We learned this afternoon that my father's oldest brother passed away a couple hours before. He was around 85. The funeral is early tomorrow morning, so Dad's catching the night train to get there in time, but he has to hop back on the next train in order to be back for church on Sunday. S is amazed that they can arrange things this quickly...i am a bit puzzled as well.
To make Dad's departure a little easier, a couple hours before he leaves the UPS blows up. The "UPS" is a battery system that supports the computers that are used at Dad's work. Apparently, it can support up to 3 comoputers at one time...and i turned on a 4th. Oops! Due to the fluctuation in their power supply, my parents got this battery system. When the power is on, it charges the batteries and when there's none, the computers can still be used.
Here in India, and i know in China too, there are scheduled power cuts to balance the input and output of electricity. They're supposed to tell you when they're going to do it, so you can be prepared, but of course, there's no way to hold them to that. So...we have no idea when the power goes out...in fact, it comes and goes all day long. It's much more steady in the evenings when offices shut down. Havind said that, because of the constant use of computers here, our batteries (the UPS system) have not had a chance to recharge and the system got overloaded, hence the "fireworks". Basically, the batteries that supported the computers are fried and they have to get a whole new system. Since i'm the one who doesn't need a computer to get my "work" done - getting on one from now on is going to be a privilege. Frustrating, but i guess i should count my blessings.
