# Rain Fade ?



## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Got 3.5 inches of rain in the last hour. No TV !
No nothing ! Power is also out
UPS batteries drained now.
Electric co said it should be back on by 9.30 pm.
Hope the clouds hang around. It was 90 before this started and now is 72.

Oh, no internet now either. Cable has rain fade also.

Yep, I am on my cell phone.
Bye for today.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

it was not funny, nor medicine joke... looks like you are badly cornered


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

It reminds me of another joke ... the thought of calling a rain induced power outage "rain fade" is funny. Perhaps not hilarious, but funny.

(The other joke was about a woman who called tech support because her computer was not working. She told the tech that she was typing and the screen just went blank. The tech carefully walked her through the steps of checking connections until she mentioned that it was hard to see where the cables were connected to the back of the computer were connected because the power was out. The tech told the woman to box up the computer and send it back to the store because she was too stupid to own a computer. At least, that is the short version.)


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

James Long said:


> It reminds me of another joke ... the thought of calling a rain induced power outage "rain fade" is funny. Perhaps not hilarious, but funny.
> 
> (The other joke was about a woman who called tech support because her computer was not working. She told the tech that she was typing and the screen just went blank. The tech carefully walked her through the steps of checking connections until she mentioned that it was hard to see where the cables were connected to the back of the computer were connected because the power was out. The tech told the woman to box up the computer and send it back to the store because she was too stupid to own a computer. At least, that is the short version.)


That, what I wrote, was supposed to be funny but it was also true.
Luckily they got the power on about 3 hours after it went out.


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## NYDutch (Dec 28, 2013)

I did get a laugh out of it just now since I'm waiting out a current power outage. Someone took out a pole a few miles from here around 4:30 this morning, dropping power, cable, and phone lines. Fortunately for us, one of the advantages of living in a motorhome is that we can just push a button and be fully powered up again, so we're sitting here drinking hot coffee, watching satellite TV, and surfing the net with our cell hotspot service. A friend close to the accident scene just sent me a text that the power company is in the process of planting a new pole right now, so the power should be back fairly soon. Cable and phone will take longer, but we don't use them here anyway.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

NYDutch said:


> Someone took out a pole a few miles from here around 4:30 this morning


you mean did steal it ? who need such heavy bulky pole, especially bound to many lines include dangerous AC 3 phases ?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

P Smith said:


> you mean did steal it ? who need such heavy bulky pole, especially bound to many lines include dangerous AC 3 phases ?


They took the pole out on a date. It was listed on that new app "Timber!".


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

damn!


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

James Long said:


> They took the pole out on a date. It was listed on that new app "Timber!".


Funny.


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## NYDutch (Dec 28, 2013)

P Smith said:


> you mean did steal it ? who need such heavy bulky pole, especially bound to many lines include dangerous AC 3 phases ?


I don't know if the drunk with the 3/4-ton pickup was trying to steal it or not at 4:30 in the morning, but he sure took a big piece out of the middle of it. Poles don't stand up good at all that way, and they bring a lot of wires down with them.


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## AntAltMike (Nov 21, 2004)

My high school physics teacher was an accident investigator for the state before he became a teacher, and he said that the vehicles that fared best when hitting a pole were the ones where the driver did not slow down, because they were more likely to shear it. Similarly, he said that in head on collisions, a car that either did not brake, or if the driver even panicked and tromped on the gas fared better than the oncoming car, because they would tend to go uver the other car rather than under or through it.


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## NYDutch (Dec 28, 2013)

AntAltMike said:


> My high school physics teacher was an accident investigator for the state before he became a teacher, and he said that the vehicles that fared best when hitting a pole were the ones where the driver did not slow down, because they were more likely to shear it. Similarly, he said that in head on collisions, a car that either did not brake, or if the driver even panicked and tromped on the gas fared better than the oncoming car, because they would tend to go uver the other car rather than under or through it.


There were no apparent skid marks, but the truck did roll over after hitting the pole making it difficult to tell how much damage was caused by each event. I'm told the unconscious driver was taken away by ambulance, but it wasn't clear if he was knocked out or passed out. A power lineman told me the truck still smelled strongly of alcohol when the tow truck operator was loading it on a rollback.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

James Long said:


> ....until she mentioned that it was hard to see where the cables were connected to the back of the computer were connected because the power was out. The tech told the woman to box up the computer and send it back to the store because she was too stupid to own a computer. At least, that is the short version.)


Though now many folks are on a laptop so power being out isn't a deal breaker, unless she was trying to get online...


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Laxguy said:


> Though now many folks are on a laptop so power being out isn't a deal breaker, unless she was trying to get online...


It was an old joke, told at a time where laptops were not as common (and few knew want the Internet was). Most cell phones were huge and expensive and service was not widely available.

Here is one original telling of the story from 1997:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/word-imperfect/


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Yes, and thank you, James. Was just trying to bring it into the 21st Century, though PEBCAK will always exist!


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Update. September is over and we had 40.2" of rain at my house.
Galveston news says it was the second most rain ever in the month of September.

Yep, started off continuing the trend. Had 3.8" this morning before noon.
Mercy !


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

We had 0...


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

dmspen said:


> We had 0...


Wow, would have liked to been able to share it with your area.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

we got 0.2mm of rain last month


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Forecasters have been predicting rain for today for the past week. So far, only clouds. LA had less than five inches of rain last season (Oct 1 - Sept 30).


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