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Is the block heater even sold on cars in California?
I was interviewing for a job at Newell (Tule Lake) and one of the other interviewees was asking why there were all of these electrical pedestals in the parking lot for block heaters. He had never seen them coming from San Diego.
I’ll use mine depending on the forecast and where I’m at. Winter in Alturas is a you betcha.
I have been lucky so far with the storms here in Fresno. No flooding, and no power outages, just rain. Supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow. Guess I;'ll take the car to the store to get milk instead of the scooter.
The storm coming in this morning at ~~ 2AM is proving to be much stronger than the forecasts we saw.
Our power went off/on several times around 1:30 this morning, then went out completely after a minute or two.
Then at 4:30 it cam on and off many times in rapid succession and settled in somewhere between 0 and 120 volts. Something in the utility room started screaming at about 4KHz. I ran out there in my birthday suit trying to figure out what it was and unplugging things as fast as I could. Before I found the culprit, the power went off altogether. It's still off now (10:15), and PG&E has no ETR.
It's been blowing like crazy out there last night. Winds up around 70, rain, hail, lightning, and thunder.
I was on the street earlier today, when the heavy downpour, hail, flooding, thunder and lightning were occurring. In San Francisco, The City has responded to the weather with all hands on deck. Not just PG&E, but every possible utility you can imagine, has deployed all of their service trucks. Cable, phone company, cell phone tower people, water department, public works, parks department, etc. All of the public safety staff which was assigned for the armed occupation of the retail district, has been deployed throughout The City. And it was busy. Traffic signals out, manhole covers blown off, flooding, down trees, power outages..... all over town.
My Uncle works for the local electric company. Like me, he has been asked to work double shifts and come in on his days off. He asked me if I feel guilty: while his guys are out in the rain climbing poles in high wind and rain, working on live power lines - guys like me are safely a block away, sitting in a warm car and drinking coffee, because all that we do is park our cars to block off the intersection. Nope. It has to be done. If I wasn't sitting there in a car with flashing lights, then some drunk might come down the road and run right into the power pole that a PG&E lineman is climbing. It's not all that easy, you know? People walk up to the car, tap on the window, and yell about how they don't have any electricity. As if it wasn't obvious that the guy up on the pole is already working on trying to restore their power. Why are they yelling at me? It's not like I'm going to get out of my car, climb up the pole, and do a better job than the guy who is trained to be up there. I'm just the guy blocking off the street, and keeping an eye on the block so that your home or business doesn't get looted.
Tim, I always feel like I do not deserve to be thanked. Why? Because I really don't do all that much, or work all that hard. It's not exciting like on television. Would you watch a TV show about a guy who parks a car with flashing lights at an intersection? My only job (if you can call it that) is to not let anyone drive down that street, so that someone else can get the power back on. Those guys deserve a lot more credit than I. They did all the work. I just drank coffee while frustrated people in the neighborhood yelled at me.
You know how you see those CalTrans guys working on a freeway, with traffic barely feet away, going 75 miles per hour? That's dangerous. Those guys are working hard. There's always 1 or 2 police cars, with the lights flashing, and you know the guy in the police car is getting paid overtime to drink coffee, while someone else is doing all the work.
That street in your photo is Kearny Street. Between Vallejo at the top of the hill, to Broadway at the bottom of the hill. If that camera lens were to pan to the left or right, you would see all the neon signs that say "LIVE NUDE GIRLS". The intersection of Broadway & Kearny is where all the strip clubs are. It's also where the Italian neighborhood segues into Chinatown. That's the area I grew up in. 1952. My Dad was 4.
We just got 6 months worth of rain, according to the lady on the TV news. I wonder what she did wrong. Somebody at the TV station must be really mad at her. Why else would they send her out to the middle of nowhere, in a storm, to do a live shot to report that it's really cold & wet? Anyone could have stayed in the TV studio, and told the viewers that it was cold & wet.
If anyone is thinking of moving out of California, for a better life in another state.......... the grass isn't that much greener on the other side. Or at least don't move to Missouri City.
Rob, You're a LEO right? You deserve thanks! Even if you are just keeping the street safe for the power workers. There were many times when I was out repairing phone lines in the middle of the night, that I wish I had a LEO at the end of the street keeping the situation safer. Sometimes I swear people see just how close they can get to the workers.
There were many times when I was out repairing phone lines in the middle of the night, that I wish I had a LEO at the end of the street keeping the situation safer. Sometimes I swear people see just how close they can get to the workers.
In some big cities, it's customary and ordinary to use police services for emergency infrastructure work. Close off the streets so cars aren't driving along into down power lines. Establish a perimeter so that people just don't walk up to the utility crews and demand answers while you're trying to work. Protect the workers in case a gang of transients appears to reclaim the utility they were illegally stealing. And yes, that has happened. A homeless encampment tapped power, and they were going to beat up the utility workers who disconnected them. Sometimes you find pirated utilities going to an illegal grow house. When people steal electricity, they are usually not professional electricians, and their tampering causes other issues with the equipment.
I am in a "special unit". But nothing glamorous like SWAT, Mounted, Traffic, Vice, Narcotics, and all of those television shows and movies portray. Patrol drives around in marked cars, answers 911 calls, and most of the day to day community services. Investigative units have their special unique divisions. Where I work, we provide ancillary support services. So depending on the situation, we could be dispatched to coordinate with with anything from state or federal dignitary protection, to Office of Emergency Services, or whatever. Sometimes it's just providing the perimeter when investigators go to serve a warrant. If somehow the bad guy fought and was able to run away from the arrest team without being tackled, he would get about a block away before he runs into my team. If Highway Patrol or Oakland Police was chasing someone across The Bay Bridge, I would be one of the guys waiting at an exit ramp. If for example, the President is flying into town, I might the guy blocking off the frontage road a mile away from the airport tarmac. You never know when a radical zealot might try something stupid like driving right up to the tarmac. Dignitary Protection plans the route of travel. They also plan alternate detours. I might be in one of the cars a block or two over, just in case they need to take a detour. As boring as it sounds, most of my holiday overtime was spent hanging around the mall's food court. I was in street clothes, so I got to eat cotton candy without the general public staring at a fat guy in uniform, licking his fingers. You don't want the mall looking like an Israeli airport, with SWAT and K9's everywhere. But you do staff it with plainclothes officers in case the jewelry store gets robbed, or if there's a gas leak and you have evacuate people. If there was to be an earthquake, or if The City floods, I would be one the people stepping in to fill the gaps and do whatever is needed. We're busy all year staffing sporting events, community events, TV and movie filming, and all of the politicians who are in town. Not to mention the foreign dignitaries who travel into the area. Like when The Prince of Tonga wants to go to a Giants game; someone has to take him there. If The Vice President of Taiwan wants to watch The Italian Heritage Parade, a guy like me would be following (and eating cotton candy) in case China attacks Taiwan.
Sounds like living in Fresno is actually a good thing during these storms. We have had wind and rain, but only one incident of the power going out and that has been fixed.
@GlueGuy Looks pretty crazy down there, I hope all is well!
Thank you for your concern. We've been living here in these mountains for 26 (almost 27) years now, and have pretty much learned how to deal with the unique challenges of living here. We have our own power generation, our own water, our own sewer. We have a tractor to clear road issues, and we have various wood cutting implements to deal with down trees and such. It sure adds to the workload sometimes, but it's a great place to live.
Thankfully, living on top of a very large rock, so we don't have flooding to be concerned about. We do have to keep on top of drainage, but that seems to be mostly manageable.
