UPS and Downs

We had a huge windstorm here yesterday, and the power was down for something like five hours. Being the conscientious person that I am, I ran home[*] and shut the computer and everything down before the UPS batteries got drained. When I got home later that night, I booted everything back up, and all appeared to be well. Then, when I got up this morning, I walked into the computer room to find that both the PC and the monitor were completely without power. It seems my earlier UPS glitch was more than just a temporary problem. Sigh.

I was inclined to blame myself for buying the cheapest UPS system I could find, but the power is hugely unreliable here in Socorro and several friends of mine have told me they've had to replace their own UPS systems on a semi-regular basis. So maybe cheap (and thus more easily replaceable) really is the way to go.

This annoys me greatly, though, because now I have to go out and buy a new one, and I'm not even sure I'll be able to find one in town. I really don't want to have to drive all the way to Belen today just to buy a new UPS. Grrr.

[*] From a friend's house, where I spent most of the evening gaming by lantern-light.