Dry
Monday, January 30, 2012 @ 12:38 PM
As winters go, this year's version played out warmer than any other I remember since moving here. I survived far better, at any rate, than the year that the fountain in front of the Tuscany froze solid. Still, it continues to be my least favorite time to be in Vegas. Not only is it cold, it is dry.
I know what you're thinking...
Believe me, though. The severe lack of moisture in January amazes me every year. I find myself astonished that some place as dry as the Vegas valley can actually get more sere than it already was. The rest of the year is downright humid compared to January.
I walk across the poker room to deliver chips to a table. As I am reaching to set the racks of chips in front of the dealer, static buildup creates an arc between my hand and the Bravo system display screen in the table. With the sudden surge, every light on the panel lights up, weird crap displays on the readout, and then it turns itself off. Lovely.
***
Boy Dog drops the ball at my feet. I dutifully throw it. He runs to get it, scoops it up, violently shakes it to death, brings it back and drops it anew at my feet. We do this dance three or four times until I don't notice his return as I'm reading something. He lifts his head, preparing to nudge me in the arm. Instead, static buildup arcs from his nose to my arm with an audible clicking sound. I jump, not expecting voltage to be racing through my elbow. He yelps likes he's bitten a live wire and races off to hide. Ouch. Sorry, buddy!
***
The Wife and I roam about town, checking off errands as we get them done. At each stop, the zap from touching the car - why haven't I purchased these damn things yet?!? - gets worse. It worsens to the point where I catch myself hesitantly reaching for the car door, almost afraid of the zap that's coming. As I consider being amused at myself for such lunacy, a loud crack rifles through the air, loud enough that I jump at the noise. It actually sounded like a rifle shot. The yelp from the wife tells me it wasn't a rifle. "That noise was you & the car," I ask, to which she just nods as she shakes her hand in the air in hopes of relieving the pain. Wow.
***
I hop on the treadmill, get everything programmed, and start climbing. With each swing of my arm past the metal handrails that extend on either side of me, I feel the static building up, the hairs on my arm standing farther, straighter, with each swing. I reach up to crank up the incline. When my finger is still an inch away from the console panel, a visible arc jumps between the two. All of the lights blink on the panel blink twice and the treadmill shuts itself off. This doesn't happen in July, damnit!
***
All that is to simply say, it's too flippin' dry. Seriously. Someone should figure out how to harness all this static buildup. You could power a house for a year or something ;)
At least Spring is coming. It'll still be dry, but not so much as it is now. Of course, after dry season comes allergy season...
I was in Reno in late December one year and same thing with the static electricity. At night, under the sheets, you could see light from it. Weird.
You're not alone. The static sparks are bad enough lately that I'm blanking out my computer monitor regularly by touching the table it's on. I keep resetting my electronic thermostat when I go to adjust it. The brass railings in casinos are inflictors of pain.
Yeah, it's been dry lately.
A humidifier will go a long ways toward alleviating this problem in your home.
We've tried the humidifier thing. Tried small, single room humidifiers. Tried large, supposedly whole house humidifiers. They really didn't help that much - a bit but not enough to prevent getting zapped by everything in sight. At least it's only really bad in January.