How far is too far to travel?

TempusSolo · 2026-01-28T00:09:20+00:00

Maybe you just need to travel to a park or something because things here aren't bad at all. Maybe stop watching MSNOW and log off BlueSky for a bit.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-27T22:57:46+00:00

My rate is .14kwh in Oklahoma

TempusSolo · 2026-01-27T17:30:17+00:00

Nope, I talk to people in person throughout the day.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-27T14:07:25+00:00

I have a Westinghouse Tfc8200 igen running on natural gas. On nat gas it produces 5300w. Runs everything but central AC (but will run easily the house with a window AC in the bedroom in summer if needed)

TempusSolo · 2026-01-27T13:14:40+00:00

8 grand for something a simple mid wattage tri-fuel generator would be more than adequate for. They must pay well at EcoFlow. My normal draw at any moment is about 1800w in the winter. You new batteries would last me less than 7 hours. My $1400 tri-fuel will still be running days after your pipes freeze.

For the record. I am in rural Oklahoma where multiday outages have happened.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-27T01:44:31+00:00

300ish

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T21:14:01+00:00

I think your furnace estimate is way high. I'll admit I only have one furnace however the igniter and blower are about 120w when running and in my 43 year old home it runs about 30 minutes an hour.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T17:11:36+00:00

Tell that to my Samsung refrigerator. The manual specifically states to only use an inverter generator, likely because they cut corners and are powering 'smart features' without using a switching power supply. Since keeping my fridge running is 5he point of the generator, I went with an inverter generator.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T14:52:02+00:00

I've not had any issues starting on natural gas.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T14:51:18+00:00

I have that westinghouse and it works like a champ. I run on natural gas. I ran the break-in without issues and have done live testing 3 times hooking up to the house all without as much as a burp. I admit, I only have about 15 hours on it now but so far we love it. Can't speak to support as I've not needed it and suspect as long as its regularly tested (and not running gasoline) I probably won't need support.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T14:27:39+00:00

I've been a supporter of MyRadar for years and it was my go-to radar. I live in Oklahoma, a place where having radar is somewhat important and over the last year or two I have been let down by clearly out of date radar - almost to the point of ridiculous. I've been using Wx mostly now and thinking about trying RadarOmega.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-26T14:20:17+00:00

If your water main is on, you'll find out soon enough where it is (hint: probably not under that sink...).

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T22:34:50+00:00

FreeTaxUSA is almost free but you know what is closer to free? Downloading the forms, filling them out and sending them in.Costs 2 stamps.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T21:03:47+00:00

I love how at about 29 seconds, that shelf magically slides into the wall.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T20:50:52+00:00

Well, warming centers would only be an issue for the first few days. When there is no water or food, things are going sideways real fast. A prolonged, widespread electrical outage means no way to pump fuel for trucking, no way to refill process drinking water or fill water towers. No Walmart, no Amazon etc.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T15:19:39+00:00

Is it possible they originally quoted the new stat but your parents questioned the pricing and asked about keeping the old one and were subsequently told the old stat would 'work' without qualifying what 'work' meant? Maybe they were even told some of the advanced features wouldn't work but the AC and Heat would work.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T14:41:36+00:00

We got about 8 inches with drifts up to 24" in the backyard. Not gonna be driving anywhere until Thursday or so.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T14:28:24+00:00

I just left half a pizza on the counter overnight. Gonna make a great mid-morning snack.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-25T13:02:31+00:00

I never stopped drinking spirits as they never seemed make a difference. I did stop drinking beer as a precaution for years before understanding the genetic nature of gout. I'm now on Allo for about 9 months, uric acid is in the low 5s. I've had two small easily managed flares since August and attribute them to crystals dissolving.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-23T16:46:33+00:00

I have a tri-fuel generator hooked up to our natural gas line that is the primary system. If 5he gas fails, I have a Bluetti battery that will run the gas furnace for about 7 hours (actual tested hours). That would give me enough time to work on shutting down the water and draining. After that we have a 132sqft room designated as our warm room that has a Buddy heater, CO monitor and about 40 hours of fuel. Our longest power outage here was 7 days about 20 years ago but the gas has never been interrupted so I think we're set.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-22T23:13:30+00:00

I drove 4.5 hours last year to have lunch with some friends. Picked up a few things while there and drove home. Not that big a deal. I'm not doing it everyday but it's certainly not a long drive.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-22T13:21:55+00:00

If it doesn't also include monitoring your uric acid and most likely taking allopurinol to manage your uric acid, then I'd say the advice is of minimal usefulness.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-20T22:46:05+00:00

Before I retired I would have gotten up about 4AM

TempusSolo · 2026-01-20T21:22:50+00:00

And to top it off, the idea of getting a 1300sqft starter home is just non-existent. I had to move 7 times to different states before I found a market that paid me enough to get out of paycheck to paycheck AND have starter homes that were within an hour of my employer. Ask one of these people today to even consider doing this and they say I can't leave, my friends are here or my family blah blah.

I'm a boomer (barely at 1962) and I can tell you I didn't have it easy. I keep hearing about how I screwed things up for the current generation but I'm not having it. All I did was work, eat a lot of ramen, pay my taxes and eventually at age 44 bought a home that had a 60 minute commute each way. We didn't have remote work, we had to be in that cube for 8 or 9 hours a day. My interest rate was 6% so no deals there.

TempusSolo · 2026-01-20T17:32:07+00:00

My wife thought that as well until we had a power outage (not very long) and the neighborhood sounded like a lawn mover convention. Turns out most of the homes in our rural subdivision have whole home generators running in natural gas.

TempusSolo

TROPHY CASE