Happy Rain Miscellanea (UPDATE: Grid Down!)

I had some stuff about which I wanted to blog. Thoughts of import I was eager to put to text. Alas, life had ideas of its own. Sometimes the best you can do is “ride it out”.

Here’s my update of “riding it out”.

Not long after I returned from my travels, I picked up a cold. I’ve been sniffling along with that for several days. Nothing serious but I find it hard to think when ill. No thinkin’ means no bloggin’. These things happen. Sometimes they have to happen.

Another thing that “had” to happen was a hardware upgrade. I acquired Starlink to overcome my rural ISP’s um… decline. The decline was as predictable as the sun rising in the east.

I had shitty DSL some years back. Then some fund somewhere dumped what I called “Obamabux” on my rural county. I didn’t ask for the boondoggle but I did benefit from it. Improved service was deeply appreciated if not a wise capitalist use of funds.

However, “investing” in the finest infrastructure isn’t “investment” if it’s just pissing tax dollars away. I think it was a grant or whatever. Eventually, the ribbon ceremonies are over and the big cash infusion is depleted. Monkeys are left in charge after the money flow has passed. The system reverts to the mean.

I’m not saying my county is as far down the rabbit hole as South Africa (Los Angeles?). We don’t strip the copper from buildings! But a place as sparse as mine doesn’t always have the best human resources. Nor do we have hordes of people demanding (or paying for) huge bandwidth. We’re on the spectrum of “ignorable”.

The fiber optic that was laid (probably with great subsidy) to my homestead is just as good as it ever was, but the local workforce to maintain it just can’t keep the plates spinning. It got worse and worse but only gradually. Inch by inch the enshittification continued. I hardly realized how terrible it had gotten. Finally, I pulled my head out of my ass and made the change.

It is better to adapt than complain, and it make sense for me to outsource my service to literally anywhere more populous and advanced than where I live. I went for two way satellite on the grounds that a call center in Bangalore and a low orbit satellite is better than Gladys at the local ISP who talked the boss into hiring her grandson Hunter… who is barely capable of installing Windows but impressed Gladys who still can’t operate her TiVo. I’ve had too many conversations with “Hunter” and wanted out.

Elon, you magnificent bastard, I hope you build more rockets with my monthly payment. Keep it up until NASA itself weeps in despair at their fallen status as “rounding error”!

I haven’t yet mounted the antenna to the roof. Right now it’s propped on a woodpile. It runs about 300% faster than my local ISP.

A second “had to happen” event is some brush-hog work. I have a place that’s weeds 7′ tall. It’s a mess! Given my cold, I wasn’t physically fit enough to do much, but I hitched my brush hog to the tractor and ran around in circles as best I could. There’s a nearly empty Kleenex box in my tractor! Ick!

I did more than nothing, which is good enough. It’s an ideal biological window for such things. Right now that species of weeds are “easy pickings”. I can (and probably will) get back in there in June but by then it’ll be a real battle. Getting the upper hand now is wise.

While I was grinding back and forth and squinting through bleary eyes, I had the radio on. It is the absolute peak of “spring fire season” and the radio wouldn’t shut the hell up about it.

There’s a period of time when the grass is all dead from winter and new healthy grass hasn’t “greened up”. It’s pain in the ass. If the dead grass dries just right and there’s an ignition in just the worst spot and if there’s a stiff breeze to drive it… all hell can break loose.

The trick is to hang tight until things green up. It’s only a brief window. Just cool your jets and wait it out!

Adding to the drama, there was a big windstorm last year. It knocked down a lot of trees. Much but not all of it is cleared up. A fast moving fire of dry light materials could touch off the far heavier and difficult to extinguish fuels of downed timber… and that would suck.

I say it would suck because I’m not an asshole and I don’t like unnecessary destruction. I wonder if the opposite is the case in other minds?

Part of why I was brush hogging a bunch of tall but very burnable weeds was to eliminate (reduce) a risk. I turned a hazard into a not-hazard. The area I “managed” wouldn’t burn if you napalmed it now. Yay me!

After brush hog work I did some disking. The radio kept bitching at me that I ought not be doing stupid fire stuff. Which is annoying because anyone stupid enough to set off fireworks and pour gas on shit and generally misbehave ain’t gonna’ listen to radio warnings. Hell, there are people that fuck up and start fires that burn their own house trailers down. If “all your shit is gone” ain’t enough warning what is?

As I worked the tractor and sneezed thought my cold, I realized I had it all wrong. If you listen to the radio just right… it’s more like the people who benefit from fire funding are stroking a giant hard on. They’re hoping for the “big one”. They want it to happen!

I don’t think they’re going to get their wish. Thank God!

The grass is already starting to look green. It’s not overly dry. Things aren’t too bad. I think the “once in a lifetime” combination of spring fires borne of light fuels touching off big hot fires in blowdowns… just might not happen. It’s too wet.

Shucks! There might not be an orgy of spending. How sad!

I wrote some of this a few days ago. Since then it’s gotten a lot warmer. Also the wind picked up. If some fucknut creates an ignition today… yowzah!

I still have the cold but I was loading shit in my truck for a dump run. Then the wind went ape!

My Starlink antenna blew off the woodpile. Whoops. I’d better mount that better.

I gave up on my outside activities. Set the Starlink right and went inside to ride out the storm. I’m typing this as it happens.

What a doozy! The gusts are crazy. But now it’s raining. Huzzah!

There goes the last dream of a budget builder of a fire. I didn’t rain much but it doesn’t take a lot to “green up” vegetation. I think everything is going to be OK.

I’m glad because it’s still windy.

Whoa! Now I’m on generator power.

No shit. It just happened.

Grid went down, generator fired up. Nice to pass a real world test.

I guess it was REAL WINDY… somewhere.

I’m going to post this asap. Also, take a moment to savor this post:

You’re reading the random thoughts of a dude typing on a cheap computer using a whole house generator during a power outage. The post was sent directly from a hole in the power grid to satellite because the local ISP can suck it.

Everything about the situation amuses me. Country boy can survive!

Have a good day y’all.