Well, today we had brownouts, loss of power intermittently for about an hour. I am sure that it was NOT y2k related, but the brownout (I measured 160v across incomming service conductors (should be 240v)) took out one of my computers. powers up, but won't boot from HD or floppy. Off to the puter doctor tomorrow. Also, I had a freind who works for the utiliy here, and will check the power problem out in detail tomorrow to see what caused it.

This may be a precurssor of things to come. Fortunately, no motors burned up or other losses that we know of. I've found a constant voltage transformer (a 7.5kw unit) that will power all motors in the home. A have commented on these as a protection against low voltage problems on another thread, just didn't know that I'd need it this soon. Bob P Electrical contractor lic #11234 NJ

-- Bob P (rpilc99206@aol.com), June 01, 1999

Answers

Hello Bob. As you know, outages occur somewhere in the US every day. No, your experience is not a precursor of things to come...in the power biz we've been vigorously testing power-related devices, and we've found two things: There have been very few (if any) "show stopper" devices found out there, and those that do cause any kind of serious problem can be easily remediated.

So, there's no reason to think that y2k will make things any worse for your power service. Nor will it make things any better.

-- Dan the Power Man (dgman19938@aol.com), June 02, 1999.

Not to be flippant about the damage of potential y2k brown-outs and black-outs, but thought I would share the following true story. We live in a remote area. For about 6 months, our power went out almost every day at about the same time. Drove the power company crazy looking for the reason. It was finaly discovered that a bull had chosen a power pole as his favorite scratching post and was causing the outage by rocking the pole with his weight.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), June 02, 1999.

Marsh, I guess that was a "powerful" bull !

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), June 02, 1999.

Sounds likes alot of bull to me.

-- clint (harry@eastwood.com), June 02, 1999.

We had two power outages last week. Once when a car hit an electric pole and the other when a squirrel fried itself.

-- Black Sheep (Wondering@about.com), June 02, 1999.

I believe the bull/pole story. Here was my experience:

"Dairy cows are bred annually so they produce calves and more importantly, cowshit, milk. Presumably, breeding is pleasurable for the cow, the bull and the farmer. The birth of calves re-invigorates the flow of money into his coffers, if the bull did not kill him first. Holstein bulls are huge and infamously aggressive. In early spring F. had one such delivered to his farm. Bully weighed more than a ton, wore a ring through his nose with twenty feet of chain, and not for ornamentation. He was allowed to run loose with the cows, dragging his chain with him wherever he went, whatever he did, but he was not allowed in the barn. He'd break out the ceiling with his big head when he went to work on the cows.

When Bully finished his duties after a few months, F. casually said to me, "Take the bull back to Roppas' farm."

"I am scared to," I courageously replied to my uncle.

"You old grandmother," he growled back.

Always remembering the oaken fist, the intermittent reinforcement, I had no choice but to return the bull by myself several miles down the highway. F. told me he had something else to do in the meantime. I went to the pasture, sneaked up to the bull from behind and grabbed the end of his chain that was dragging on the ground.

Casually whistling, I led him through the gate onto the highway to go for a walk. The bull thought this was cool and followed me obediently. But when we came to the other side of the barn, Bully's harem came running to the fence, singing in chorus. They ogled us with big eyes and their ears propped forward while they shouted moo, moo, and mooooh. Since I did not understand their language I could only guess what they told us.

They must have asked Bully to return because he pulled me into their direction. He wanted to do some sniffing, to check for old maids. I pulled vigorously on his chain to cool his desire while looking for a safe place to get out of his way when he'd realize who was interfering with his work. Soon he dug dirt out of the ground, snorted spit and blew his trumpet. For his attack on me.

Quickly I wrapped his chain around a pole and cowered behind it, while he attacked it with his massive head. I feared for my life as Bully became madder by the minute. Enraged, he kept pushing his head against the pole while he tried hide behind it, wrapping up his chain. If I stayed here much longer, we would get hitched. A frightened slave would be hitched together with an angry bull on a pole, a unique totem pole. And there was no one in sight to witness this union, to save me, shoot the bull or record it on film.

Little brother had told me that H.'s bull had ripped his nose to get free from his chain. He did not like to be hitched either. This could happen now and help Bully succeed in his revenge. Carefully I unwound his chain and dragging it, I ran down the road with Bully in pursuit. The Holstein party in the pasture pranced, danced and cheered him on, giving him additional courage. I felt his chain slacken and his snorting draw closer. As I ran out of breath, I jumped aside, the instant before his head would connect with my already abused behind. His mass moved past. Blind with rage, he did not turn around to charge but continued down the highway while dragging me along. He revved up his speed, I clung to his chain, but I could not keep up his pace..."

-- Not Again! (Seenit@ww2.com), June 02, 1999.

"Have You Seen This Child? Missing since...."

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 02, 1999.