Mellt a Tharan

Thunder and lightning. Storms the likes of which we have only infrequently here are playing havoc with my internet usage. I was mid-blog when a huge thunderclap burst right overhead, with no warning. All the lights went down, taking the phones with them.

Usually, if I know there’s thunder about, I unplug modems and everything else connected to the phone lines. I’ve fried three Sky digiboxes and two modems since moving here. Most kit can cope with power cuts and surges in the mains, and I’ve got an expensive filter anyway, but the phone lines are something else. I’ve been out walking when a storm’s nearby and seen blue flashes arcing along the lines with each lightning strike.


This evening my expensive wireless adsl router was still plugged in when the bolt hit like, well, a bolt from the blue. There’s no power as I type this – the laptop’s switched over to it’s battery but everything else is dead. If it takes me days to post this, then you’ll know that I’ve had to buy a new one.

At least all the pollen’s been washed away for now, along with the midges.

---update---

Luckily my adsl router's not fried. But it's taken Manweb six hours to get the power back on. It's a shame in many ways. I've been reading 'Abundance', my last SF novel, red pen clutched in hand, by candlelight all evening, which seems somehow appropriate. I was looking forward to reading The Dying Light by candlelight in bed. Maybe I will anyway, and hang the electric light.

Comments

Six hours? Wow, the longest power outage I remember was one hour 40 minutes. And I never disconnect the phone during a thunderstorm. Maybe I should, but I haven't heard horror stories about destroyed equipment here except the old TV antennas which are an outdying species anyway.

Oh, and looking at the time you posted this - welcome to the Club of the Nightowls. :)
Ouch, I just noticed my blog shows some weird posting time setting, so forget that last remark. :)

Stupid software. It skipped to a German user site the moment it recognised my location, but the time seems still to be US.
JamesO said…
Six hours is about right for around here. Actually the power went off again just after I'd posted and didn't come back on again until about one in the morning, so I got to read The Dying Light by candlelight after all.

The longest we went without power was in Fife about ten years ago, when winter snow also cut us off from civilisation. We cooked on the wood burning stove and read by candlelight for three days. When the power came back on it felt like an intrusion.

And no, nine months later there wasn't a spate of births ;}#
And no, nine months later there wasn't a spate of births.

Which tells you a lot about the quality of the British TV program. ;)

Three days without power and in winter, too - eek, I'd die, I don't even have a wood burning stove - no one around here has.
JamesO said…
Thanks Darren - due to the aforementioned Taran and Mellt, I had to copy what I was mid-blogging as I lost my connection. I dumped it all into word, which was a big mistake. Microsoft does so like to make everything more complicated than it needs to be.

I've pulled all the weird MS specific tags out of the post and the feed should work now.

I hope ;}#

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