cut what was left for $2,200. When I pointed out that, I had a $2,500 estimate for cut and removal before the utility tree company, he dropped it to $1,800. For $1,800, he indicated he was doing me a favor. That Monday, I went out and purchased a STIHL chain saw. That's the brand all of the tree cutters are using - $430. However, it cuts and keeps on cutting. Rambo - My youngest son David has been extremely helpful. Because of his aggressive efforts at cutting and carrying very heavy logs on his shoulder, hacking branches with his machete I've started calling him Rambo.
Battle casualty - My oldest son became a battle casualty. One of the chunks of oak twisted unexpectedly as it was falling and managed to land on a couple of his toes. After a soaking them in ice and a shower, the folks in the emergency room indicated only his big toe was broken.
The power in the neighborhood was restored Sunday, 8/15/04, except to the folks along our down feeder. Ours was restored about 6:05 PM, Saturday, 8/21/04. There are photos of the folks from the City of Tallahassee electric utility working to restore it as indicated above. The AC ran for 3:42:02 (3 hours, 42 minutes, 2 seconds) before it cycled from high to low. I've got monitoring equipment to measure on/off times of the compressor, temperature and relative humidity inside as well as the temperature coming off of the coil.
The photos on the site are being updated on a regular basis. The initial photos around the neighborhood were taken with my son's digital camera. The rest were/are taken with my 26-year-old Canon A1. The film is then scanned and the digitized image is then uploaded. The scan process takes about 6 minutes per photo when scanned at 2,400 dpi. This gives an image of 21 Mb.
If anyone likes the site where the photos are located and decides to sign up, if you give my e-mail address, they will give you a $5.00 discount for signing up and I receive a $10 credit. All in the interest of full disclosure.
Well, so much for my ranting. If you've read to this point, thank you.

Fred Stone
P.S. Have a plan in place for what you might do for an extended power outage and especially the Internet if you are using it to pay bills!

My cell phone started it new cycle 8/13. I'm about 50% through my minute allocation.
For the first week, no power, etc., the rest of the world as you knew/know it seemed to be something very distant.