power will be out."
"Thanks, Jake. I have five coolers, so eight bags of ice at two per cooler and as much dry ice as will fit in the other cooler - just leave room for a half gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream. The kids have been real good about playing outside in the kiddie pool in the shade so I should reward them."
"Third freezer door for the Moose Tracks. When you get home, leave the ice in one cooler and run some scrap PVC pipe into that cooler and down almost to the bottom - even better if you have a grid of some kind that can raise the ice bags off the bottom of the cooler about a quarter of an inch and leave about a quarter of an inch between the bags and between the bags and the sides of the cooler. Then put some PVC elbows through the lid of the cooler and put a small fan on the PVC that goes to the bottom of the cooler. Leaving the ice in the bags means you don't increase the already ridiculously high humidity when that fan is moving cool air out of the cooler. It won't cool a big area but it should help in one room."
"I think I could kiss you for that, but I'll let SallyMae do that since you two are cousins and no one will think anything about it."
"Good thought; you ain't my type either."
---
"Got my coolers of ice, here's the cooler for the dry ice - where's that?"
"In the back room. That freezer is much colder than the others and uses a separate condenser that's outside - easier to get the lines out through a wall back there than to jackhammer the concrete floor to get them under it."
"Makes sense. Fill the dry ice cooler except for the space for the ice cream. I don't expect to see Co-op power for three or four days so I'll plan for that. If the carb for the gen does come in, we'll have a little power so we can run the fridge and freezer for an hour then the A/C for two hours and repeat as needed."
"If those coolers stack as well as I think they do, any dry ice left after you fill the freezer should be in as many coolers as you can stack together for the best insulation. If that cooler of ice with PVC pipes works well for cooling one room, you might want to use some of the dry ice to refreeze a couple of bags for the next day."
"Thanks, Jake. You saved me a trip to Dawkinsville and provided some good ideas for managing without Co-op power. Here's my card."
"And that's why I need power for everything here, JimBob: you got what you needed and the rest of my refrigerated and frozen products will survive for sale tomorrow."
"Or the next day or the day after."
"That too. I never expect the power to come back until I see the yard light come on at the house. That's when I go turn the Main breaker back on. That way the house is isolated from any surges or whatever that might happen while they're putting things back together."
"Good idea. I'll turn off the Main breaker when I get back to the house. Thanks again, Jake."
"You're welcome - and thanks for the business."
---
The end.
Premise:
Our local power co-op has 10 meters that have been out since 4:19AM or 17 hours.
Write the first chapter of the story that goes with that ;-)
You can do the lead-up to the event, the event itself, the fallout from the event or cover all the bases.
Have fun!
=========
What caused the outage?
How did people in the dark respond?
How was the outage fixed? (If it was fixable.)
---------------------------------------
Saturday, 23 July, 20:21
"JimBob Parker, can't you do anything about the power? It is your grandpa's company."
"No, SallyMae, it was his company up until 1992 when he sold it to the Anneewakee Power Co-op. It still has 'Parker Power and Light' on the buildings but that's all the influence I have on them."
"Well, it's coming on dark and power was out when the rooster woke me at 5AM so it's been out more than 15 hours and all the app has is 'Assessing Condition'. The thermometer in the shade on the porch had 95 last time I looked at so you know it'll be too hot and muggy to sleep without the A/C. You better do something."
"I'll drive down the road to the KwikMart and see if they have power or if they know anything more. Some of the power guys stop by there for a cold one on their way home from a repair job. Maybe Jake will have heard something."
"What about the generator you was gonna get?"
"You spent that money on that new all-the-bells-and-whistles washing machine when I told you I could fix the old one - and Willie Jenkins told me he only spent $40 for a new water level sensor."
"Well… uh… sorry, JimBob. Guess you did know best. Can you get Uncle Tim's old generator going? I know you said it could only run one thing at a time but would the fridge and freezer be OK without power overnight so we can run that little window A/C?"
"SallyMae, I ordered a new carb for that gen but the vendor's promised '4 day delivery' ended on Thursday. If we're lucky, it might be in the mail Monday."
"Then we'll be hot and miserable until then?"
"Unless the Co-op gets the power fixed before then. Let me run down to the KwikMart and see if Jake's heard anything."
"Take some of the foam coolers and bring back some ice. We can have something cold to drink and keep the fridge cool. Don't think we'd find dry ice for the freezer any closer than Dawkinsville and that's only if that big Kroger grocery there still has it."
"Don't know if they do. We ain't been there in a long time - you like the customer service better at the Publix that's five miles closer. The Kroger's open 'til 10PM?"
"Midnight on Saturday."
"Be back when I get back. If there's dry ice, I'll get some ice cream for the kids."
"You do that. They've been good about playing in the kiddie pool with that battery-powered showerhead and water cooler you put out there. I wondered what you were doing with that little 12 volt pump and fan and the battery out of the pop-up camper but I gotta say that water's cooler than County Water coming out of the hot ground. How long will that battery last?"
"I've had that old Harbor Freight solar system connected to it and it's almost able to keep up with the load of the pump and the fan blowing across the old central air evaporator coil. Probably be too dark for them to play outside in another 20 minutes unless you want me to pump up the Coleman lantern."
"Go ahead and do that. The kids will be cool longer and they'll be tired enough to go right on off to sleep even without A/C."
"Five minutes. I know where the lantern, the fuel, the funnel and the spare mantles are."
---
"Hi, JimBob. What do you need today?"
"Hi, Jake. I could use some info about how long the power will be out and if you know of a place that sells dry ice that's closer than Dawkinsville."
"Power's gonna be out for at least a couple of days. A gas tanker headed for the Exxon about two miles that way was involved in some kind of multi-car accident. Bottom line is that the tanker took down two or three poles as it rolled off the road and then caught fire. The gas and diesel ran down the drainage ditch on that side of the road and there was fire for about a thousand feet that took the VFD a couple of hours to put out. Best guess one of the power guys had was sometime Tuesday or Wednesday for power to be back here - lots of poles and wiring to be replaced."
"Power's out here? You have lights."
"And refrigerators and freezers and the satellite system on the roof for doing credit cards. It's a very quiet Honda inverter generator. It runs on LP and I have a 3000 gallon commercial tank out back that was filled on Tuesday. Good for probably two weeks or more of running that gen 24 hours a day."
"You probably have something like that at home."
"I have backup power, but it's good for twenty years."
"Hunh?"
"Solar power system. It can't power everything, but we have lights, fridge, freezer and a window A/C in the bedroom. Sure beats trying to sleep without any A/C when the heat index is 99 and higher. We tell the kids it's 'Camping with Momma and Daddy night' and they have a little tent and their sleeping bags in our bedroom - the sleeping bags suffice as a mattress for kids in single digit ages."
"That sounds like a great idea. Maybe when the new carb for the old gen gets here Monday? Meanwhile…"
"Meanwhile, load up all your coolers but one with bags of ice. That last one is for the dry ice as I started keeping a little freezer of it last month. I expect it'll all be gone as soon as the Co-op tells people how long power will be out."
"Thanks, Jake. I have five coolers, so eight bags of ice at two per cooler and as much dry ice as will fit in the other cooler - just leave room for a half gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream. The kids have been real good about playing outside in the kiddie pool in the shade so I should reward them."
"Third freezer door for the Moose Tracks. When you get home, leave the ice in one cooler and run some scrap PVC pipe into that cooler and down almost to the bottom - even better if you have a grid of some kind that can raise the ice bags off the bottom of the cooler about a quarter of an inch and leave about a quarter of an inch between the bags and between the bags and the sides of the cooler. Then put some PVC elbows through the lid of the cooler and put a small fan on the PVC that goes to the bottom of the cooler. Leaving the ice in the bags means you don't increase the already ridiculously high humidity when that fan is moving cool air out of the cooler. It won't cool a big area but it should help in one room."
"I think I could kiss you for that, but I'll let SallyMae do that since you two are cousins and no one will think anything about it."
"Good thought; you ain't my type either."
---
"Got my coolers of ice, here's the cooler for the dry ice - where's that?"
"In the back room. That freezer is much colder than the others and uses a separate condenser that's outside - easier to get the lines out through a wall back there than to jackhammer the concrete floor to get them under it."
"Makes sense. Fill the dry ice cooler except for the space for the ice cream. I don't expect to see Co-op power for three or four days so I'll plan for that. If the carb for the gen does come in, we'll have a little power so we can run the fridge and freezer for an hour then the A/C for two hours and repeat as needed."
"If those coolers stack as well as I think they do, any dry ice left after you fill the freezer should be in as many coolers as you can stack together for the best insulation. If that cooler of ice with PVC pipes works well for cooling one room, you might want to use some of the dry ice to refreeze a couple of bags for the next day."
"Thanks, Jake. You saved me a trip to Dawkinsville and provided some good ideas for managing without Co-op power. Here's my card."
"And that's why I need power for everything here, JimBob: you got what you needed and the rest of my refrigerated and frozen products will survive for sale tomorrow."
"Or the next day or the day after."
"That too. I never expect the power to come back until I see the yard light come on at the house. That's when I go turn the Main breaker back on. That way the house is isolated from any surges or whatever that might happen while they're putting things back together."
"Good idea. I'll turn off the Main breaker when I get back to the house. Thanks again, Jake."
"You're welcome - and thanks for the business."
---
The end.
