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Sunday, December 25, 2011

City / The Weather May Your Day Be Merry and Bright

Posted by Goldy on Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 2:09 PM

About 18,000 Seattle City Light customers are burning their Christmas trees for warmth today, as wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour downed lines and caused scattered power outages throughout the region. "Crews are making repairs as quickly as possible," reassures a City Light press release.

But you know, as long as none of the city's movie theaters and Chinese restaurants lose power, I'm fine.

UPDATE: At last report, power had been restored to all but 3,700 homes.

UPDATE, UPDATE: City Light says all power was restored by 2:30 a.m.

Comments (17) RSS

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yeah movies and chinese you're fine but goldy don't forget the whore house where you buy little boys

Posted by combover on December 25, 2011 at 2:39 PM

Goddammit, Goldy, don't be suggesting that people burn their Christmas trees. They go up like nothing you've ever seen. Highly dangerous.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on December 25, 2011 at 3:03 PM

Christmas Windpocalypse 2011

Posted by Max Solomon on December 25, 2011 at 3:15 PM

Aw, it's never too late to link back to another tirade disguised as humor. I was up in the leafy, ten-ton-mortgage part of Capitol Hill today, by Dan's house, and saw a crew out working to clear branches and restore the overhead Metro current. Bless your holiday paycheck, I thought. A late-ish Merry Xmas, sloggers: here's the most melancholy ever version of the song the headline pulls from - Peggy Lee's reworking...simply wonderfully dark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KygREadmi…

Posted by gloomy gus on December 25, 2011 at 3:22 PM

Goldy its 47 degrees its not the Arctic here

Posted by Democrat1234 on December 25, 2011 at 3:28 PM

I lost power! It was kind of fun. The hardest part was explaining to our 1.5 year old why we couldn't turn the tree lights on. We were going to resort to cannibalism, you know, in the Christian spirit, but ended up just breaking out the camping stove and the fire logs. Merry xmas.

Posted by Jude Fawley on December 25, 2011 at 4:01 PM

and now the wind has killed an 8 yr old girl (with the help of a tree)

=(

Posted by Gordon Werner on December 25, 2011 at 4:17 PM

We were going to resort to cannibalism...

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner Party and Blitzen!"

Posted by Roma on December 25, 2011 at 4:53 PM

I cooked whole 10 lb fresh "organic" turkey on my Q200 weber gas grill yesterday. I have the big white canister so with LED flashlights, hand crank radio and fire place, I will survive.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on December 25, 2011 at 5:48 PM

I resort to cannibalism at any point the weather turns even slightly bad.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on December 25, 2011 at 6:00 PM

Many of us are aware that man-eating isn't necesSARily cannibalism, Cato.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Posted by rob!

on December 25, 2011 at 9:12 PM

Lost cable for a while this afternoon. Had to look at and talk to people. Awful.

Posted by BLUE on December 25, 2011 at 10:52 PM

God forbid we ever grab a clue and bury some of those lines; puff of wind = tens of thousands in blackout was bone stupid decades ago.

Posted by sloegin on December 25, 2011 at 11:44 PM

People in other parts of the world are often totally shocked to learn that even wealthy parts of the US still have above-ground power lines. Other places, if people can afford fancy houses and clean, safe streets they can also afford power lines that don't blow down in a storm. I'm not quite sure why we don't, honestly.

Posted by Thisbe on December 26, 2011 at 5:42 AM

It costs (on average ) about 45k per house to convert an existing neighborhood to underground power. If some entity were to step forward to pay for the right-of-way work (good luck with that) it would cost about 5k per house to convert.

And that's just electric utility work. Electrician fees, trenching on private property, landscaping, other utilities - it all adds up.

The easiest and cheapest way is to move to a brand new subdivision where it comes with the house. Beware the older subdivisions or neighborhoods with underground power - they used to just lay the wire in trenches (as opposed to putting it in conduit) and when that stuff fails, it's a mess.

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay

on December 26, 2011 at 6:52 AM

@14: we were/are too cheap. if it isn't required by those loathsome job-killing government regulations, a developer sure as shit won't sacrifice profit to install it.

Posted by Max Solomon on December 26, 2011 at 8:54 AM

You don't burn Christmas trees for warmth. You throw them out in the back yard and wait until midsummer and toss them on the bonfire. They go off like a fucking firework.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings