Osprey - 8-21-2008 at 09:20 AM
Power to the People
It is August 20, 11:15 AM. Something (or Somebody) caused our power to go out. Not quite the whole village so it must be a transformer. It wasn’t
wind or rain this time. No storms yet this season – we’re up to “J” and still no named hurricanes have swerved this far north to cause trouble on the
tip of the peninsula. So it sounds like an overload – mid day, temps have been holding at close to 100º with not much of a dip at night. (70% humidity
holding pretty steady)
Since our local Ejiditarios are nearly all millionaires now from the money they got for our beach, the ones on my end of town might have bought new
air conditioners, microwaves, new computers and huge plasma T.V.s with Wii. That might have done it.
Soooo this afternoon and evening we’ll just get by with no fans or T.V. or music. There’s a little breeze off the ocean (91º water there) we are
thankful for. My dogs don’t bother to seek out the comfort our floor fans usually provide and for a change they are living like Mexican mutts.
Luz or no Luz the village makes it’s own special noise. The big six yard dump trucks thundering down the beach road don’t know the power is out. The
screaming little darlings at the Internado across the street from my house are likewise oblivious since they have no fans, play outside each summer
day and evening until exhaustion overtakes them.
The bread truck, tortilla truck and the ice cream vendors are all caught in some time warp worm hole making the music sound louder and even more
surreal. The birds, at least the ones in my garden, are making a ruckus about why the fountain water pump is off, why the cooling cascade they love is
gone. Most of my rich gringo neighbors would be shattering this friendly village summer concerto of comparative tranquility with the terrible
throbbing of their specialized emergency generating equipment but these people, right now, are all up nawth.
Even after all these years, scores of outages of every kind, Lynda and I cannot refrain from predicting, given what little we know, when power will be
restored.
We know all the steps:
1. Somebody (in fact several somebodys) has to recognize the power is out.
2. They have to call the power company in San Jose, stay on the line, explain the little they might know about the extent of the outage (i.e. the
whole village, just about half, a few blocks)
3. The power company has to find one or more repair crews – those guys have to get in their trucks, agree to drive the hour and a half to our village,
find the failure.
4. If it’s a transformer (it’s always a transformer) they have to find one in San Jose, have it transported to the village by truck, take down the bad
one, install the new one, test the system, find what blew the bad one.
5. They have to fix the problem, say a prayer, throw the switch.
My best guess today = 6 hours
Lynda’s guess = 7 hours.
We both have complex but workable contingency plans. The fans stopped spinning at 11:15. At 11:21 I put a liter of Oso Negro gin in the big freezer
next to the large bottles of ice we save for the coolers for shopping or fishing.
Note: I won this time = back on 6 hours 16 minutes.
bajaguy - 8-21-2008 at 09:30 AM
How was the Gin??????
shari - 8-21-2008 at 12:13 PM
ah Sr. Osprey...I marvel how you can make even a power outage ....lyrical....We had a romantic candlelight dinner last week when there were 2 power
failures which are rare now that we have dependable power coming in on all those ugly poles from Vizcaino. What happens now is that people steal the
copper wire!!!! right off the poles
[Edited on 8-21-2008 by shari]
Cypress - 8-21-2008 at 01:21 PM
Steal the copper wire? 
From power lines?
They ought to test it before they grab it.
It's a high powered bug zapper. 
Their family
might not be able to afford funeral costs.
Udo - 8-21-2008 at 02:25 PM
I'D LIKE TO WRITE SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT OSPREY'S COMMENT...
but I can't stop laughing!
