Kara-Moon Forum

I have limited connectivity right now after no power all day.

Th eonly machine I can connect with I can hardly read the screen.

I was plaing electric guitar..routed to my mixer through a signal processor, had my mic hooked up to the mixer through my guitar amp..Aan==and just getting ready to record..a little dry run, when the power went out for two seconds.

In the middle of that  kind of internalized experience, that was reaaly shocking..(my windows are covered with soundproofing, so it was pitch black)

That probably saved my life.

I took the hint and turned everything off. 30 seconds later lighting struck my house and it was the weirdest thing..the after imaGE when it all went black, was MY DOG haRLEY flying horizontally through the air. Then a siren went off sooo loud. It was left over from an alarm system that I had ripped the wires out of three years ago.  So the power is out..pitch black..my dogs are barking like crazy, so I guess Harley's ok..and this five million decibel siren is going off..with no power!!

It's a long story..everyone is all right, but I can scarcely read the screen to type, so I might be a coupole days getting some things fixed.

Laterz,

8)

Wyatt

Wyatt,

Woah...I hope you have surge protectors all around in your set up?!Glad you & yours are ok(including your furry friends! :D)

Hope your gear is ok! :o

All the best,

Thom

Thanks Thom..yeah I am relieved we are all OK..there was electricity in the air, thats for sure.

everything is surge protected..weird thing is that my ethernet routing switch is dead and it is plugged into a surge protector that is plugged into another larger surge protector. 

I am having an electrician come out monday and check out my service panel..as it showed some signs of surge.

Meantime if I can find a longer cable I can get off this old computer that I only use for storage and burning CDs..this screen is awful..

Well I have a lot to be grateful for here..that's for sure.

Will beBack as I am able..

Wyatt

Hope you're OK man..!

o boy, luckily everybody is ok  :o

k
 

Wow. Scary stuff.

Good morning UPDATE:

Found a longer cable in my drawer, so I don't have to type blind now.

..things are getting back to normal. Took a while for the enormity of it all to sink in. My wife had also turned off all her equipment just moments before the strike. Like she said this morning, "Our angels were looking out for us".

In spite of the fact that man has reduced electricity to a subset of precise mathematical formulae, there are some very peculiar things about the behavior of electricity that still defy logic..let me expain:

When I was designing a 100% solar,  primary electrical system for the catamaran I was building a few years ago, I ran across several peculiar problems. One of those problems was dealing with lightning strikes on the water.

Yes there were 'bonding systems' that were recommended, (sea water plates as the ultimate grounding of all the negative wires)..these systems were recommended most strenuously by the folks that were selling them. I told Louise at the time, that it didn't feel right to me..that I thought it would call the lightning.

Well, after studying hundreds of Coast Guard reports about boats that were struck by lightning, I started to see a pattern emerge. The 'bonded' boats had less damage when struck. But more bonded boats got struck in the first place. ..not too cool..plus it didn't matter whether your boat was bonded or not, it you had your hands on the steering wheel when lightning struck, you were going to be toast.

So I used an entirely different approach to avoiding the lightning strikes in the first place..but that is another story.

This is a huge subject..filled with many smaller peripheral issues, but there is another phenomenon I wanted to share with you this morning. When a boat got struck by lightning, you could see the destructive path it took through the boat to get to the water. That makes perfect sense.

What didn't exactly make sense, was that often, in addition to the main strike, little blobs of electricity went running around the pilothouse and melted all the electronics..especially when they were on, but even sometimes when they were off!  That is very hard to get your head around, but I think that is what happened to me yesterday.

Most of the physical evidence of the strike was at the complete opposite end of the house from me, so I am thinking that was where it struck, and yet I had electronic gear blown, that was plugged into a surge protector..and that surge protector was plugged into a surge protector. The clue here is that the ethernet switch was the only piece of gear in my studio that was powered up. Right now it is sitting here on my desk, dead as a doornail..weird.

I am convinced by this morning that having other equipment on would have been disastrous. The electricity was somehow in the air. When the power went off the first time, the experience was startling..and instant deprivation of sensory input..no sight..no sound.  Void.

Then a half minute or so later, when the lightning struck, it was not void at all..the air was charged..filled with power..almost like wind without the wind..like a flash so quick that the eyes scarcely have a thousandth of a second to register it.

Every day of my life is filled with things to be grateful to God for..and today especially!

8)

Wyatt

Electrickery has to be just about the most amazing thing/force we live with. I never cease to be amazed at it's range from the delicacy of a static charged hair to the raw power of a thunderbolt.

Whoa, Wyatt, scary stuff!  Glad your all ok, especially Harley ;)

I've been close to lightning twice, but never directly hit. The sound, smell, presense... everything about lightening is very eery.

Hi guys..

The latest is that so far I only have to replace the ethernet switch and a video card
in the studio.

I'm going to have a real electrician check out the other end of the house tomorrow. I'm
getting around better these days, but not up to crawling around in the attic just yet!

8)

Wyatt

Good news Wyatt, we don't want to loose you   ;)

k

Thanks bro..

..glad to be here.  ;)

8)

Wyatt

A surprising number of events recently remind me of a tag line I saw a while ago:

The good thing about reaching 60 is that it beats the snot out of the alternative.


BTW I have another 5 months to go  ;)

Cool..another '49er!  :- :- :- :- :-

8)

Wyatt

It was obviously a good year ;D

 :;
Yes.....I'm the other one  :o

Now I never knew that ::)
Amazing what you find out on the higher class forums ;D

 :o :o :o      ;D     :- 

8)

Wyatt

 :o
I'm glad everything is back to normality
Cheers

Thanks LR!

..yep..as normal as normal gets around here.   ;D

8)

Wyatt

Hmmm, Normal,
... now there's an interesting concept. Not very practical though ;D

..we're all normal and we want our freedom.

8)

Wyatt