What did you do today to prep?

[The Heretic]

You can buy these at most any motorcycle shop.

They re-named them "Utility Jug"

Same container as always though.

VP Racing 3522 VP Racing Motorsports Utility Jugs | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - VP Racing Motorsports Utility Jugs with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Utility Jugs at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

Good luck getting them filled at an Orygun gas station:

Notes:
This item is not a portable fuel container as described by ASTM, EPA, ARB (CARB) or other state or federal agencies.

 

[Tony617]

Good luck getting them filled at an Orygun gas station:

Notes:
This item is not a portable fuel container as described by ASTM, EPA, ARB (CARB) or other state or federal agencies.

VP Racing 3512 VP Racing Motorsports Utility Jugs | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - VP Racing Motorsports Utility Jugs with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Utility Jugs at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

 

[Jay Walk]

Good luck getting them filled at an Orygun gas station:

Notes:
This item is not a portable fuel container as described by ASTM, EPA, ARB (CARB) or other state or federal agencies.

Drive across the bridge or go to an Indian reservation.

 

[The Heretic]

Bought a Champion 2KW inverter portable genset for $340 on Woot

Got some more trauma shears - some for the kids and at least one for each FAK (car, two trucks, shop, house) and maybe some for various toolkits. They are decent scissors for general use - better than conventional scissors.

Ordered a Samsung 1TB SSD USB drive - the size of a credit card, but thicker - for $99 from Samsung with military discount. Been looking for one of those - the USB HD I have is only 256 GB. I am also going to order a 512GB SD micro memory stick for my laptop or phone. The idea is to download the English Wikipedia and maybe some other wikis for storage. My laptop doesn't have enough space on its SSD for that, but it does have a micro SD slot so I should be able to fit Wikipedia on that.

 

[Siglvr]

A task for myself this weekend - prioritize what else I want to do or acquire where it might be more expensive to do so in 6-12 months.

I'd love to see your list when you finish ATC.

One thing that we all must jump on immediately is to get any pending medical issues done. Checkups, dentist, teeth cleaning etc etc. Staying on top of that will make a 2 year "Sorry we're closed for Covid- (or whatever they call the next one) easier.

The other is to plant native edible wild plants in local green spaces.

 

[ATCclears]

@Siglvr yes happy to share. I'm still pondering it overall.

On a related note, this is from the WSJ this morning (Dec 15, 2021) on inflation. Anyone should be able to open and read with their new sharing feature.


"This is a testament to the fact that inflation continues to broaden out," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont.

Persistently high prices in large part reflected clogged supply chains, as manufacturers scrambled to keep up with unusually strong consumer demand. The rise in prices of goods continued to outpace that for services, as consumer spending on goods remains elevated, while that on services is up just slightly from pre-pandemic levels.

U.S. Producer Prices Climbed Sharply in November

Prices that suppliers charge businesses and other customers jumped 9.6% last month from a year ago, the most on record.

www.wsj.com

 

[The Heretic]

Bought a Champion 2KW inverter portable genset for $340 on Woot

Delivered just now. Will test it out tomorrow. One third the cost of a Honda

Got some more trauma shears - some for the kids and at least one for each FAK (car, two trucks, shop, house) and maybe some for various toolkits. They are decent scissors for general use - better than conventional scissors.

These came a couple days ago - the new ones were not as good as the 3 I bought previously, but they work fine.

 

[The Heretic]

Tested the new Champion 2 KW genset. Unloaded output is 130V+ With a load it seems to be just under 120V (I didn't have my Killawatt meter with me).

It runs the chest freezer (600 watts max, but I think it runs at less than 200W when it is cold) with only slightly elevated RPMs from idle, while in eco mode. Claimed runtime is 11 hours.

Will not power the 4HP air compressor which needs 1800 watts running - probably twice that starting up. The load killed the generator (it ran afterwards). I am going to try it with the larger genset (3400W).

Tested the 12V output - with no load it was 20+V (spec says it is unregulated). With a load (charging a truck battery) it was 16+V which is ok if you keep an eye on it so you don't overcharge. For other things I would use a 12V power supply or if charging a long time, a battery charger hooked up to the 120V outlet. I did not test the USB dongle - wasn't sure which lead to try and I didn't want to fry it by short circuiting it.

Pretty quiet in eco mode. My intended use is primarily to run the freezer for several hours per day during a power outage, while being able to use the larger genset for the house, as a backup to the larger genset, as an adjunct to the larger genset, as a portable when away from home camping/etc., and as a loaner.

 

[Jay Walk]

Food, I did some more food.

 

[Mono1]

Will not power the 4HP air compressor which needs 1800 watts running

Looks like there is an optional clip-on parallel kit available that allows two units to double the output power.

 

[The Heretic]

Looks like there is an optional clip-on parallel kit available that allows two units to double the output power.

Yes there is. The companion genset needs to output less than 2.8KW from one description I read, I assume it needs to be a Champion? My other genset (3.4KW dual fuel e-start) is a Champion too - I bought it last winter due to all the power outages we had - my Honda genset was broken.

Woot still has these on sale for $340: https://home.woot.com/offers/champi...5edc11ec807639150a1c0e10&utm_source=Skimlinks

Thinking about buying another one at that price for the kids.

 

[Mono1]

Yes there is. The companion genset needs to output less than 2.8KW from one description I read, I assume it needs to be a Champion? My other genset (3.4KW dual fuel e-start) is a Champion too - I bought it last winter due to all the power outages we had - my Honda genset was broken.

Woot still has these on sale for $340: https://home.woot.com/offers/champi...5edc11ec807639150a1c0e10&utm_source=Skimlinks

Thinking about buying another one at that price for the kids.

Wow, Good price!

 

[41mag]

Removed some debris cluttering up bench.

 

[The Heretic]

Ordered 60 Energizer CR123 batteries.

Woot had them for $15 for a dozen and that seemed like a good price.

Now I need to shop around for some 18650 batteries and that should pretty much complete my battery collection.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Heretic - on the stick drive you choose, check out the transfer rate, if it is USB 3.0/3.1 etc. I thought I got the deal of a lifetime for the 2GB stick for $38 bucks a while back. It works, like a slug - transferring 500mb to it takes all night and it is supposedly USB 3.0 - BS. PATRIOT brand (blue) USB drives are fast and have never let me down.

Also when you first get those do the quick format to NTFS. FAT32 doesn't play nice a lot of times, especially with larger files.

 

[The Heretic]

Heretic - on the stick drive you choose, check out the transfer rate, if it is USB 3.0/3.1 etc. I thought I got the deal of a lifetime for the 2GB stick for $38 bucks a while back. It works, like a slug - transferring 500mb to it takes all night and it is supposedly USB 3.0 - BS. PATRIOT brand (blue) USB drives are fast and have never let me down.

Also when you first get those do the quick format to NTFS. FAT32 doesn't play nice a lot of times, especially with larger files.

I got a 1TB Samsung SSD. It is USB 3 and supposed to be fast but I have not tested the speed. Since it is Samsung I am going to assume it is fast. I will test it when I got to the kids for XMas; they have fiber and I use it to download Wikipedia when I am there - I have a 200 GB limit here and 6mbps speed, so it just isn't practical to try to download it here.

I think they format them to exFAT now. I also have several Macs - exFAT is more compatible with them, Android and Linux, and is specifically for USB external drives.

My new drive fits in my wallet too.

After the first of the year I will probably buy a 1TB micro SD card; my Windoze laptop has a slot for one. As far as I can tell nobody has released a 2TB micro SD card yet.

I need to get a new smartphone too - I've dropped mine one too many time and the display is wonky now. I am afraid one of these times it will just give up the ghost. I want to get an inexpensive Samsung that I can upgrade to the latest Android system and hopefully use 5G.

 

[The Heretic]

Power went out about an hour ago - supposed to be fixed in about 5 hours - my bet is they will fix it sooner - there are very few other outages - one in Troutdale and a couple others in the Portland area - maybe 5-6 total, with about 100 people affected altogether - at least for PGE.

The new battery backed light bulbs worked beautifully. I had to look around when the lights flickered to confirm the power went out because the bulbs stayed on. It is nice to have lights (more than the emergency lights) when the power goes out.

 

[BrentN]

Power went out about an hour ago - supposed to be fixed in about 5 hours - my bet is they will fix it sooner - there are very few other outages - one in Troutdale and a couple others in the Portland area - maybe 5-6 total, with about 100 people affected altogether - at least for PGE.

The new battery backed light bulbs worked beautifully. I had to look around when the lights flickered to confirm the power went out because the bulbs stayed on. It is nice to have lights (more than the emergency lights) when the power goes out.

When my power goes out, I still find myself walking through the house flicking on light switches, lol.

 

[The Heretic]

When my power goes out, I still find myself walking through the house flicking on light switches, lol.

that's the kewl thing about these battery backed bulbs; as long as it is a single bulb fixture/lamp, they can be controlled by the light switch or the lamp switch. And they stay on when the power goes out (if they were turned on), although they flicker for a fraction of a second until the battery kicks in, and the light dims somewhat - as the battery runs down they get dimmer too. I am leaving one on for now to see how long it lasts.

The emergency lights kicked in - I have a few flashlights plugged into wall outlets and some night light type outlet lights that help when walking about to not bump into things but the batteries on those run down, so I have to go around and fiddle with them to turn them off. The battery backed light bulbs are way more convenient, I just wish they worked in multi-bulb fixtures.

 

[The Heretic]

It's kind of funny, earlier today I was thinking about a power outage being likely due to the snow, so I put my phone on the charger again at about noon. I should have left it there, but being the old decrepit man I am, I prefer having it close by in case I have a heart attack or stroke. I can always charge it from my laptops, car or UPS.