Trying not to be smug.

I've compared it to having automotive insurance and never using it,  but that’s not quite the same.  I certainly wouldn't feel too hard done by if I never have a car accident after having paid all those premiums. 
Although,  let’s not talk about that.  That’s a subject that could develop from an ugly scab to a festering wound in no time flat.

However,  when the power goes out and you finally get to keep the lights on when the entire neighbourhood sits in the dark? 

Awesome.

See,  we had one rip snorter of a thunder storm last night, and man oh man did it ever rain.  That was another happy feeling too by the way,  since we now no longer have a roof/chimney/whatever the hell it was, that leaks.  I never did really pinpoint exactly where the water was coming in,  but I think it was because the chimney was basically crumbling,  but looked OK. 

Fooled me for a long time,  but let’s not go there either.

We had gone out last night,  but it eased up just enough for us to get ourselves into the house,  and then the skies opened up and it came down in buckets.  Sorry I haven’t any photographic evidence of this. 
Sometimes my pea brain slips into neutral.

Right along about ten p.m.,  sure enough,  there was one helluva crack,  and T.C. and I were sitting in the dark.

“What now?”  was her only response.

“Just wait a few seconds.”   And sure enough,  we had power.  No internet or phone mind you,  but that didn't matter.

And I suppose we could have sat there in the dark,  or rummaged around for some candles. It wasn't all that cold out,  so it wasn't like the house would have started to cool down quickly or anything. 
We do have boatloads of candles around here somewhere.  But I'm not overly keen on having a bunch of lit candles hanging around for some reason.  All that open flame.  Just makes me nervous.  I’d sooner listen to the din of the generator running out back as I read my paper and sift through the flyers.

Have to sift through them flyers!  It’s a weekly ritual.

It's a bit loud if you're right there,  sitting next to the thing,  but trust me, it's hardly noticeable when you're inside,  and trying not to feel at all smug or anything.

I took a random video a couple weeks ago,  knowing that it would fire up right at noon time to do its weekly test.

Starts around the 20 second mark.

So that was kinda cool.
Helped justify the cost and aggravation of getting the damned thing installed.  The primary concern was,  what might happen if we were to say,  go to a tropical destination for an entire month? 

You know,  just saying.

Turns out, we didn't need it for the month of February,  but now at least I'm doubly sure that there would have been no issues.  And really, I don't think I ever had any doubts,  but it's still comforting to know that the damned thing will do what it's supposed to do.

I think the power was out for maybe an hour.  I didn't really pay too much attention.  At one point I heard the transfer switch flip us back to the grid,  looked out and the lights were on in the 'hood. Other than that,  it's rather seamless.  The generator then does a "cool down",  which seemed like a rather long period of time,  (like at least 10 minutes maybe?)  and then it shut down.

And of course,  with just a bit of warmer weather and boatloads of rain, it looks like I’ll have to start cutting grass again in the not too distant future. 

All this “lawn care/fertilizing/whatever” business is a mixed blessing.




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