Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to Patrick Xavier,
The idea of not mowing the grass outside of every property (which is not private property, does not belong to the property owners) was the brain child of our left wing mayor, which speaks volumes to why our infrastructure is so run down. Since then, there is now waist deep berms in practically every street, where a resident has not decided to take up the council's shortfall in looking after it's own land.
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Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to ,
That’s probably one of the limitations of using social media during civil emergencies!
Yes, I don't really want to go posting my phone number and address in public tweet.
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Hard News: Big Night Outage, in reply to Che Tibby,
For reference sakes it’s really easy to build a 12v usb recharge station for your home with a car battery and a car cigarette lighter.
Yup, you pretty much buy a USB recharger that plugs into the cigarette lighter and you have not only a battery, but also a portable generator to keep it topped up. I'm pretty much surprised by anyone who doesn't have a car charger these days. They cost like $5 and have usefulness that goes well beyond emergencies. They make useful something in the car that is basically completely useless and redundant to me, despite being near universal.
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I never lost power, but did lose my rear balcony fence and railing in its entirety, torn clean off. At times the wind gusts were so strong I was not sure if things were hitting the house. The rain was horizontal and I was seriously worried a tornado might form, it not being unknown around here.
In the morning I nearly ran over a downed power cable outside my house when taking the kids to school. When I got back I called it in to Vector on their emergency number, which took an hour. Then I decided to basically guard it until they came, directing traffic around it. It was cold and wet but I considered the risk someone might zap themselves to be significant. I blockaded the street with wheelie bins. It ended up being a bit fun because I met half the neighborhood.
A fire truck came but was not there for that. I said I could guard it all day if necessary and they said "thanks, that frees us up" and they went to 3 different houses they had been called to, before leaving.
At about 1pm a garbage truck came and instead of going around the line the driver pushed the line off the road with a stick. A minute later the Vector technician arrived and just shook his head when I told him the truck driver moved it with a stick. The line was indeed live at the time and it was just lucky he hadn't shocked himself. Note to self...
The mess around the neighborhood is still being cleaned up. Lots of entire trees completely uprooted. Plant wreckage everywhere in piles.
I did tweet about the powerline with a photo. Vector tweeted me back asking for a DM of the details but did not follow me so I could not comply. I left it, the phone call was sufficient and I figured they did not need extra load on their call center staff.
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Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
What is going on?
It used to work, and they haven't yet adjusted.
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Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
LoL the apologists for National like Hooton are a pretty sad bunch of do nothing desperadoes, frantically spinning everywhere that crisis they created and pretended didn’t exist now can’t be fixed and even if it could be fixed it was already fixed by National even though there is no crisis to be fixed.
This. All this.
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Having ridden through there countless times since the cycleway opened, it's struck me every time how underdeveloped it is. The perfect set for a NZ themed zombie series. There has even been an apparently abandoned car in one of the overgrown back lots, which are homes to hundreds of rabbits. So out of place in the middle of densely populated suburbs. It's a great site already for housing, although presumably some more amenities will have to be zoned.
Just another 20 sites like this and our housing problems will be solved. Well, for the current population anyway.
It is good to see them getting on with it, and I hope this kind of activity only accelerates.
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We find altruism hard to deal with in this country. I believe there is a strong sense that it should not be necessary in a well run state, and yet of course it happens anyway. My own feeling is that in a well run state it certainly should not be necessary, but it would also be a normal thing for people to do anyway, a form of actualization of their beliefs.
To hear about many NZers doing just this is very heartening, thank you.
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Great story.
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I just realized I know Lovegrove Crescent well. The textiles factory was also home to my first real job, a small software company specializing in artificial intelligence software for milk collection. I got the job in a cold call, the gorgeous Cook Island receptionist (who turned out to have been a former student of my mother at MIT) took the unusual decision based on my pitch to interrupt the GM in a meeting and then arranged an interview for an hour later. So began a relationship that eventually led me to Melbourne to bed down several major software pieces, where I met the love of my life.
A strange cul de sac, with the local entertainment being a boxing bar (all comers were invited to box each other between beers), and the race track shape was far too inviting to a young bogan with his first fast car. How I survived those years without dying in that car is beyond me. Happy times!