Official Gramps' Memorial Eternal OT Thread

[RavinDave]

Awesome...I call shotgun. Dont forget ur glasses

The blind leading the blind.

 

[Grand Vol]

Norman, OK has been home to a Natural Gas Conference in February every year which I attended a few times, I think the last time was in 2011 when I presented a paper.... the Laurance Reid meeting (he was a prof at OU back in the day). It was a pretty decent meeting, but it was always cold as hell in Norman that time of year.

Feb is typically our worst month.

 

[ajvol01]

She is virtual anywho. The NE is much prettier covered in snow for sure.

Polished turds always do

 

[Carl Pickens]

McRib is from Louisiana. She has been itching to get to her hospital this week. She's never driven in the snow. We had our first lesson today. 5 minutes in, and our AWD Acura has its nose against a tree. That tree is the only thing preventing a fairly steep drop of about 8 feet to other trees.
I brought the tow strap and come along just in case. As I am hooking the strap to another tree a fellow drives up in his 4x4 pickup. I drive back to our driveway. She is ready to go home. But when the horse throws you, you've got to get back in the saddle immediately. So we switched seats and we drove the other direction which is much flatter with fewer drop offs.
It was our only mishap in the 45 minute lesson. Proud of her.

I can go just about anywhere in my MDX.... I’ve been pleasantly surprised

 

[Carl Pickens]

Got a freaking curveball this afternoon. Got a letter from my county that my auto insurance had expired back in Jan and owed $25 and by March 10th my vehcile registration will be null. I just paid those mothers $700 to register. Called Geico and for some reason they removed me from the GA database. Said they would correct and to wait about 5 minutes and it should be updated. Well after 4 calls to Geico and 3 to the county and 2 freakin hours of my time I still dont think it resolved.

I am livid and not even sure what my next step is. I just paid Geico $700 back in Nov for 6 months getting my coverage down here. At this point I am thinking just pay the $25 and cancel Geico and go with someone else, but I dont even know if I will have to re-register and pay another $700 with the county or what. If so, I am thinking certifed and notarized letter to Geico CEO. Hell, I am even thinking litigation using that traffic lawyer for that speeding ticket, if she handles such. What a freaking mess. I could get pulled over and go further down the rabbit hole. If I cant drive for work, I would sue the heck out of them.

One of my customers has a location in Marietta with a fleet of trucks and I have to say that GA is a huge pain in the ass to deal with

 

[NorthDallas40]

I read an article about TX power woes today. Some I thought was probably right; but the part about TX being independent, not subject to federal regulation, and being more fragile was probably somewhat BS. The commentary went that TX went big on solar and wind which don't work well right now, and the plants running on natural gas are having supply problems. I'm not a proponent at all of using natural gas to produce electricity. It's easy enough - not much more than a couple of cowboys with money to spend, hopped up turbines (think 747 engines) hooked to a generator, and cheap NG. The problem is they aren't real utilities who have to deal with base load, and intermittent power to the grid is a big problem for real utilities trying to meet demand and balance operating costs. It sounds like the NG/electric units are one of those interruptible schemes buying excess gas, but cut off when everybody needs it most - which can coincide with when electric generation is in short supply.

The biggest issue is the fuel to the natural gas generators. Our renewables were MIA but there is plenty of base load capacity if everything else was running. But now is the time for scheduled maintenance. So everything was brought online that was available but we had fuel delivery problems. Our nuke and coal base load capacity worked like a boss. They ran 100% thru all this. Early on we had a reactor trip a sensor due to cold but that got corrected and the nuke and coal stayed at 100%. Our grid is in a bit of metamorphosis right now. The last time we had a three day cold stretch close to this bad was 1983. No renewables to worry about then. We had a close event in 2011 and we did have some rolling black outs. People are pissed because the perception is we didn’t incorporate the “lessons learned” published from 2011 which was the only other instance close to this one where renewables were in play.

My guess is we will add more natural gas generation capacity as base load/flex and either store emergency fuel locally or shore up the fuel delivery lines to the power plants for cold weather operation. I seriously doubt we do anything about green/renewables in the near term because of this. That would be stupid. Wait a minute ... that probably guarantees that’s exactly what we will do.

On an up note I just got all of our plumbing thawed out and did a leak check back to the service meter. No leaks and no more frozen pipes. Woohoo!

 

[AM64]

The biggest issue is the fuel to the natural gas generators. Our renewables were MIA but there is plenty of base load capacity if everything else was running. But now is the time for scheduled maintenance. So everything was brought online that was available but we had fuel delivery problems. Our nuke and coal base load capacity worked like a boss. They ran 100% thru all this. Early on we had a reactor trip a sensor due to cold but that got corrected and the nuke and coal stayed at 100%. Our grid is in a bit of metamorphosis right now. The last time we had a three day cold stretch close to this bad was 1983. No renewables to worry about then. We had a close event in 2011 and we did have some rolling black outs. People are pissed because the perception is we didn’t incorporate the “lessons learned” published from 2011 which was the only other instance close to this one where renewables were in play.

My guess is we will add more natural gas generation capacity as base load/flex and either store emergency fuel locally or shore up the fuel delivery lines to the power plants for cold weather operation. I seriously doubt we do anything about green/renewables in the near term because of this. That would be stupid. Wait a minute ... that probably guarantees that’s exactly what we will do.

On an up note I just got all of our plumbing thawed out and did a leak check back to the service meter. No leaks and no more frozen pipes. Woohoo!

Good to hear you are up and running again. I originally misunderstood the gas supply problem - I'm guilty of skimming more than reading these days and missing context sometimes. Probably comes from reading article after article with no context and no link to the headline.

NG is really good for load following and peaking - probably a savior for some areas where some fossil units have been closed or mothballed because of wind and solar generation added to the grid. I haven't kept up with how power plants have changed since I retired, but one thing I would definitely think an improvement for nuclear plants would be scrapping the backup diesel generators for gas turbine generators. Gas can be piped in and the DGs are finicky. Reliable backup power at nuclear plants is a must have for loss of offsite power situations.

 

[VolStrom]

The biggest issue is the fuel to the natural gas generators. Our renewables were MIA but there is plenty of base load capacity if everything else was running. But now is the time for scheduled maintenance. So everything was brought online that was available but we had fuel delivery problems. Our nuke and coal base load capacity worked like a boss. They ran 100% thru all this. Early on we had a reactor trip a sensor due to cold but that got corrected and the nuke and coal stayed at 100%. Our grid is in a bit of metamorphosis right now. The last time we had a three day cold stretch close to this bad was 1983. No renewables to worry about then. We had a close event in 2011 and we did have some rolling black outs. People are pissed because the perception is we didn’t incorporate the “lessons learned” published from 2011 which was the only other instance close to this one where renewables were in play.

My guess is we will add more natural gas generation capacity as base load/flex and either store emergency fuel locally or shore up the fuel delivery lines to the power plants for cold weather operation. I seriously doubt we do anything about green/renewables in the near term because of this. That would be stupid. Wait a minute ... that probably guarantees that’s exactly what we will do.

On an up note I just got all of our plumbing thawed out and did a leak check back to the service meter. No leaks and no more frozen pipes. Woohoo!

Why would a power company do scheduled maintenance in the dead of winter? I suppose that in TX February is the lighter part of the year, but I would think they would lean more towards March or April and risk taking capacity offline when it starts to get warm rather than when there is a chance of cold weather.

 

[NorthDallas40]

Why would a power company do scheduled maintenance in the dead of winter? I suppose that in TX February is the lighter part of the year, but I would think they would lean more towards March or April and risk taking capacity offline when it starts to get warm rather than when there is a chance of cold weather.

The winter is our low load time if you chart grid load. There is a bunch of natural gas heating in this state so grid load is low here. So the maintenance interval brackets that time. Peak delivery in TX is middle of summer. All capacity is available then.

Also I’m sure it’s staggered I would guess they don’t do it all at once. So takes time to get it all done.

 

[AM64]

Why would a power company do scheduled maintenance in the dead of winter? I suppose that in TX February is the lighter part of the year, but I would think they would lean more towards March or April and risk taking capacity offline when it starts to get warm rather than when there is a chance of cold weather.

I don't know about other plants, but generally nuclear outages for maintenance are fall and spring for utilities I'm familiar with. Outage maintenance a lot of times uses crews that go from place to place, so TX might defer more toward winter if weather doesn't cause a lot of demand and outage crews are more available. Just a guess on my part; I'm finding there's a lot I don't know about TX, and beginning to think hog may be on to something. I've never had direct dealings with Entergy, but somewhere lurking in my mind is the thought that Entergy could only hope to someday climb up to a rating owned by the worst cable company. After this, the CA squatters may go back home.

 

[Carl Pickens]

This was “absolutely filthy”
Dunk Of The Year: Number 1 Pick Anthony Edwards Caught A Body!

 

[Carl Pickens]

Is there anyone on this forum that wouldn’t like to palm strike this a-hole?
SMH: College Professor Goes Off On Deaf Student For Not Answering Fast Enough!

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Kentucky vs Tennessee in Basketball today. Tip-off is at 1 pm ET ...... 12 noon CT on CBS.

 

[VolnJC]

I've never seen these before...awesome

 

[Orangeburst]

I've never seen these before...awesome

Young Kermit was a little chunky

 

[ETV]

I've never seen these before...awesome

LMAO. Good stuff. Nothing like the good ole days.

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

I've never seen these before...awesome

Those must have been done in the late 50s or sometime in the 60s ..... with the old B&W film commercials.
Btw, I worked in grocery stores in those days as a teenager and I don't recall that type of brand of coffee then.

 

[ETV]

Young Kermit was a little chunky

Pre Miss piggy. Before she came along and drained the life force from him.

 

[VolnJC]

Those must have been done in the late 50s or sometime in the 60s ..... with the old B&W film commercials.
Btw, I worked in grocery stores in those days as a teenager and I don't recall that type of brand of coffee then.

Looks like it was regional brand in DC area. I worked at White Stores and we sold the plain label generics haven't seen those in years Wilkins Coffee (Advertising) - TV Tropes

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Watching the boys play a little bb game ..... nip & tuck up & down the floor ...... GBO !!

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Man ..... do we suck at Basketball today & on nationwide TV too. Can't buy a basket in this 1st half.
I had to put the TV on mute so I don't hear the game-by-game call.

Vols down 45-30 at halftime. Barnes needs to light a fire under some butts for poor pitiful play.

 

[VolStrom]

Man ..... do we suck at Basketball today & on nationwide TV too. Can't buy a basket in this 1st half.
I had to put the TV on mute so I don't hear the game-by-game call.

Vols down 45-30 at halftime. Barnes needs to light a fire under some butts for poor pitiful play.

You can blame it on me. I seldom watch BB games and when I do it's when I record them and watch the entire game in 15 minutes. I expected us to pummel KY and we sucked big time so I shall resume my never watching them in real time ever again.

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

You can blame it on me. I seldom watch BB games and when I do it's when I record them and watch the entire game in 15 minutes. I expected us to pummel KY and we sucked big time so I shall resume my never watching them in real time ever again.

They beat South Carolina by 20 points Wednesday night .... they can't find the basket or the momentum today.
I turned the game off 10 minutes into the game. Turned it back to see the score at halftime .....haven't been back.
Just looked and we lose by 15 to KY at home. So save yourself from seeing the piss poor play by TN today.

 

[VolStrom]

A united airlines 777 engine exploded over colorado near Denver and the debris landed in a neighborhood. According to Fox news the pilots were heros and at no time were any of the passengers were in danger, yeah right?

 

[MercyPercy]

Limited out on trout including this big boy today.