Brave Citizen Journalist Survives Edge of Tropical Storm

I write you today from the belly of the beast. I was supposed to experience tropical storm conditions this morning, but so far, it has been breezy with a few drops of rain.

I’m thrilled. I truly did not look forward to driving around town looking for my garbage cans, or to spending nights stuck to a wet mattress, waiting for the power to go back on.

The phone works. The Internet works. The TV cable works. The power is okay for the most part, but it flickers from time to time. I guess something is being blown against some vital electrical thing somewhere in the neighborhood. It’s not a big deal. Here, we often have power outages even in good weather. God bless the public utilities and their monopolies.

The power flickering has brought one issue to light. My battery backup has had it. It used to keep my computer going for quite some time after an outage started. Now it gives up after a few seconds, and that’s the end of my session. I guess it’s three or four years old. Time for a new one. Luckily I have a spare. It’s not big enough to make me totally happy, but it will do until I make it to Best Buy.

I can’t tell you how many times the backup has saved me. Before I got a battery, I lost document after document. It amazes me that Florida Power & Light gets away with the level of service they provide. They have to be destroying electronics and appliances at a very high rate.

I guess I’ll get another king-size backup. They keep computers running, and you can also charge them before a hurricane and use them to power small items.

More

Thanks for the comments suggesting I replace the battery instead of the whole UPS. Saved me 60 bucks.

The spare UPS I’m using is going to take forever to charge, so I won’t be able to make much use of the PC today. If it could keep the system going for 2 minutes, I’d be fine, but I guess it will take a while to reach that state.