Bad timing
Most countries do things in a logical sequence.
Not here in Ireland though.
Most countries have gales or even storms, during which trees blow down bringing down power-lines causing power cuts all over the shop. It’s a natural order of things. Storms bring power cuts. It’s expected.
Here though, we do things differently.
We had a storm last night. Of course they had to give it a cuddly name [“Hector”?] as if it were a person [it’s just a fucking wind for fucks sake], and delighted us with their traffic light alerts. So I went to bed with the wind howling around the tin roof and said a little prayer that no trees would blow down. I don’t believe in prayer, but it’s better to take no chances?
I got up this morning and the storm had passed. The roof had stopped rattling and all the trees are still standing [maybe that prayer worked after all? Beliefs like that can start a religion…].
Then the power went.
For fucks sake! The storm is past tense. If they wanted to give us a power cut they should have had it then. That was the time for power cuts – when the storm was raging! Why are they cutting power now?
Anyhows the power came back eventually but only after I had hauled out the camping stove and filled the house with the stench of propane gas just to make a mug of tea. They always time it like that. The bastards.
I had to nip down to the village then as Herself had run out of some of her pills and was beginning to turn blue.
When I returned I discovered the fucking power was off again! Jeeeezus!! It’s nearly fucking calm now and they are still giving us power cuts?
The power came back just now.
But only after I had filled the house with the stink of propane gas again.
I think “Hector” was a name from the UK Met Office, they and Met Eireann take it in turns with names. I can’t imagine anyone at Met Eireann coming up with Hector.
I immediately think of that eejit Hector Ó hEochagáin. There again, he’s full of wind too.
The naming of storms seems to depend on which island they are estimated to hit first. My goji berry lost one of its water shoots, a beech bonsai left its shelf and plummeted fifteen inches onto the pot of iris and foxgloves underneath it courtesy of a bamboo sat next to it and it has to be said because some wanker (me) forgot to wire its pot down to the shelf and that was it.Yet the moronic met office ‘issued a warning’ claiming the winds would be a danger to life. Lying bastards. Okay the iris and foxgloves were a tad smashed but they are far from dead unlike the credibility of the twin mets.
On the basis of Iona being the next storm, I think Hector must have been a Met Office choice https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2017/storm-names-for-2017-18-announced
Such a palaver over naming a bit of wind! “Names will be announced….” I can’t wait!
Twas the mindless met office. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/storm-hector-met-office-names-11940908
Seems they name them so people will take their warnings more seriously. As I said, morons.
What’s the betting that, in five alphabetic storms’ time, they’ll somehow overlook the name ‘Mohammed’?
It’s now the most popular name for boys in the UK and, if you’re seeking a name to encapsulate the concept of arriving uninvited, wreaking havoc, death and destruction on the native people, wrecking the place and devaluing all that was good about it, is there a better name available?
Could be for several reasons. Some possibilities:
1) Your local network may have survived the storm passing, but further down the line (towards the main supply) something took a hit.
2) The repair crews may need to isolate parts of the network to safely carry out repairs (particularly removing fallen trees on, or adjacent to, HV lines).
3) They know of your reputation, and deliberately tried to piss you off…
I do get the impression that 3 has a ring of truth. Why otherwise would they wait until I had just finished boiling up a saucepan of water over a stinking gas stove?