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Most don’t think of Hide the UPS as a fun game, but crawling around on all-fours at midnight to locate the beeping box is such a great pastime here at the Snider household!
Saturday a family had a birthday party at the park behind my house. They let some balloons go which found their way to the electrical pole outside my home. I don’t know if it’s related to the aforementioned game, but it’s interesting in its own right… the resulting explosion was poop-in-your-pants scary. It shook my house to the point where furniture flush with the walls (particularly my son’s desk, which he was sitting at!) was pushed back from walls about an inch!!!!! Wow!
So the power in the neighborhood has always been wonky. This lead me to buy a number of UPSs (basically battery backups, normally associated with computers) to ensure the television, Wii and other thingies in the house still function and don’t take damage from the surges. Last week I was randomly thinking, wondering how many I actually had in the house. Last night/this morning I found the answer.
The sound of UPS alarms throughout the house is a common thing, you even learn to sleep through them after a couple of months. This morning, they didn’t stop. A glance out the window told me the whole neighborhood was out of power. Soon the family would rise from the dead if I didn’t do anything about the beep beep beep beeps playing at odd intervals throughout the house. This would make for a cranky Snider clan. Daddy sprung into action! Well… argued with his body until it listened…
I knew I had a UPS on my computer, but forgot I had a second one for the modem and second monitor. 2 UPSs so far. I have one that my server and wireless phone share. 3. The TV gets one, the Wii and DVD player both get another one. 5. All was well, I was crawling back into bed when I thought I heard another one… it was coming from the office… my wife mumbles into the pillow that her computer has one, too… that’s right. Hit that switch too. 6. Getting in bed and snuggling with my wife, I heard another one… we don’t have any other expensiveish electronics in the house… what was it? I wandered throughout the entire house stopping in place and waitiing for the beeps to echo off the walls. After 15 minutes, I discovered a very well protected… table lamp! 7.
I wondered when I would realize I had too much technology. 7 UPSs. That’s enough.
