Wow, what a weekend! If you're reading this, that means the power is back on at the Paizo offices, which means our web servers (and message boards, and online ordering software, and shipping software, and email, and everything else) are back up and running after a winter storm or epic proportions. For those not keeping score at home, last Thursday night the Seattle area suffered a hurricane-force wind storm that knocked out power to over a million and a half people and businesses, including Paizo. The juice went out here at about ten past midnight PST Friday, and came back online about noon on Sunday - and we're some of the lucky ones here in Bellevue, as there are still three quarters of a million people without power (including yours truly) with no prospect of getting it back before Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest.
We do apologize for this lapse in service, and rest assured we are working like rabid little kobolds to get things packed, shipped and into your grubby mitts before the fat man sings on the 25th. We have no guarantees that the power will STAY on, or that UPS and the US Postal Service will actually be picking things up on time, but we're going to do all we can to make up for this lost time. In the meantime, things appear to be back to normal here, so feel free to discuss and hang out on the Paizo messageboards and order things to your heart's content - and if you're in the Seattle area and still don't have power, snuggle up and stay warm! Winter is just about here!
Apologies taken(lol)..now I understand why when i was trying to go to ur site it would go to a complete different one. BTW, you've got a special avatar personalized just for u?..That's awesome!!
I was in the middle of that mess that took the eastern seaboard out for 4 days a few of years ago so I sorta know what you are going through. However, it happened in August, and it only lasted 4 days in my area, and I had a supply of canned goods, candles, a lighter, and a non-electric can opener. Here's hoping power is restored to everyone effected ASAP.
Good luck guys,
Matt
Hey it could be worse!
...could live in Nebraska...
..now I understand why when i was trying to go to ur site it would go to a complete different one. BTW, you've got a special avatar personalized just for u?..That's awesome!!
Just our of curiosity, what came up when our site was down? Being without power until, well, until the site came back up, we've no way to know what it looked like...
And yes, my avatar is me done by Scott Kurtz of PVP, www.pvponline.com. We've been buddies forever, and he did that caricature of me a couple years back, and I use it as my avatar on every message boards I'm on. You may now bask in my glory :)
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..now I understand why when i was trying to go to ur site it would go to a complete different one. BTW, you've got a special avatar personalized just for u?..That's awesome!!Just our of curiosity, what came up when our site was down? Being without power until, well, until the site came back up, we've no way to know what it looked like...
And yes, my avatar is me done by Scott Kurtz of PVP, www.pvponline.com. We've been buddies forever, and he did that caricature of me a couple years back, and I use it as my avatar on every message boards I'm on. You may now bask in my glory :)
It would just come up with that white screen you see when a site is down that said, "could not find server."
But today, the "sorry the Paizo Store is down" guy came up, so I figured you guys were almost up, but had stuff to check out first.
Hey it could be worse!
...could live in Nebraska...
Yeah -- like people actually live there...
...I had a supply of canned goods, candles, a lighter, and a non-electric can opener. Here's hoping power is restored to everyone effected ASAP.
I for one have plenty of emergency supplies, in fact I even own a chainsaw (just in case of zombie attack) that came in handy getting trees out of Lisa's driveway both Thursday night and Friday morning. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that every single generator and kerosene heater on the west side of the Cascades would be sold out - so this morning I drove 90 miles to Ellensburg, out in the middle of the state, hoping to find some there. No dice. Oh well, maybe Santa will bring me a 5500-watt Honda generator for Xmas :)
Oh, and Gary's lucky - where I live, out in the mountains, they're telling us it may be next weekend at this point. To be fair, on the way into the office today I spotted herds of power company trucks from Idaho, Wyoming, Reno NV and even Orange County CA parked at various spots, so they're certainly calling out the troops for us here. Hug your friendly neighborhood electric company worker today!
Maybe it was just me, but the wind didn't seem "that" bad until the power went out. Sure, the cable, internet, and power in general were flickering at that point, but I didn't think it was a very big deal. I wasn't even worried when I saw tree branches and branches with trees still attached blocking streets. I was even going out for a breath of fresh air when the power went out (Not the brightest thing I ever did, but still I didn't think it was that bad).
Still, I was happier being in my house without electricity than trying to get through the traffic the following days. Driving around Bellevue was more painful than getting my wisdom teeth pulled.
I hope that all Paizo staffers, families and friends are okay and things will get back to normal soon. That extends out to all in the Pacific NW as well, of course.
Best wishes,
F2K
This has already been a hardcore winter up here ("bodacious" as my mother-in-law put it), and it's not even winter yet. That said, El Niño is supposed to make for mellow weather (here) from about the new year on. (Knock on wood.)
In my part of town, we lost power at 11pm Thursday and got it back around 7pm Friday, and like others have said, we count ourselves lucky. Winds and outages like this happen less than once a decade up here.
Part of the problem was that we got a Downpour right before the winds started, which made it easy for trees to get uprooted and pull down power lines with them. I heard an atmospheric scientist talking on the radio, and he said that if it weren't for the winds, we'd have all spent our Fridays talking about the torrential rain.
Phil's neighborhood and mine have the earliest estimates at "Tuesday or Wednesday" for power. The storm knocked out some of the larger "feeder" lines for our neighborhoods and those are apparently difficult to fix.
The wind howled so much at our place that I thought a freight train was roaring past. The windows rattled, the building shook, and at its crescendo the power went off.
That was Thursday night. We spent one night at home and decided sleeping in a 35 to 40 degree house wasn't great for the little one. So we're refugees at a friend's place in Seattle. Thankful for the kindness of friends right now.
It's interesting to me that all of the Red Cross shelters are in or near Seattle and that most of the half million people without power in King County are 15 to 35 miles away from those shelters. A lot of good those shelters are for the elderly in my neighborhood.
Chainsaw's okay for zombies, but in case of massive hi-poulation zombie takeover, the Zombie Survival Guid recommends a crowbar. No ammo, it'll brain a zombie, AND you can use it to open doors and stuff real quicklike.
Wow, I was about to write the same thing. That is an awsome book.
....brains...
It's interesting to me that all of the Red Cross shelters are in or near Seattle and that most of the half million people without power in King County are 15 to 35 miles away from those shelters. A lot of good those shelters are for the elderly in my neighborhood.
We were out from 2am Friday to 8pm-ish Saturday night here in Magnolia in a weird pocket on the hill where everyone else had power. Driving to Ballard you could see lights on the hillside then this black scar of nothingness...which was where my house is. Listening to KIRO-4's AM radio station the DJ (what do they call them when they DON'T play music?) was telling people to find a nearby Red Cross shelter if they were cold & in the dark...and that you could find that info on their website. I had my cell in-hand ready to call that guy to give him the what-for but I'd calmed before they threw out the station's phone number.
We're supposed to get hit again tonight with hopefully not so rough winds (though it's raining like a mofo right now.) Good luck to all of us here as well as any else in harsh-weather areas (makes me miss my mild rainy "winters" in Hawaii all the more.)
- Chris Shadowens
Yeah, there's a snow advisory for our region. I'm bracing myself.
Up here in Vancouver, BC, we're supposed to get 80+ km/h winds all night... I'm in one of the suburbs and it's pretty windy outside right now... lots of rain too... last week we got hammered and it wreaked some havoc with power, transit and trees. Our hydro crews are already preparing for more of the same.
Waiting for the lights to go out...
Somnambulant.
Wow, and here's Europe with an extreme mild winter, haven't seen it freeze here in the Netherlands and I still haven't had to pull out the heavy duty winter clothing.
Good luck folks, looks like you'll be needing it.