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2022-2023 Winter Weather Thread


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3 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Some of those places have a staff and you can pay by the pound for them to wash, dry, and fold for you and you just pick it up. Might be worth it unless you need the heat and power to warm up and charge up so you will be there anyway. 

The worker or the clothes?

Edited by slorch
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It's not worth worrying about painting the cuts now.

"Painting your pruning wounds with pruning paint or even latex paint provides an effective barrier. Make sure to paint the wound immediately after it's created for the best protection. Nitidulids beetle are attracted to fresh wounds and only fresh wounds are suitable for the oak wilt fungus to become established."

https://texasoakwilt.org/backend/Docs/Materials/Ice Damage and Oak Wilt.pdf

 

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Fwiw I love my corded reciprocating saw with a pruning blade. I use it all the time at the ranch (home of the hole) and it works great for fallen branches. I noticed Cedar Park Home Depot was "out" of blades up in the saw blade section, but in the front of the store they had a ton of 2-packs (9" and 12").maybe for spring? 

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Ours came back in the middle of the night and is holding steady.  I am holding my breath though because of a number of folks we know had it turned on briefly only to lose it again.  That crew cleared 3 non-linear miles of creekbed in the dark.  Pretty damn impressive.  I'm buying 'em lunch next time they're out this way, whoever the crew is.  Should make up for the easy traceable hate crimes I commit on the voicemail of their supervisors who literally thought all the dead limbs from 2021 stuck on those lines along the bed didn't weigh enough anymore to present a problem.  They didn't, which is why our power flows fine most of the  year.  But when I pour a 30 pound bag of ice on each one of the 300 limbs on the lines...then it's a problem again.  I don't approach all my home projects with the first thought of "Yes it's fine now, but what about with 30 pounds of ice on top?"  But it's at least there in the back of my head.  

All that to say, sorry for you guys still without power.  I spent the morning clearing all my downed limbs and cutting up for pickup.  If any of you old timers in Austin need a hand tomorrow, I'm available to help you drag heavy shit to your curb, cut down larger limbs, etc.  I've got extendable pole saw, two chain saws (one gas, one electric), and all the hand tools we'd need.  Nature has done most of the work obviously but you'll want to clean cut any oak splits for wilt season, and once on the ground break anything down you can to get it to the curb and easily removable.  Dragging that shit is the biggest pain IMO, especially through gates.  Gotta buy me lunch or a footrub though. 

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If you’re looking for something to do with the kids, until noon, Home Depot has their first Saturday of the month free craft for kids. Assuming your home depot has power.  Kids get a free apron and they do let you take the craft home if you don’t wanna do it at Home Depot.  Lots of nailing and painting so get them ready for house repairs.  

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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

If I have limbs broken 20-30 feet up that I can’t get to to seal up, am I SOL?  Or do I need to find a way up there or be at risk of losing the tree?

one of these on the of an extension pole. 

https://www.amazon.com/Innovations-GSP0205-Sprayer-Aerosol-Extension/dp/B0042T5PBO 

Large, zoomable image of Gotcha Sprayer Pro GSP0205 Extension Pole Adaptor. 2 of 15

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44 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

Back on and off as of 11 last night and back on for good since about 6 this morning in 03. Across the street to the south and next several blocks south still out.

Congrats fellow ‘03er. 
 

still no power here for 81 hrs.  Not a hint, flicker, etc. 

 

 

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The scary thing is the lights that are not even flashing red, just out. There's two on Parmer near Mopac. If you didn't know the lights were there you would fly right through them, because you can't see them in the dark. 
We went to get dinner on Thursday night. We drove across Parmer from 35 to mopac. You would think you're driving through west texas except thru the mist and rain you could see the ghostly outlines of buildings. All lights were out- not even flashing. All homes and businesses without power. Except for the McDonald's at metric and Parmer. That thing was lit up like it was landing a plane. The golden arches never looked so golden.
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Pics of biscuits plz 

It was Whataburger. It made me happy. Woulda been better if the Yankees hadn’t gotten rid of the jalapeño cheddar option, but it was still good.

Got a little portable generator going, hoping a little space heater will make our bedroom a lifeboat. Also enough juice to charge phones, have a lamp, etc.

Changing the chain on my chainsaw now (and realizing I have to clean the shit out of it too - put that off too long). We really don’t have much to clear, and most of our neighbors have already cleared. May harvest some firewood to cure, though.
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2 hours ago, yoladu said:

79 hours and counting with no power. 
 

can someone clue me in on laundromats? It’s been 30 years since I last used one. 

still coin operated? 

Do you have to use that  gnarly powered soap there or can you bring your own?

is there unwritten laundromat etiquette I should be aware of?

 

 

2 hours ago, Hate said:


The good thing about laundromats is that you can do all of your laundry at the same time. It’s much faster. The bad thing about laundromats is that you are at one.

 

2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Don’t wash what you are wearing. 
If its crowded, don’t use 4 machines at once. (If it’s crowded you probably won’t have access to that many anyway)

bring your own soap. 
 

Some of those places have a staff and you can pay by the pound for them to wash, dry, and fold for you and you just pick it up. Might be worth it unless you need the heat and power to warm up and charge up so you will be there anyway. 

There is a laundry mat right next door to LaLas that is dirt cheap to just drop it on them and walk away. They are usually done within 2 hours. Just long enough to get cutoff at LaLa’s

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2 hours ago, Hate said:


The good thing about laundromats is that you can do all of your laundry at the same time. It’s much faster. The bad thing about laundromats is that you are at one.

Fun fact, the dad of my best childhood friend ran a laundromat/storage unit. My friend cleaned the laundromat in exchange for getting to keep any change or contraband he found.  The coolest part of the deal was the laundromat had a Space Invaders game when it first came out.  I don’t think I ever paid for a game personally.  Also you don’t want to know what some people leave in their pockets.  

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78757.   Still out since 730a on wed. 

Every major road that borders my neighborhood has power along with every house directly on that road and most that back up to it.  But those of us in the interior are all kinds of fucked.

This morning at 4am there were 77,600 without.  Just now it shows 69,700

9 hours to clear 8k.   At that pace its about 70 hours for everyone to get power again

 

Not great bob

 

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29 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

78757.   Still out since 730a on wed. 

Every major road that borders my neighborhood has power along with every house directly on that road and most that back up to it.  But those of us in the interior are all kinds of fucked.

This morning at 4am there were 77,600 without.  Just now it shows 69,700

9 hours to clear 8k.   At that pace its about 70 hours for everyone to get power again

 

Not great bob

 

Same boat in 78757. Ours went out 5:30 Wednesday. Transferred freezer contents to another location and threw out the fridge contents today.  I’m setting my expectations on Monday resolution at this point. 

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3 hours ago, CleverNickname said:

Fwiw I love my corded reciprocating saw with a pruning blade. I use it all the time at the ranch (home of the hole) and it works great for fallen branches. I noticed Cedar Park Home Depot was "out" of blades up in the saw blade section, but in the front of the store they had a ton of 2-packs (9" and 12").maybe for spring? 

Yep, a Ryobi reciprocating saw and a 9” blade will do wonders if you don’t have a chainsaw handy.   

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Does anyone know how the lines work?  Is it a bit of a network where it can take more than one path?  Or is it more of a single direction system?  Varies depending on when it was built out?

I ask because on the way out of my neighborhood there’s a pole snapped in half and several wires of unknown function laying on the grass. Seems like a problem that gets fixed much later, when poles, crew, and other hardware are available. But I have power, don’t know about the other blocks. Could they have patched into some other lines and made a new pathway?   There’s not any barrier to walking near the downed lines, and it doesn’t look like any attempt was made to pick them up off the ground. 
 

or maybe it’s telecomm only and nobody cares right now. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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11 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Damn. Sorry to hear some of you are still out. I would be fucking livid at this point. 

No shit, this is really pathetic for those of you still out.

Surprised one of you hasn't taken a fucking baseball bat to Cronk's house and demand that he vacate his (heated) residence. 

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My parents in 57 still without power. Sister in 50 still without power.   Inlaws in 31 still without power (and will be staying with us until it is restored... yay!).

But we're very fortunate, haven't lost power this time, and never did in '21 either.

Y'all hang in there.

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1 minute ago, Wally Pryor said:

No shit, this is really pathetic for those of you still out.

Surprised one of you hasn't taken a fucking baseball bat to Cronk's house and demand that he vacate his (heated) residence. 

I’m at a friends house who never lost power, so I’ve been drinking heavily and watching sports at least. 

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41 minutes ago, Cap33 said:

AE has texted twice that the power is back on when it's not, so we're having to re-report outages. The five trucks here last night are nowhere in sight. Zero expectation that they get power restored this weekend.

Same here

to the back of the line it seems. 

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Sitting on our front porch in the sunshine drinking beer with the neighbors, so that’s nice. Generator and space heater are getting our bedroom habitable, so maybe we sleep in our own bed tonight.
But, the fuckig replacement chains I bought for my chainsaw off Amazon, which I just installed today….couldn’t cut soft butter. They’re useless. So, I can’t even help cut limbs (or gather any of the abundant firewood). Will order some better ones, I guess. But shit, what’s the point of chains that can only cut balsa wood?
Oh, and my guess on our power restoration: next Monday.
Oh, and at 9:00 am tomorrow, we’ll hit the 100 hr mark. Our prize is fuck you.

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all of you saying you are tossing everything in the freezer must either have had nothing in the freezer to begin with or some seriously shitty sealing.

Ive been out since around 2a on Wed. and i was about to go buy some ice to transfer my freezer shit into my tailgate yeti, opened the door and there is a solid frost on everything still, meat is still frozen solid, hell I have a full tray of ice cubes in my automatic ice maker. 

I will probably have to reevalute in another day, but right now its pretty darn frozen. 

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Watching the City's talk (FUCKING UP MY NHL GAME) and sorry folks, shit borked and going to take a long time to get better. 

Good news is they are NOW transitioning to transportation recovery ops. 

Now..... They do have a good sign language dude. No CC though, so if you are in a bar watching a game and this comes up, but not any sound, you better be able to sign if yo want to know when they are going to get your trash, moving to recovery operations. 

On MONDAY( @Brisketexan) they are going to start sending out teams to ID locations still in trouble. Then they will figure out how to fix it. 

Traffic. Again, borked. so treat all traffic light areas as a four way stop since they cannot be sure if working. 

Press- How can you justify raising rates? A- Blame the weather, we showed photos, our system is reliable, unless it gets fucked up. Rates are the same since 2012 (?) but costs have gone up. (?) This include borrowing money and paying back loans. We did a review in 2021 and saw we did not have enough, so we raised rates. (So they did go up). COA wishes they did not have to go up, but the supply chain and inflation. And people need to be paid more. (Can someone do a salary survey from 2020-2022 for a line worker and pay increase.) Quotes KXAN (NOT THE STATE) to say this was the worst ice storm to EVER hit Austin.

No equipment failure. All the fault of trees. ( @YGIFS

Smart Meters---- They did not work, but they were supposed to. They are not your house, they are tied to the grid, so if that fails, the house fails (not that smart). Once we fix the Grid  our system says you are good to go. If you are fucked, text em OUT. Working with the vendor ($$$$) to figure out a way to fix this. 

AE DUDE. Nursery Homes are divided based on three levels. If you are basically level one (here is your pils Ted), stops, PAUSES,  about that to give us a lesson about how old he is and could be worse. Talking about how great 2021 was for performance. Talking about his time in Illinois (guess no texans know about transportation) and this is WAY WORSE. 

LOCAL DISASTER DUDE- More programs will be made available. we just don't know what they are. 

We understand your frustration, just be strong and pay your taxes. 

Sorry for the capitols, a bit drunk. Was watching hockey until these asstards cut the game off. 

 

TL/DR: This spokeswoman says Um a lot.  She is covering asses. A nice bonus coming her way. 

Edited by InkaUtexas
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Wait. She spent eighty bucks on that thing?

In fairness, it's a little pruner she'd been looking at for her garden. But she thinks it might help with the 1,000+ lbs of limbs in our yard.
Update: that little toy ROCKS! Perfect for my wife. It weighs nothing, isn't intimidating, and cut through up to 4" limbs with ease.
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6 hours ago, yoladu said:

79 hours and counting with no power. 
 

can someone clue me in on laundromats? It’s been 30 years since I last used one. 

still coin operated? 

Do you have to use that  gnarly powered soap there or can you bring your own?

is there unwritten laundromat etiquette I should be aware of?

 

There's one behind the gas station on the northeast corner of Woodrow and Koenig with a decent little Mexican restaurant next door so you can have enchiladas and margaritas while you wait for your laundry to finish. 

Edited by Deej
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