[IRCA] What a night!

[mwdxer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Martin)]

Hi everyone,

You are probably asking, what am I doing up at 5AM? Well, I bsically
have been up al night. Here is the story.
Well, the weatherman stated that we may have wind gusts 60-65 MPH, so no
biggie. The wind would come up last night around 8 PM. 8PM came and gone
and no wind. Showers off and on, but nothing else. Ch 12 Portland did
not run their news at 10PM, so I waited until 11 PM. I called NOAA and
the same weather forecast from earlier. At 11PM, Rod Hill cut in on Ch 8
and said something odd about this storm was happening. Instead of being
a coastal thing, it had cut across and came up the valley as it was
getting very windy in Salem. Still nothing here except for a downpour or
two. I called NOAA and talked to the guy and he was changing the
forecast and was busy, You are about to get hit hard! and Rod Hill said
this storm was turning out to be worse than first thought. At about
11:30, all heck broke loose. The wind switched from SE to South, like in
a minute and came up with gusts 60-70 MPH. Within an hour, the gusts
were more present and were in the range of 80-90 MPH. The whole house
shook. Of course no one could sleep, and the lights have been on in
houses all night. I tried to sleep, but I could feel my BP going up
every time the wind shook the house. I was right, I checked my BP and it
was 147/99. It has not been that high in several years now. It has come
down to normal now.  I went back to bed and listened to KGO. Ray was on
talking about his early years in broadcasting and when he met Martin
Luther King. It was very enjoyable and relaxing. I got up a few times
trying to see my antennas, but really couldn't. The dishes looked ok. I
went back to bed again. Then the wind started to slightly die down about
3 AM and all of a sudden I heard a vey LOUD hissing. I was half asleep.
I woke up and I could hear it from the bathroom off the bedroom. I
walked in to water all over and It looked like a water pipe broke, as
water was shooting out of the wall behind the toilet. I immediatelly
threw on my slippers ran out in the winds still gusting about 70 MPH and
turned off the water. I came in and started to mop up the water. Some
had run into the heat vent on the far side of the floor. I figured there
wasn't much I could do about that, but I mopped up the rest. Took
everything out of the bathroom and then after I dried everything out on
the floor, I thought, "Wait a minute how could water be coming out of
the wall? This is a manufactured home and the pipes come up from the
floor." Remember when I ran out, I was half asleep. So at closer
looking, I fould the connection where the flexable hose connected to the
toilet had snapped. The flexable hose is metal but the connection on the
tubing is plastic! I am glad it did not happen when I wasn't home. The
whole house would have been flooded. So I turned off the turnout to the
toilet, when out and turned the water back on and everything is fine, so
I will go to Fred Meyer or Home Depot today (If they are open, Fred
Meyer will be) and buy a new hose. An easy fix, but what a pain. Well,
after all of that, I could not sleep. I put on my clothes and decided to
check out the antennas in the backyard with a flashlight. This is at
4:15 AM.  Gusts are still 45-50 MPH. But you know me. I discovered that
the Eastern beverage lead was pulled down to the ground and very tight.
I shot the light back to the back trees, but not seeing anything, I
decided what the heck, I would walk on down in the wind and check it
out. I got down behind the neighbors house a found my problem. A big
branch off the Spruce tree and fallen and across the beverage. I came
in, got my limb cutter and went out and cut the limb in pieces to pull
the antenna loose, and it popped back up in place pretty much and I came
back to pull it back to the nail and I found the wire had snapped
because of the weight of the pull. OK, I came back in, got the cutters
and fixed the wire. I will solder it later, as it in in the backyard.  I
am beginning to relax and I am getting tired, so I think I will try and
get some sleep as I want to fix the piping in the bathroom later. But
what night! I still need to check out all the antennas, but that will
wait. In checked them on the R8, they seem "ok".  I guess I am doing
pretty good for a man at nearly 61. But people that know me,  knows I am
stubborn. I sometimes throw caution to the wind (Isn't that a play on
words. hi), but I love doing what I want. I kbnow, I can hear some of
you saying, He is nuts. Maybe I am a bit, but at least I enjoy my life.
More later.

73,

Patrick

Patrick Martin
KGED QSL Manager


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