Hot? Humid for sure.
Yesterday was humid enough after about an inch or more rain overnight. The rain came with some thunder and lightning too. Unfortunately I’d left a footlocker open to air out, and forgot about it. It needed a bit more time to dry after that…and the contents….
One thing I’ve learned is that most electronics can get pretty wet and still be fine, if they’re not under power when wet. Some things seem to rust in light humidity, and others are fine after sitting in a bucket for a week. Funny, but it is true. Getting soaked isn’t necessarily a death blow for electronics.
Spent the afternoon at my client’s house. Electronics DO NOT like lightning and power surges. Two more wall wart power supplies got toasted, one video extender (about 100 ft of cat 5 attached to it), and AT&T’s DSL line all smoked. The UPS did its job and shut down to protect the rack, but the DSL modem was a likely entry point to it. DSL wall wart was one of the casualties. I’ll probably have to replace that UPS at some point soon too. It could be that some of the wall warts that are dying might just be EOL. The replacement I brought, new old stock, had one dead psu right out of the box. The extenders are 7-8 years old and the chinesium psus might just be all dying of old age. Or the damnable ROHS tin whiskers might have got to them. I think I’ll crack one open and see what I can see. We have tried over the years to make it more stable. The client installed a whole house surge suppressor at the panel, I’ve got the UPSs in front of the rack, and some additional surge protection on things like the projector. I added new surge protectors to two of the outdoor TVs yesterday. They are out in the country, and there is a lot of weather out there…
Today I’ve got some errands to run, and then I’m back onsite to work with AT&T on an appointment to get the line back up. I’ve hopefully got my notes from the last time to get me through to second tier support and not get the “I am helping you very much sir” crew for an hour…
Dinner was a pork roast put in the deep freeze a year ago, with some carrots and rice. My wife did the honors while I was stuck onsite. Easter candy for dessert.
My wife has taught our kids to play backgammon, and they really don’t like losing. My little cutthroat kept her older sister on the bar for the whole game and backgammoned her. OH THE WAILING…..
This is the last week of school, and the kids were briefly looking forward to sleeping late and laying around reading and watching youtube vids of people doing stuff in Minecraft… My wife has other plans. They will continue with a modified school curriculum, at least until my wife gets tired of it. I’ll be pushing for some lazy days with nothing to do. That’s what summer break is supposed to be for.
While driving home I heard a radio ad for the local Ford dealer, with a variety of discounts and financing plans on offer. 120 days no payments and 84 months of ZERO interest? $20K off full size pickups? $9K off Expeditions, and similar discounts on most other models? $21.8k for Ranger? Holy crow, they’re gonna be cheaper than used until Hertz crushes the used market by dumping their inventory. The other manufacturers won’t be far behind, nor will the other rental companies. Don’t buy yet, but soon the deals will be hard to resist. If there is any money to buy them.
I don’t think the low car prices are a good sign for the economy, BTW, I think it’s a bit terrifying that they are offering those deals, and on 800+ vehicles, not just a few loss leaders.
We’re really just getting started. Who knows what the economy will look like in 3 months, or 6? I know I’ll feel better about it, no matter what comes, with a full pantry, and safe…
Keep stacking.
nick