Subj : prices, and "quite a day"
To   : AUGUST ABOLINS
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Fri Jan 16 2026 07:28 am

RM> Quite a day today. Like usual my shopping day was the
RM> worst weather in several days. It didn't look too bad but
RM> the slushy stuff on the roads was weirdly slippery even
RM> where not very deep..

AA>It seemed to be a big meltdown today.  But that left the
  >backroads as a big bumpy mess.  I happened to be following
  >behind a snowplow on my road this morning - the ride was
  >relatively smooth. But coming home tonight, I really had to
  >slow down to under 30km-20km/hr to minimize the bumpy racket
  >the wheels were having.

My roads didn't have deep stuff on them but it was slippery,
more-so than glare ice would be. Even when there was only
1.5 to 2 inches of it it felt like the car was pushing through
it more than it would in 3 times as much snow, but I later
thought about it and it might have just felt odd because the
traction utility was trying to control slippage. I did see the
light flash at one point showing traction control was on..

AA>Yep.. when the hydro goes out here, all "productivity" stops.
  >I don't think I have a working flashlight anymore - I got fed
  >up with trying to keep the batteries fresh.  I'll just use the
  >phone "flashlight" if I need to illuminate a path in the house.

AA>But I do have one floorlamp feeding off a UPS (that I can
  >silence when the alert kicks in) ..and with just an LED bulb,
  >it runs for about 4hrs.  The UPS just has a basic 12v 9A batt.
  >Maybe consider something like that so that you don't have
  >manipulate a flashlight.

I have a small flexible USB lamp I can use on my computer if
there's no power. It's only a single LED so it would probably
run forever off the Laptop battery..

But those little LED flashlights that take 3 AAA batteries,
they throw a lot of light and seem to last forever. I spent
over 4 hours using one of those for reading when the power
went out and it hadn't dimmed at all. Using the flashlight
occasionally I find a set of batteries often lasts me for
3 or 4 years. I think the batteries usually die of old age
rather than from use..

But that is a limited area of lighting. In power outages I
often still end up resorting to candles to light a room..

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 * SLMR Rob  * WOMAN.ZIP - Great Program.  No Docs, but fun to unZIP
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