Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Power Drain


Yesterday in mid-afternoon there was a tremendous rush of sound and thundering noise of group of low-flying military aircraft (probably out of Dover AFB north of here) that shook the building and rattled things all around me.

No sure what happened. I know I didn’t dream it. It was too sweeping and happened too fast to comprehend at first.

Within a a half hour of the flyover everything run by batteries, or using battery backup, in my apartment began to die. Total power drain of every single device.

Sudden warnings that the cell phone needed a charge, as did the Nexus. The wireless keyboard went, the weather radio, followed by the batteries in the cordless phone handsets - both of them! 

The kitchen timers and then the cordless mouse. The kitchen wall clock stopped at 2:40 pm. I have 2 battery operated watches and they both stopped working within minutes of each other - also around 3 pm. 

The cellphone had a full charge in the morning and the mouse batteries had been replaced less than a day earlier.

Finally, all batteries were replaced, cell phone and Nexus charged last evening. All seems back to normal now.On standby overnight, those 2 devices had used less than 2% of their stored power.  WTF???

I have no answer for this odd and curious happening.  I just know it happened. Not imagined. I am no longer on Prednisone and one cannot hallucinate this stuff when the tangible evidence (a dozen dead batteries of all types) is sitting in a baggie ready for the recycle center drop off.

No, this is not an April Fool joke.  I’d feel better if it was.

Was the government up to something, or did I take the short bus to the Twilight Zone? Both possibilities are scary.

And so it goes.

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5 comments:

  1. That is fascinating and I wonder about the correlation of the flyover and batteries draining their power. I have never heard of many batteries of different types all losing their charge at the same time. What about everyone's smoke and carbon monoxide detectors? Have you asked others in your building or area if they had the same experience?

    I, for one, believe you that it really happened, and there must be some explanation. I have found out that compulsive neatness in the form of wrapping AC power cords into neat circles is a mistake. When you do that, the power cords become transformers capable of creating all kinds of havoc!

    Maybe the flyover were the Blue Angels. I hear they have returned to the skies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Smoke detector is built-in and AC only. Very old building...

      Delete
  2. Cherry Point NAS sent out a warning this morning of maneuvers up the east coast. I know their target is NYC before returning to the base. Your not imagining things before they head out over the coast and head north the sound rattles the walls and cause batteries to die. If you had been on your cell at the exact moment you would have lost the signal as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen no news of the Blue Angels being at Dover, but wouldn't be surprised. I don't get around much and, as you know, no TV service. Thanks.

      Delete
    2. Also, the flight path seems to have been from north to south-east and they were flying very low.

      Delete

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