Outage of Electricity

[Edwin]

Where we used to live for 10 years we lost electricity often, and at times especially in the winter it could be for extended periods of time. It is such a problem there that they have 3 huge diesel electric generators, and we had one at the boat landing, and it was part of my job to start that generator up, when the power failed, which was often. Anyway I woke up this morning to the back up UPS beeping, telling me the power was off. It happens so seldom here, that I wondered "What is that sound!" I guess many places in the Philippines the power is unreliable, and they schedule electrical shut downs, so that there will be enough electricity for everyone. I know my friend would moan and groan every time the electricity would shut off, as it ran the fans, and he was too hot all the time. It was comical to me, because the heat doesn't bother me, but it wasn't funny to him! We would go out on the back deck to try to get any breeze that would be coming off the water between Negros Oriental, and Cebu Islands. Those were fun times for me, and I still have pleasure thinking about being there and the experiences that I had!

[Edwin]

I found out what caused our electrical outage. We have a guy whose father started a crop dusting business. He used to crop dust for my brother. Then he got diabetes and they wouldn't let him fly anymore, so he turned the business over to his son. His son owned the airplanes that I used to fly years ago, in the late 1970s. We have been watching that airplane here too. We watched this airplane fly low, just barely above our house just a few days ago while this guy was crop dusting. The son just sold this airplane and his crop dusting business to someone else, and that person this morning hit a power line, crashed the airplane, scattering airplane parts all over the field. Our neighbor wrote on facebook that there were firetrucks there as they are always worried about a fire when there is a plane crash, and police officers every where, as well as an abulance. They took the pilot to the hospital, so I assume he is not dead yet, or at least soon after he crashed his plane, although if he were dead we might not hear that for a short time. I have been praying for him. I am very sorry that this has happened. Crop dusting is one of the more dangerous occupations possible. Over the years since I was a big kid we have had several pilots killed crop dusting, usually in the apple orchards. They are close to the ground and other objects, and flying through the air is not like driving on a solid road. It is more like being in a boat in the water, and with crop dusting you can't make any mistake while flying within close proximatey to any objects, hillsides, or the ground. The airplane is very heavy when loaded and it does not repsond quickly. You can't pull up quickly, or turn quickly. Any manuevering of the stick has a delayed reaction in any airplane, and especially a heavy crop dusting airplane.

[Edwin]

They leaved the crashed airplanes until the FAA can do an investigation, so the airplane is sitting broken apart by the fense on the edge of the field. He was crop dusting for one of our neighbors down on the edge of town, in a canola field. The pilot was not that familiar with the field evidentally. There were powerlines stretched across the field, and those lines should be been easy to see, but I think what happened is that is was fairly early in the morning, and the direction he was flying he was looking towards the sun, and I think it blinded him to the power lines. He struck and clipped in two the power lines, went out of control very near the ground and crashed. They had to cut him out of the airplane. They took him to the hospital, got him stablized, and then flew him to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. I haven't heard anything since, so I think he is probably recovering, thankfully!

[Edwin]

Well, since the airplane crash we have had very short electrical outages, but most of them only lasted a minute or less. We did have another outage a few weeks ago that did last for maybe an hour; I can't remember now for sure, but long enough that my battery backup shut down. When the electricity goes down I shut everything down except the modem and the wireless broadcaster, or whatever you call it. I worry about the modem because some time back when it was turned off, shut down because of no electricity I had trouble getting it to start again, but lately it has been starting fine. Because of all our fires, one of our fires took out the electricity, and we were without power for 4 & 1/2 hours! I played the piano for part of that time, and so I didn't need electricity for that. I also went for my walk with the doggies for the 6.5 miles or over 2 hours, and when I was almost finished walking I could see my brother's lights on from a distance about 2 miles away, and then I saw that Carol had our lights on, so I knew that when I got back from walking the electricity was going to be on. Carol commented that she didn't have much to do when the electricity was off. We have gotten used to electricity, and we hardly can live now without it. Almost everything we do requires electricity!