Things That Go Bloop in the Night

It was a stormy night -- and that's one hell of an understatement. The wind was making a loud roaring noise in the trees, but that alone probably wouldn't have woken me -- I remove my hearing aids when I go to bed.

There was a strange "blooping" kind of noise and Cynthia's iPad display was flashing on and off, a sign that the power was being interrupted -- probably by tree branches rubbing against the lines somewhere. She disconnected her iPad from the charger to stop the flashing, but the strange noise continued.

I got up to investigate and discovered that the noise was coming from my Bose Soundlink remote speakers. I disconnected the charger -- no more blooping.

We didn't discover the worst effect of the power interruptions until we got up and found that our computers weren't connected to the internet, and the wifi wasn't working. The Apple Time Capsule (combined router and backup hard drive) was dead. I decided to replace it with an Airport Extreme (router only) and separate backup hard drives.

All it takes is time, money, patience, and a little know-how.

Can you guess which device is the Time Capsule in the photo? I haven't bought the hard drives yet.