June Banter 2021

[nw baltimore wx]

44 minutes ago, CAPE said:

How long did you take it? This is 12 days- 40mg for 3 days, then 30 for 3, 20 for3, then 10 for 3.

I am allergic to poison ivy/oak too. Had a pretty bad case of it years ago, but just stuck it out using topical stuff and letting it weep. I nuke that shit with brush killer if I see it growing anywhere near the house now.

I took it for a similar length of time. I recall them saying that’s not something you want to suddenly quit taking. 

But, man, if you have any aches, joints swelling, etc, that stuff makes you feel like a million bucks. But it made me really hungry.

edit: what @Bodhi Cove said.

[EastCoast NPZ]

1 hour ago, CAPE said:

Anyone ever get a severe rash from taking an antibiotic? I told the doc I didn't have any allergic reactions that I knew of, but then I have not taken a antibiotic since I was a kid. Now I have been prescribed prednisone, which I have never taken. Can't wait to see what awful side effects I get from that. Might just wait this out another day now that the amoxicillin is out of my system.

Yes!  Amoxicillin causes a rash on my hands and feet.  Red, itchy small bumps.   Then about 1 week later the skin peels in sheets.  Totally bizarre.  It took 3 times before I connected the dots.

[Jebman]

We have had so much rain down here in south central Texas it is unbelievable! Garden has gone nonlinear! Buda has seen 16.5 inches of rain since early May! We have tomatoes, cucumbers and purple sweet peppers. The sweet green, orange, yellow and red peppers are soon to come. Got peas and beans too, they just appeared, and figs are beginning to grow on the fig tree!

Lawn mower is busted. Grass is getting higher and higher and the east lawn is a deep hopeless quagmire.

We're enjoying the cool 70s by day and rain because soon enough it will be 105 and blistering HOT.

[CAPE]

9 hours ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Yes!  Amoxicillin causes a rash on my hands and feet.  Red, itchy small bumps.   Then about 1 week later the skin peels in sheets.  Totally bizarre.  It took 3 times before I connected the dots.

I wish it were only my hands and feet lol.

[mappy]

so we lost power around 1130 last night, the power surge that happened just before the power went out was horrible. the buzz in the house was so loud. power was out until 3am. half the outlets in my kitchen no longer work, fridge is down for the count, had to move the coffee maker just to make coffee. I'm exhausted and ugh. 

[H2O]

18 minutes ago, mappy said:

so we lost power around 1130 last night, the power surge that happened just before the power went out was horrible. the buzz in the house was so loud. power was out until 3am. half the outlets in my kitchen no longer work, fridge is down for the count, had to move the coffee maker just to make coffee. I'm exhausted and ugh. 

Hope its just tripped breakers and not fried circuits.  Its a crappy thing to wake up to and have to figure out how to fix it.  hugs 

[mappy]

17 minutes ago, H2O said:

Hope its just tripped breakers and not fried circuits.  Its a crappy thing to wake up to and have to figure out how to fix it.  hugs 

It was that, thank goodness. 

[H2O]

27 minutes ago, mappy said:

It was that, thank goodness. 

I know things.  lol  Still a sucky thing to have to deal with after a night of storms.  You rooting for a drought now?  no storms at least for a few days?

[vastateofmind]

2 hours ago, mappy said:

so we lost power around 1130 last night, the power surge that happened just before the power went out was horrible. the buzz in the house was so loud. power was out until 3am. half the outlets in my kitchen no longer work, fridge is down for the count, had to move the coffee maker just to make coffee. I'm exhausted and ugh. 

Did you have a nearby or direct lightning strike? I'd be most worried about my/our computer equipment in that situation...but since you were able to post, that's (hopefully) not an issue.   

[H2O]

8 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

Did you have a nearby or direct lightning strike? I'd be most worried about my/our computer equipment in that situation...but since you were able to post, that's (hopefully) not an issue.   

Eff the computers.  Need the fridge working.  Why?  cold beer

[mappy]

15 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

Did you have a nearby or direct lightning strike? I'd be most worried about my/our computer equipment in that situation...but since you were able to post, that's (hopefully) not an issue.   

Going by the local facebook page, a tree fell down on some lines in the neighborhood behind my house. Not sure if it was lightning or not, I'm not sure there was anything around at 1130, though I didn't check radar. 

Mr. Map said the surge protector that his computer and stuff are hooked into is shot this morning. He heard crackling when the power surge happened. Thankfully his computer was off, so its working fine this AM, just had to replace the surge protector. Otherwise, a few breakers tripped. 

[vastateofmind]

8 minutes ago, H2O said:

Eff the computers.  Need the fridge working.  Why?  cold beer

[H2O]

glass snogging or is that beer necking?

[rclab]

22 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

 

20 minutes ago, H2O said:

glass snogging or is that beer necking?

Good morning v, H2O. Thank you, with my glass half full there’s no need, ever, to be lonely again. As always .....

 

[toolsheds]

19 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

I'm so glad...it makes mine, too, whenever I stumble across it, because I hate that whiny, bald-headed a**hole. Whoever thought that kid...not to mention his pliable, idiotically indulgent parents...would be a good role model(s) for anyone??

On a semi-related note, when I pulled that Caillou clip this morning, I ran across some "Bananas In Pyjamas" GIFs. Forgot ALL about that little slice of heaven. The Aussies that came up with that concept must've partook in some powerful grass from the Outback...

I was lucky.  My kids never wanted to watch Caillou.  :-)

 

Has anyone seen the show that replaced Calliou in Denmark this year?  It's worth  the watch.....

 

 

 

 

[vastateofmind]

8 minutes ago, toolsheds said:

I was lucky.  My kids never wanted to watch Caillou.  :-)

Has anyone seen the show that replaced Calliou in Denmark this year?  It's worth  the watch.....

[toolsheds]

4 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

 I Know!  Who ever came up with that?   To top it off, he still lives with his mother. :-)

[H2O]

41 minutes ago, toolsheds said:

 I Know!  Who ever came up with that?   To top it off, he still lives with his mother. :-)

Sounds like that Cape May poster Vice Regent

[nj2va]

If anyone loves sparkling water/seltzer as much as me, two thumbs up for the "Raspberry Hibiscus" flavor for Target's Good & Gather brand.  I bought it b/c the cans looked nice (yes, I'm that guy) but its a really good flavor too.

[mappy]

whelp. the power surge/outage fried the control board to our AC unit. Lovely timing. 

[vastateofmind]

1 hour ago, nj2va said:

If anyone loves sparkling water/seltzer as much as me, two thumbs up for the "Raspberry Hibiscus" flavor for Target's Good & Gather brand.  I bought it b/c the cans looked nice (yes, I'm that guy) but its a really good flavor too.

We've not tried the Target brand of seltzer yet, but that sounds pretty good. We've tried every flavor that Wegmans offers, and they have quite a few...sometimes limited editions. Personal faves there include black cherry vanilla and cherry pomegranate. I grab "dragonfruit" when they have it (interesting flavor), and I'm currently working on finishing the peach, since Mrs. V tried it but didn't like it. She says it tastes like peach perfume...   

[nj2va]

26 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

We've not tried the Target brand of seltzer yet, but that sounds pretty good. We've tried every flavor that Wegmans offers, and they have quite a few...sometimes limited editions. Personal faves there include black cherry vanilla and cherry pomegranate. I grab "dragonfruit" when they have it (interesting flavor), and I'm currently working on finishing the peach, since Mrs. V tried it but didn't like it. She says it tastes like peach perfume...   

Two thumbs up for Wegmans brand seltzer.  Their coconut flavored one is really good with rum in the summer at the beach.  

[mappy]

ahh thought we were talking about hard seltzers and i got excited for a second. 

[Stormfly]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

whelp. the power surge/outage fried the control board to our AC unit. Lovely timing. 

Report this to BGE.  They may tell you to call your homeowner insurance claims office.  The insurance and BGE will settle this out.

Also have a competent electrician inspect your service entrance, wiring, et al.

This sounds like a circuit fault on the primary side where an overvoltage condition occurred.  Breakers trip from the overcurrent preventing your wiring from bursting into flames.  Surge protectors use single shot devices called MOVs which will conduct the excess voltage to ground.  In the case of overvoltage, they get hot and if the integrated fuse/circuit breaker doesn't open soon enough they burn out.  Sometimes the overvoltage makes it into the protected loads (TV, stereo, PC, et al) and those devices' MOVs can be damaged.  Most devices using switching mode power supplies these days will run at 50-60Hz from 85-265VAC and can even survive a minute or two at 500VAC!  Appliances with induction motors not so much.  But those will draw sufficient amps to trip breakers fast enough before they burn up or go up in flames.  While this is happening you will hear a loud hum like the buzz from a vibrator type aquarium pump.

Modern home CAC units and controls are solid state and many still use a simple 120V to 24V control transformer.  Primary protected by a fuse.  If the red terminal shows no volts with the unit ON that's where I'd look first.

Those control boards are fairly expensive to replace.

[mappy]

10 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

Report this to BGE.  They may tell you to call your homeowner insurance claims office.  The insurance and BGE will settle this out.

Also have a competent electrician inspect your service entrance, wiring, et al.

This sounds like a circuit fault on the primary side where an overvoltage condition occurred.  Breakers trip from the overcurrent preventing your wiring from bursting into flames.  Surge protectors use single shot devices called MOVs which will conduct the excess voltage to ground.  In the case of overvoltage, they get hot and if the integrated fuse/circuit breaker doesn't open soon enough they burn out.  Sometimes the overvoltage makes it into the protected loads (TV, stereo, PC, et al) and those devices' MOVs can be damaged.  Most devices using switching mode power supplies these days will run at 50-60Hz from 85-265VAC and can even survive a minute or two at 500VAC!  Appliances with induction motors not so much.  But those will draw sufficient amps to trip breakers fast enough before they burn up or go up in flames.  While this is happening you will hear a loud hum like the buzz from a vibrator type aquarium pump.

Modern home CAC units and controls are solid state and many still use a simple 120V to 24V control transformer.  Primary protected by a fuse.  If the red terminal shows no volts with the unit ON that's where I'd look first.

Those control boards are fairly expensive to replace.

Thanks for the information. Our HVAC guy was able to fix the wiring enough that the AC works until a replacement board comes in. Thankfully its all still under warranty as we just replaced the unit a month ago. Phew. 

edit to add: but good to know about that buzz you mentioned, because it was loud when the surge and following outage happened. Our AC unit sits against the exterior wall to our bedroom, so I heard it. It was so loud. I seriously thought it was in the walls, but must have been the unit and the control board going up. 

Neighbor next door had issues this morning too, some of his downstairs outlets were fried completely, not even a breaker tripped, just fried them. Whatever happened in our area last night did a doozy to our electric. Saw a BGE truck outside another neighbors house earlier. 

[Stormfly]

Was your AC on?  (i.e. thermostat set to cooling?)

We've had all sorts of electrical anomalies over the years.  Probably due to a mixture of underground and overhead wiring, its age, and types of loads on it that were unthought of 50 years ago!  Like today when the sun is full out at 12:30 we're sending over 13kW BACK to the grid.  Then a cloud swings overhead and we're PULLING 2kW FROM the grid.  All that swinging back and fourth.  Multiply that by hundreds of others in the county with solar.

Squirrels love to climb the poles.  And this time of the year the rat snakes are ready to mate and are hungry.  They climb poles too.  Sometimes they inadvertently cause a fault between primaries or on an overhead cutout.  Usually on a beautiful sunny windless day the lights go off and there is a boom outside no different than a 500 gram mortar people buy at Phantom.  Such is country life.

Trees, OTOH, are a HUGE headache for linemen.  And if a large limb pushes a 33kV phase into a 13kV phase, I guarantee you fireworks of the 60Hz variety will happen.  And if OCRs don't squelch it, serious damage occurs to the unfortunate homeowners fed by those circuits.

I've seen driveways blown in to the air, pink flames shooting out of the ground 15' straight up, meters blown off the walls, fuse boxes melted like they were cut open with an oxy-acetylene torch. It goes on and on.  Moores Mill Road (1988) was the worst accident ever.  All about timing on that one, thank goodness as no one died that day.

[mappy]

6 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

Was your AC on?  (i.e. thermostat set to cooling?)

We've had all sorts of electrical anomalies over the years.  Probably due to a mixture of underground and overhead wiring, its age, and types of loads on it that were unthought of 50 years ago!  Like today when the sun is full out at 12:30 we're sending over 13kW BACK to the grid.  Then a cloud swings overhead and we're PULLING 2kW FROM the grid.  All that swinging back and fourth.  Multiply that by hundreds of others in the county with solar.

Squirrels love to climb the poles.  And this time of the year the rat snakes are ready to mate and are hungry.  They climb poles too.  Sometimes they inadvertently cause a fault between primaries or on an overhead cutout.  Usually on a beautiful sunny windless day the lights go off and there is a boom outside no different than a 500 gram mortar people buy at Phantom.  Such is country life.

Trees, OTOH, are a HUGE headache for linemen.  And if a large limb pushes a 33kV phase into a 13kV phase, I guarantee you fireworks of the 60Hz variety will happen.  And if OCRs don't squelch it, serious damage occurs to the unfortunate homeowners fed by those circuits.

I've seen driveways blown in to the air, pink flames shooting out of the ground 15' straight up, meters blown off the walls, fuse boxes melted like they were cut open with an oxy-acetylene torch. It goes on and on.  Moores Mill Road (1988) was the worst accident ever.  All about timing on that one, thank goodness as no one died that day.

Was it on when the power surge/outage happened? Yes. Didn't notice the issue at 3am when the power came back on, wasn't until this morning I noticed it was really warm upstairs in the house. Thank goodness our HVAC guy was able to come out and do a quick repair job to get us through the weekend until the new board comes in. 

Based on posts from our local facebook group, seems we werent the only ones with issues. One person said their whole house surge protector was fried, another said their AC unit no longer works, another said they too had surge protector issues in their house, and so on and so on. One said their ceiling fan started smoking. So whatever happened screwed over a lot of people... 

[Stormfly]

With these incidents the closer you are to the fault the more damage will occur unless you open your main breaker disconnect ASAP.

Glad nobody's home burned down.

[vastateofmind]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

ahh thought we were talking about hard seltzers and i got excited for a second. 

Well....some of the NoVA crew are talking about a mini GTG toward the end of June. Think about making a special guest star appearance, and we'll bring you as much, and as many varieties, of hard seltzer that you want.   

[CAPE]

1 hour ago, Stormfly said:

Report this to BGE.  They may tell you to call your homeowner insurance claims office.  The insurance and BGE will settle this out.

Also have a competent electrician inspect your service entrance, wiring, et al.

This sounds like a circuit fault on the primary side where an overvoltage condition occurred.  Breakers trip from the overcurrent preventing your wiring from bursting into flames.  Surge protectors use single shot devices called MOVs which will conduct the excess voltage to ground.  In the case of overvoltage, they get hot and if the integrated fuse/circuit breaker doesn't open soon enough they burn out.  Sometimes the overvoltage makes it into the protected loads (TV, stereo, PC, et al) and those devices' MOVs can be damaged.  Most devices using switching mode power supplies these days will run at 50-60Hz from 85-265VAC and can even survive a minute or two at 500VAC!  Appliances with induction motors not so much.  But those will draw sufficient amps to trip breakers fast enough before they burn up or go up in flames.  While this is happening you will hear a loud hum like the buzz from a vibrator type aquarium pump.

Modern home CAC units and controls are solid state and many still use a simple 120V to 24V control transformer.  Primary protected by a fuse.  If the red terminal shows no volts with the unit ON that's where I'd look first.

Those control boards are fairly expensive to replace.

And I thought I was the only one here who knew/cared about all this esoteric electrical/electronic stuff.