Re: [OT] Tragedy, narrowly averted

ItsJoanNotJoAnn wrote:
...

I was on POTS and then I noticed was not receiving a.n.y.
phone calls.  That was actually nice, but then family and
friends were trying to reach me.  I was still able to make
outgoing calls though.

  we had so many issues with our landline for years that
finally we just went to cell phone service (for less
expense).  getting Mom to deal with that is sometimes a
challenge but using a simple flip phone is doable for her
and she does most things with it ok now.  we don't do
pictures and she leaves me to deal with texts (and i
discourage friends from texting but some still do it at
times).

AT&T came out and wiring on pole was just in tatters.  If
I wanted to receive calls then I'd have to convert to digital.
Digital is ok, but if power goes out, so does the phone, so
does the internet and of course anything electrical in the
house.  A few annoying glitches such as having to have the
system reset does not improve my opinion of digital service.
Service techs 'unplugging' me at the junction box is annoying
as well.

  the final time with the landline was when Mom picked up the
phone to call someone and it wasn't working.  she smashed the
phone on the counter.  obviously telling her that that didn't
help anything made no impression on her as she will still
bang things when they don't work.  i'm trying to get her to
stop this behavior but i'm not sure that's going to happen.

  as for power supply reliability they do make these things
called battery backups for power and they do work pretty well.
i have one here for my computer since we do have power issues
from time to time and it is good to have a controlled shut
down of the computer instead of it crashing when the power
goes out or some glitch happens in the power supply.  this
UPS can also be used to run a light for an evening or two and
at one point i also used it to run the refridgerator for an
hour to help keep the freezer cool enough.  it all worked as
it should have and the UPS only cost $150.  on the side the
other nice thing is that the UPS has a built in watt meter so
i can get an idea of what amount of power various things are
drawing (even if it might not be spot on accurate it is close
enough) so if i want to watch what is happening i can turn on
that display and watch the number of watts change.  therapy
for OCD at times can be a rather simple thing.  :)


  songbird