Another GPS stolen

I went to the post office near 61st and Yale just now for 15 minutes and my GPS got stolen. If my students can be that quick and effective, I’d be really impressed. This was my second GPS got stolen in less than 1 year. My first one got stolen just less than 1 week before I bought it online with my credit card. I thought the I had that so-call buyer insurance at that time from the credit card company but I never got reimbursed because they have the tiny fine print that auto theft is not insured… It was pretty bad this time since I have a memory card stolen along with it. It had the Canada road maps in it. But I don’t remember if I have any other data…

The sixth day after power outage

Just passed the fifth night without power, it is getting very tiring. I only come back home to sleep and staying in office the whole day. I am kind of lucky that still haven’t got sick yet. But I am not so sure if this continues for another week. I couldn’t sleep well at all in these cold nights. The cold air kept waking me up. Even though I stayed in bed much longer than I usually do, actually, more than 10 hours on average, I don’t feel rested after getting up. I slept on a folding bed next to the fireplace for the first 3 days. But I finally couldn’t stand the tiny bed anymore and dragged my mattress from my bedroom upstair last night. It was quite some work but I guessed it was a good move as I don’t know how much longer it will take.

At this moment, there are still about 71,000 homes and businesses without power. And I am one of the lucky one. It is getting bad today as it starts to snow. Fortunately, it seems the snow is not as heavy as previously predicted. So probably I can still head for the office tomorrow (if power is still not yet back).

The fireplace hardly gives any warmth to the house. Apparently it is really just a decoration. The heat escapes immediately out of the chimney. I tried to look for ways to suck out some more heat. First thing I can think of is using a fan. Of course, then I need electricity. I have a rather small fan and I am thinking maybe I can drive it using a car backup battery and an inverter. I had an inverter but got stolen in my car last year. I tried Best Buy and Circuit City but they were all sold out. I went to Walmart and Sam’s Club but they were closed. Then I tried the surge protector. Theoretically, it should be able to drive a fan for 30 minutes. I bought one from Best Buy but unluckily the one I got is too “smart” that it won’t turn on unless it is plugged to a wall power and then unplugged. After these desperate attempts, my laptop cooling pad came to my mind. At least, it has a fan, though it is super tiny. And I can power it with the USB port from my laptop. This time, it works… But I hardly feel any wind coming out of it. I guess I’d better just get used to survive without heat and power.

The second day without power

It is Tuesday night. I have never gone through a power outage lasting that long. According to the news, electricity can take a week or more to be fully restored. About one third here has no power in Tulsa. There is no traffic light in many roads, even the bigger one.

I was quite a bit surprise that it went this bad. I could hear falling branches Sunday night. But there is basically no wind. I wouldn’t even describe it as a storm. Just those branches fell after ice accumulated on them and got heavy. Falling branches can be seen everywhere. But still, I am amazed to see one third is out of power (that is about a quarter million in Tulsa). There is hurricane (or typhoon) every year back home. I saw big tree fell down almost every year. But everything back to normal the next day the storm passed. Power outage of this scale is simply unimagable. Especially when the bad weather is basically over, and still the utility company is telling us that they need 10 more days or so.

I am ready for a long power outage. I took almost everything eatable to the office now. I only went back home to sleep. It is lucky that I have a fireplace at home. I thought that was just a decoration. I don’t know that is really useful in Oklahoma.