Talkin' 'bout my generation
Aug. 31st, 2011 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greatbearThanks to Irene, the hurricane that so many poo-poo for not being intense enough, I am still without electricity. Well, at least that which I am not creating myself. This is by far the longest I have been without power since I built this place 23 years ago. Ice storms, hurricanes, etc, the longest I can remember being three days. When I contacted the electric company they could not give me a definite answer other than Friday before 11:30am. Despite there being minimum damage in my own yard, further down the road there is a large tree pulling the old, shabby lines down. Also, the main trouble spot of the area where the road (and the utility lines on short poles) wend their way through a little valley lined with old, tall trees. Almost every major storm drops at least one tree, either in the road, into the wires, or harmlessly into one another. That area is a mess at the moment, with at least five large trees supported over the road by the electric wires.
I hope this time the power company doesn't just take away the troublesome timber leaving the rest to take a future tumble. Some serious work needs to be done, and it has been neglected in this immediate area for years. Recently the power company did go on a trimming spree, clearing troublesome trees from the utility lines and poles. Some areas, like here, only got a lick and a promise at best. I hope they get their act together soon.
The generator has been totally awesome. While fired up, life here at the house is absolutely normal. This house is all electric. The stove/oven, the installed heat and hot water are all electric. I also have a private well, so having water at all the fixtures depends entirely on having electric power. The generator can power the house and garage, running everything except for the central air conditioner and the huge air compressor in the garage. This is all according to plans I laid out many years ago. I have connections available to attach the generator and in less than ten minutes, life is good while everything around me is dark. There is a downside, however, and it's a biggie. Said big generator has a 16 gallon gas tank. In typical use, it burns about a gallon of fuel each hour, a little less when loads are minimal. I've been pouring about 20 gallons into the thing each day. It's starting to hit our wallets hard, and I was getting rather peeved this afternoon. I told Jeff I was tired of hearing the thing and pouring fuel into it, so I shut it down saying I'd rather let all the food rot in the freezers. It did not help that a garage project turned out for the worse after being a breeze just prior. I fired the beast back up so we could make dinner, and started watching TV. The news was all about so many unfortunate souls with things going a lot worse than we have here at Chateau Mayhem. Perspective reestablished, after dinner we went once again to the gas station, with thirty gallons worth of empty jerry cans and counted our blessings.
I let the beast roar through the night last night. Since my neighbors are hundreds of feet away, noise is not a problem outside the yard. Tonight, now that all the freezers are deeply chilled I will shut off the thing and restart it tomorrow morning for a while, saving more fuel. I can quietly work on my car project with no power, and run some errands before needing to fire the thing back up for the afternoon and evening. I hope the electric company gets their act together over here soon though.
One little bonus is that the cable internet has returned, so I no longer have to use my cell phone's hotspot feature. The hotspot has been handy as all get out this summer during our travels, as well as being a nice backup. My phone can take a break now as well.
I hope this time the power company doesn't just take away the troublesome timber leaving the rest to take a future tumble. Some serious work needs to be done, and it has been neglected in this immediate area for years. Recently the power company did go on a trimming spree, clearing troublesome trees from the utility lines and poles. Some areas, like here, only got a lick and a promise at best. I hope they get their act together soon.
The generator has been totally awesome. While fired up, life here at the house is absolutely normal. This house is all electric. The stove/oven, the installed heat and hot water are all electric. I also have a private well, so having water at all the fixtures depends entirely on having electric power. The generator can power the house and garage, running everything except for the central air conditioner and the huge air compressor in the garage. This is all according to plans I laid out many years ago. I have connections available to attach the generator and in less than ten minutes, life is good while everything around me is dark. There is a downside, however, and it's a biggie. Said big generator has a 16 gallon gas tank. In typical use, it burns about a gallon of fuel each hour, a little less when loads are minimal. I've been pouring about 20 gallons into the thing each day. It's starting to hit our wallets hard, and I was getting rather peeved this afternoon. I told Jeff I was tired of hearing the thing and pouring fuel into it, so I shut it down saying I'd rather let all the food rot in the freezers. It did not help that a garage project turned out for the worse after being a breeze just prior. I fired the beast back up so we could make dinner, and started watching TV. The news was all about so many unfortunate souls with things going a lot worse than we have here at Chateau Mayhem. Perspective reestablished, after dinner we went once again to the gas station, with thirty gallons worth of empty jerry cans and counted our blessings.
I let the beast roar through the night last night. Since my neighbors are hundreds of feet away, noise is not a problem outside the yard. Tonight, now that all the freezers are deeply chilled I will shut off the thing and restart it tomorrow morning for a while, saving more fuel. I can quietly work on my car project with no power, and run some errands before needing to fire the thing back up for the afternoon and evening. I hope the electric company gets their act together over here soon though.
One little bonus is that the cable internet has returned, so I no longer have to use my cell phone's hotspot feature. The hotspot has been handy as all get out this summer during our travels, as well as being a nice backup. My phone can take a break now as well.
