Comments | cellio: random bits

cellio

random bits

Aug 30, 2007 22:18

Dear Pittsburgh water authority: could you arrange for me to have more than a trickle of water by tomorrow morning when I'm going to want to take a shower? Thanks. (A water main broke in Oakland this afternoon -- about ten hours ago, so I would have thought we'd have water pressure by now. I wonder if they're having trouble finding the shut-off ( Read more... )

pittsburgh, viz, behavior, study with my rabbis, links, high holy days

Comments 13

ariannawyn August 31 2007, 03:10:30 UTC

A water main broke in Oakland ...I wonder if they're having trouble finding the shut-off valves again.

The problem is that Johan isn't there to help them find the right shut-off valves this time. This is the same spot that broke 7 years ago, producing a 30 foot geyser. Johan had to leave Pennsic to go help them fix it. I still have a photo from the paper of him in his shirt and tie standing on a big chunk of uplifted asphalt, bending over a gaping hole in the street with some repair guys down in it.

cellio August 31 2007, 03:22:19 UTC

Yes, remembering that incident is what prompted my "I wonder if they know how to turn it off" thoughts. I remember Johan saying that they didn't have accurate data about where the valves where, how the pipes ran, and so on. Sounds like a crazy way to run a water system.

ariannawyn August 31 2007, 13:17:20 UTC

Sounds like a crazy way to run a water system. It's partly stupidity and partly entropy ( ... )

geekosaur August 31 2007, 03:12:58 UTC

Per official CMU reports (since campus also lost water) it was only fixed and water service restored around 10pm, so water pressure is still fairly low.

geekosaur August 31 2007, 03:13:49 UTC

Oh, apparently it's not just Oakland and Squill that was affected, but also downtown. So there's quite a lot of water system to refill.

cellio August 31 2007, 03:33:51 UTC

Ah. Ok, that's more than I expected. Thanks.

This might take a while.

sue_n_julia August 31 2007, 03:30:27 UTC

I believe part of the problem is that they need to restore the Hill's reservoir.

S

jeannegrrl August 31 2007, 03:51:29 UTC

The eBay story was great - I checked out the seller's blog too - cracked me up. Thanks for posting.

wrenb August 31 2007, 13:08:48 UTC

read Aramaic without vowels. I got a lot of words wrong, but I also got a lot right; I'm starting to get the right instincts

Yay!! I remember the thrill of being able to guess at the words at the beginning of unfamiliar Torah portions. Of course, I've never progressed past that.

Yasher koach! (sp?)

cellio August 31 2007, 22:12:09 UTC

Thanks!