Safety

We here at 83 Durant believe in safety. Looking at some of our posts, you might not believe this, but we are. So, theoretically, a new law that makes toys safe is a good thing. But the more I read about the CPSIA, the more distressed I become.

In finding out a bit more about the CPSIA, I went to the source -- the website for the Consumer Products Safety Commission. They have huge lists of product recalls there. As a confirmed worrier about all things, I really should not be allowed near this site, or, really, the internet generally.

There I was horrified to learn that everything you have ever wanted to play with can kill you. Would you like a for-instance? Well, how about this one:

Hallmark recently recalled a line of snow-globes because,
"When exposed to sunlight, the snow globes can act as a magnifying glass and ignite nearby combustible materials, posing a fire hazard."

Just so you know I'm not making this up, here is the link:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09073.html

People who live in glass houses.....

...should be sure to have a lot of band-aids around.

So I was cleaning up the mess of our shattered storm door (see below), which, thankfully, was made of tempered glass. Tempered glass shatterers into tiny little bits instead of big sharp-edged pieces. I should stress that it fractures into LOTS of TINY bits. It's actually kind of pretty.

While sweeping up the sparkly bits, I was transported back to the days one summer when I worked in a glass factory. Yes, dear reader, I worked in a glass factory. Worst. Summer. Job. Ever. I spent a lot of time sweeping up broken glass from the floor, not because I caused the glass to be broken, but because A LOT of glass gets broken by machines & people, and when you're the lowly summer help (and a girl at that) the only thing they really want you to do is sweep the floor.

One of the many miserable things about working in a glass factory is that you have to wear a lot of protective gear. First, heavy steel-toed boots. There are chaps involved. Also arm gaiters and multiple layers of gloves. As a (former) professional in the field, one would think I might have at least put on some garden gloves for the task at hand. But no, I took the term "safety glass" a bit too literally, and now my hand is covered in band-aids.

Shattered

We considered ourselves lucky in this last storm -- the Lowell Sun is calling it the worst ice storm of the decade -- as we were only without electricity for about 6 hours, and due to our ancient systems, our gas heat and stove were unaffected. But apparently, some folks in Lowell are still without power, and certainly many in more remote areas of Massachusetts and New Hampshire are still without power.

But this afternoon, when Jake went to go out for a bike ride, he discovered that 83 Durant has not escaped completely unscathed: we have a shattered storm door. It's the one that leads out to the backyard from the basement. I don't know when it happened. I'm glad it isn't one of the new ones we recently installed. It wasn't a super fancy one, and in fact, I had remarked on a few occasions that the latch seemed to well, unlatch and open of its own volition. Perhaps it was swinging open when the storm winds caught it and shattered the glass. In any case, we are now in the market either for a new storm door window, or perhaps a whole new storm door.

Power on (at least for now)!

The power came back on around 12:30, then went off again around 3:45; it's back on again now, but who knows for how long.

Campus is closed for tomorrow, too. Power is still off in various places around town. Yikes! Lucky for us!

Blackout at 83 Durant

Greetings, readers. 83 Durant is currently without electrical power. It went out at 7:30 am, and the latest update from the electric company is that it won't be back on until tonight. Woo hoo. There's a big ole tree that has fallen on the wires just half a block from our house. Finally, the trees have risen up against us.

I'm writing from the Wendy's up the road, which does have power. However, looking out the window, it's not clear why this is the case, since the traffic light outside the Wendy's does NOT have power. Hmmmm....

Anyway, here are some things to know about our house during a blackout.

1. We have gas heat, which is unaffected by the power outage, which is a nice feature.

2. We have an ancient gas stove (see previous posts) that doesn't have one of those fancy schmancy electrical ignitions, so we can cook on the stovetop or in the oven. Oh ancient stove, we shall never replace you.

3. Our one non-electric-type phone doesn't have a functioning ringer, so if you're calling us, we don't know that you're calling. Periodically, we'll pick up the phone just to see if someone's calling, but, well, let's face, that's not going to work very well. Oh, if you need to get in touch with us, call our cell phones.

4. No electricity also means no internet (even though our laptop batteries are fully charged, the internet box needs electricity to work). Boo.

So that's the situation. The University is closed (their electricity is also out), so we're just hanging out at home with Lucy, with little headlamps on our heads. Lucy doesn't have a headlamp of her own, but she really seems to want one.

Other than that, all is well. I'll post again from home once we're back in electricity.