Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 25, 2021

At least you can have some fried squirrel for dinner Arlo.

So is the squirrel

Just went through this due to a wind storm last week. The first thing the generator powered was the router and my spouse’s computer used for working at home.

Do not replace a powerline fuse until you find the broken tree branch or dead squirrel.

poor squirrel :-(

Uh huh. I value the internet more than cable and ALMOST more than power.

DOOM!

Squirrels: Little road bumps on the highways of life!

At least he went out with a flash!

When I was a kid we’d always have at least two power outs every spring. One when some stupid squirrel thought a transformer would make a good nesting spot, and another a few days later when it’s equally-stupid mate came looking for it.

My first thought, too! The phone battery only lasts so long.

Arlo thinks, what’s that smell? Something is burning.

Remarkable resemblance. Several years ago the squirrel who shorted out our power at work adopted almost the same post mortem pose, except he was no longer upright.

The semaphore that blinketh brightFrom red to green throughout the nightHas this day paused from constant doleTo gaze upon thy blackened soul

The mighty dam, the river’s flowSendeth amperes far belowA rendezvous, a plan, a causeTo course, electric, through thy paws

O playful beast, O rodent trueThe cable’s but a perch to youA sudden flash, a pop, a sparkOnce cute and furry, now stiff and dark.

I have my wifi router on a UPS so I can continue to have wifi even if the power goes out in my neighborhood. Came up with that idea when 1/4 of the town was without power for nearly a week after a freak wind storm knocked out a bunch of power lines.

And just when Luann’s power has come back on!

A practical person would be more concerned for the heat and the refrigerator/freezer.

At least you still have cellar service so you can call the power company. And you should always keep a couple portable battery banks charged in case your mobile phone is low.

This week’s arc: Arlo v the squirrel…

The squirrel got a real charge out of this.

Gee, on a smaller scale, I was having this problem today. But, it was just the router.

Funny thing about that… in my old neighborhood, every time the weather changed from sunny to rainy, the power in our block went out. At first it only happened during thunderstorms. Then it began happening even if there was just a brief shower. Just across the street would still have power. Finally I called the power company. They told me I was being silly. I said this had been going on for a couple years. The power company called me back a day later. The guy said they checked their record of outages and I was correct. Our power WAS going out whenever the weather changed. Turned out it was a faulty circuit breaker on the transformer that tripped whenever the amount of moisture in the air increased. No fried squirrel that time.

Give that squirrel a good conduct medal.

hmmmm – if a squirrel can knock it out – what about?js

The university where I work has some very old power lines in spots, and we suffered an extended power outage to part of campus one day that Physical Plant attributed to “Overweight pigeons on power line”

Hey. Same thing happened in Curious George and the High Tension Line.

As usual, Jimmy Johnson elides the good parts, in this case the sexy exploding squirrel.

I had a friend who had that happen. The power company came our and reset the breaker, and 20 minutes after they left, it happened again. (True.)

The police suspected a murder/suicide. (Not true.)

One, smokin’ hot, extra crispy, critter, please.

Me: Our power and the neighbor’s is out. The fuse on pole #2932 is blown.Power Company Lady: How do you know the fuse is blown?Me: The squirrel on the ground it is still smoking.

Alas, Over the Hedge lost a much loved character today.

We live out in the country with REMC electricity and this used to be a regular occurrence with added raccoon incidents. We had two ways for that to happen – like in the comic today and when a critter got into our small transformer for our house. Either all the critters got fried or they fixed the transformers.

So is the squirrel.

Poof goes the squirrel!

Happened to us yesterday mid-day. Called the power utility to inquire and got a recorded message saying to check with their WEB site on-line. Just a bit hard to do with no power to the modem or router.

I’ve never had the power go out due to a squirrel, but I have stood in the window of my plant, and watched a family release a bunch of mylar balloons down the street at a kid’s birthday party, and watched them sail right into the transformer across the street, knowing exactly what was going to happen next. Boy, were they surprised when that blew up. Our lights flickered but thankfully stayed on.

Thankfully…No squirrels were injured in the drawing of this comic…. :^)

And the TV is still on?

It was accidental suicide for the squirrel.

I’m surprised that no one referred to the squirrel as a tree rat.

About three weeks ago, we came home from the grocery store and the garage door wouldn’t open. The cause? A squirrel in the transformer. Jimmy Johnson has been looking in our windows again.

Our cable/Internet co has wifi which runs in the street in front of our house. Despite them insisting this is not possible – we can access the wifi with our laptops and cell phones. When a blackout maybe coming – every laptop (back through the Win XPs) is plugged in and charging so we can use them if we lose electricity – for a few days at a time. Every cell phone is charging – even those with no current service as they can still call 911.

Happened on our street once and when the transformer on the pole exploded, it sounded like a bomb going off. Kind of scary.

Must have been a big squirl. Most utilities set their reclosures to three “bumps”, if a tree branch or big animal stays on, usually by the third reclose they burn off. That’s why your lights will flicker a couple of times before they go out completely, a Recloser trying to clear the line while protecting the equipment.