OT September Chit Chat

[Sunshine]

Thanks for the warning!

[agate]

I'm back after a 12-hour power outage here.This is the second time in the last couple of years that there's been a fairly long power failure on account of a vehicle hitting a utility pole. Somehow I had the impression most utility lines are now underground. Guess not.

It was 97' out yesterday, and so going out for a while to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine wasn't an option. I stayed put in my apartment and hoped it would be over soon. Dinner was a couple of cheese sticks and some V8 juice.I was able to play Solitaire on the iPad though there was no WiFi, and so I couldn't be online.

Virginia, I don't think I'd find a book to be very funny if its title is "The End of Your Life Book Club."

People here are nearing the end of their lives. My 95-year-old neighbor was talking about using candles during the outage but I told her I thought flashlights would be better. She has those too. Another lady is almost 90, one is 86, and so on. People that age can't take the heat well at all.

One woman who is on oxygen and rides a scooter was trapped on the first floor all night. She was on the first floor with her chihuahua when the power went out and couldn't get back up to the third floor where she lives. The elevator always shuts down of course.I believe she and her dog spent the night on the sofa in one of the common rooms.

Of course the managers are away till after the holiday but one of them actually came over here to see about the situation and sent a memo around.

I'm glad to know miniature golf is still around. It was fun though I haven't played it since I was in my teens. It's probably not anyone's idea of exercise but there were challenging situations where you had to have a bit of skill just to maneuver the ball into the hole.

I'm not getting any paragraph breaks in this post for some reason. I'm trying one last way and if this doesn't work, I'll have to give up and apologize if it looks weird. I'm posting about this in Forum Feedback.

EDITED TO ADD: The problem seems to have fixed itself. I'll try to remove my post at Forum Feedback.

Photo of what happened to cause the power outage:

[Cat Dancer]

Meow?? Someone asked about me?? I'm here.

Been an interesting week. About 2 months ago TC got curious about this ancestry.com thing -- you send in your spit, and they come back with a DNA print-out of your ancestry. So he wanted to do that, and convinced me to do it too. We got back our results....and there were a bunch of names listed (on each of ours) of "possible relatives". Now, in my case, I know very little about my background, having been adopted. So it was interesting to see the list. I didn't do anything more than read what was immediately available there on line. But then I got an email from a woman from New South Wales who apparently is my "second cousin twice removed" -- meaning we share great-grandparents.....and she's done a lot of research, all the way down to my biological parents. So she has been sending me names/birthdays/death days/ marriage dates, of all those people who I didn't know existed! So I've been busy plotting my family tree. Some pretty tangled branches, there!

[agate]

Cat, that must be fascinating for you. Did you find out where your ancestors are from?

I would think that anyone who was adopted would want to find this information now that it's available.

[Cat Dancer]

Well, some of my background I knew. I knew my bio parents came from England. So it was no surprise to find I am 49% English, 25% Irish, the rest "Europe East" ... meaning Scotland, Finland, all those north countries. But know I know my fathers name, grandparents, great-grandparents...all the way back to the 1700's! So far, all of them English, and likely all from the same area of England, Yorkshire, which is on the northeast coast of England, one side bordered by the North Sea, another by Scotland.

My adoption was "in family" -- the person who adopted me is(was - she is deceased) is biologically my aunt. My bio-father is (was) her brother. But once I was adopted, that whole rest of the family "disappeared", and I was 30 before I even knew I was adopted.

I'm not looking to connect with anyone in particular; it's just interesting to find all these family members! :)

[Virginia]

Cat, did you see my post toward the end of last month about my friend who lives in Atlanta. Her son-in-law is adopted and his wife gave him a gift of "23 and Me". You need to go back and read my post. It has been interesting.

Ann's weather forecaster was right. It is raining in Boston. Hope she is dry. Nephew is not. I saw him briefly when he was putting one time, but then I had to get dressed. I need to run to grocery store and at 5 I am meeting middle brother and his wife and Grayson's Mom for dinner. If tournament is still going his Mom and my brother have apps on their phone and follow every hole he is playing, so they don't miss anything.

Agate, how miserable! To be that hot and without power for 12 hours is bad. Plus while it is out you really don't know how long it is going to be. Hope you are feeling alright now.

[stillstANNding]

It is still raining, Virginia, but a soft rain that we can't even hear inside. Good luck to Grayson and have a good dinner.

The End of Life Book Club gets 4 stars from almost 1500 peeps on Amazon.

Cat, I love that you got all of that family information. So nice thst people share what they know.

Agate, twelve hours is a long time w/o electricity. I feel badly for the woman left out of her apartment. And it seems to have been very hot up there this summer.

It's 63 in my corner of Boston. I am cold.

ANN

[Sunshine]

Worrying about Irma. ...

[Frog42]

It's 63 in my corner of Boston. I am cold.
ANN

Same here. At least we can turn our heat on.

[Cat Dancer]

Here's a page that outlines the requirements for citizenship: Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

The various fees charged are $785.

[Howie]

And here I am with the AC running. Damn Yankees!

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

I'm back after a 12-hour power outage here.This is the second time in the last couple of years that there's been a fairly long power failure on account of a vehicle hitting a utility pole. Somehow I had the impression most utility lines are now underground. Guess not.

It was 97' out yesterday, and so going out for a while to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine wasn't an option. I stayed put in my apartment and hoped it would be over soon. Dinner was a couple of cheese sticks and some V8 juice.I was able to play Solitaire on the iPad though there was no WiFi, and so I couldn't be online.

Virginia, I don't think I'd find a book to be very funny if its title is "The End of Your Life Book Club."

People here are nearing the end of their lives. My 95-year-old neighbor was talking about using candles during the outage but I told her I thought flashlights would be better. She has those too. Another lady is almost 90, one is 86, and so on. People that age can't take the heat well at all.

One woman who is on oxygen and rides a scooter was trapped on the first floor all night. She was on the first floor with her chihuahua when the power went out and couldn't get back up to the third floor where she lives. The elevator always shuts down of course.I believe she and her dog spent the night on the sofa in one of the common rooms.

Of course the managers are away till after the holiday but one of them actually came over here to see about the situation and sent a memo around.

((((((agate)))))) ~

Given that the residents where you live are elderly and disabled, I think your residence should be provided special assistance by the utility company and local police and fire departments. This would be the responsibility of the owner, I believe. But you and other residents can advocate for yourselves to get help during a 12 hour outage and heat wave.

I suggest:

Contact your power company. Inform them of the number of residents and ages/conditions among the residents. They should have a protocol to assist you all. Perhaps it would be focusing on restoring power to your facility first. Or it might be bringing a generator to the site to give you temporary electricity. Or maybe they would relocate you to a place/shelter, which is unaffected by the outage.

Contact your police and fire departments with the same information. Ask what services they could provide to you in a long outage. The woman, who couldn't get back up to her apartment, might have been able to return, if fire or police personnel carried her upstairs. At least they will know that you exist and are vulnerable in any kind of emergency or disaster and that your residence should be at the top of the list to be checked should one occur.

Perhaps you could also meet as a group with your owner/manager to discuss your needs during this kind of crisis. What is his liability if anything happens to any of you, as a result of an outage, fire, flood, etc.?

Also, you were right to advise residents to not use candles. If there is a gas leak ... well ... Along with flashlights, it's a good idea to have LED candles:

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

I hope you don't have any more outages or disasters of any kind, but if you do, it would be very beneficial to have help from utility and public services.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Ben Franklin

Love & Light,

Rose

[jendie]

It's 82 degree here in the PNW. We have an off shore flow, which means that hot air from eastern Washington is made it over the mountains to the usually temperate side of the state. My a/c is running, keeping me a bit cooler.

My mom and grandma watch pro-golf, maybe I'll get a glimpse of Grayson sometime when I'm visiting.

[Virginia]

Jendie, good for Mom and Grandma - you know who to tell them to pull for now. His Mom was a "no show" for dinner tonight. She could not leave her TV set. I do not blame her.

[agate]

Rose, thank you so much for your valuable suggestions!

Whenever there's a power outage, I'm on the phone with the electric company trying to find out what's going on, and while I'm at it I let them know that I'm talking about a building with over 60 residents who are all elderly/disabled, many with special medical needs, and that we are susceptible to problems when it's too cold or too hot, in addition to being likely to fall because there's no light to see by.

I don't know if it makes any difference. There are monthly meetings here, conducted by the managers, who are hired by a company. The actual owner(s) of the building are a deep dark secret, known only to the company.

I'm guessing that this latest power outage will be a topic discussed at the next meeting in about a week. We've had these discussions before and are told that in case of a power outage, we're not to call the management (who are on duty here only on weekdays) because they can't do anything we can't do. We've been advised to go elsewhere or hunker down with a stockpile of flashlights and food that doesn't need cooking.

But the discussion needs to be reopened, definitely.