Here’s something you don’t think about much — what happens if the natural gas goes away in the middle of a cold spell? Got a fireplace? Wood stove? Any objection to burning the furniture in the living room?
It’s not quite clear what caused the problem, but some 40,000 New Mexico Gas Co. customers apparently find themselves in this position this evening, reports the Albuquerque Journal. According to the Journal, crews have to shut down every single gas meter before gas can be returned to communities’ main lines, then return to each gas customer, purge air from the lines, test the lines, and relight the pilot lights before service can be restored. Ay, Chihuahua.
We used to fret about running out of gas from time to time in Weirdcliffe, because the propane guy hated driving up our wickedly steep road to fill the tank in evil weather, which is (duh) when you really want a full tank. But up there we had a wood stove, trees and the tools to bring the two together in fiery union. Down here in Bibleburg we have a couple of portable electric space heaters, three propane camp stoves and two cats. Oh, yeah, and a solar assist unit on the roof that mostly works only when the sun shines, which lately, eh, not so much.
Here’s hoping all my friends down thataway are staying warm this evening. As one noted: “We got some excitement down here.” Claro que si.
Mad Blog Media 
Part of the problem is that massive natural gas consumption is drawing down pipe pressure, since low temperature records in these parts are falling faster than time trial records in the age of EPO.
Both national labs (Sandia, Los Alamos) shut down today to conserve power, since half of the Land of Enchantment has traded nonexistant gas for space heaters and electrical blackouts are widespread. Santa Fe and Bombtown public schools followed long with God knows who else. For much of the Rio Grande Valley, the only gas we have is courtesy of our bean burritos.
Complicate that with Los Alamos County apparently tossing a 115 KV main power line and it gets really interesting. The cast iron stove is going full blast the last couple days.
The other day I posted that link to Jack London’s To Build A Fire. Never knew I would be so prescient.
Reminds of the time I lived in Laramie, WY. Yes, they shut down the entire town. Gawd, I wanted a shower!
I guess at that point you hope you have a tank of GASOLINE in your car so you can drive to some place with gas and/or electricity. I was lucky last week with the Park Tool Tech Summit in Chicago, if it would have been this past weekend I’d likely still be up there! Today it’s FINALLY a nice day to skinny ski…sunny skies and double-digit temsps so after breakfast we’ll go out and flail around for an hour or two…and maybe even put a photo on the CycleItalia blog.
Everybody in town was gassing up last night, getting ready to flee to Acapulco. One station in town was closed already. It was actually above zero this morning (7 deg F) when I let the dogs out. Somehow, after the last few days, that seemed warm.
A bit off topic this, but I thought I’d put a link to it. More on what Larry T was talking about the other day re: UCI shenanigans and what hopeless morons they are. This one with regards to Landis and his latest talk with Kimmage:
http://cyclocosm.com/2011/02/raw-documents-the-verbruggenlandis-exchange/
Interesting stuff David! I added Cyclosm to my list of bloggage. Ol’ Heinie was a big-shot with the MARS candy corporation and I think he used his UCI “experience” to get where he is today (IOC) while Pat “Hot Air” McQuaid tries to fill this place. Right now I bet Heinie’s glad he’s outta there!
Finally read the Kimmage interview. Interesting. Finally have a human face to pin on the Landis picture. Sad story.
More than ever, I am convinced the doping in the pro peloton is a richly cultured, top-down mess. As someone quipped in the comments, the peloton is if nothing else, a collection of lab rats on which the doping enterprise can experiment.
That’s a lot closer to it khal! I see comments such as “tear it all down and rebuild cycling from the ground up”.
This sounds nice and could maybe have a chance of working…..but my cynical side tells me that as long as money is involved, there will be cheating (and the more of the former there is, the more of the latter there will be). The problem is as old as human competition and money just complicates things even further.
I think a more realistic question to ask is: how do you find a way to “keep the playing field level” while basically finding a way to live with the inherent fact that there will be cheating of one fashion or another?
Good luck with that…
If the risk of cheating and being caught is greater than the potential benefit, cheating will be greatly minimized. Getting the crooked docs and scientists out of the sport would help. Docs caught participating in doping riders should lose their license to practice medicine. Team directors and other personnel involved in doping should be tossed out of the sport for good. Lifetime ban for doping offense, unless the cheating racer rats out everyone else involved. Nobody else but the true victims of doping (the riders) gets a way to get their ban reduced, they’re simply gone — they can drive a truck or paint houses to earn a living. A few years of this program handled on a fair and even-handed basis and the sport would be pretty much cleaned up. I think Landis is right, only “blowing up” the whole structure and starting from scratch can get this done. Maybe the IOC can throw cycling out of the Games until a brand-new international federation can be created?
Larry, we do have to treat this as the organized racket that it is. Give a pass to the soldiers (riders) who rat out the capos, consiglioris, and dons (team directors, cycling organization mob leaders). RICO is a good place to start.
I agree with the OC scheme. A lifetime ban with exceptions for the riders who rat out the rest is the only way to get them to expose the cheating. As the riders are the victims I think they deserve another chance while the rest, once they’ve been exposed should simply find other employment — outside the sport of cycling.