Day 5, darkness into light....

So, Day 5 began with no power, again.  But having been out and about in the area, including a trip to Maryland for a shower, a load of laundry and dinner out with Marji and Danny (thanks to my BFF angels... again!).  I drove through southern Chester County and while the damage lessened some as I got farther away from my house, there was still a great many tree and limb damage all the way to Elkton, MD.  I am sure that the power crews are overwhelmed with the job at hand.  I know there are pockets of outages still out here in the country area of the county, but there are also outages in more highly populated places.  It is really ugly and I am sure that these folks are getting frustrated.

I, however, had my power restored yesterday around 3:00 PM.  I was watching a DVD and surfing the internet thanks to my nifty generator when I heard an unusual noise.  I looked up from my keyboard, trying to figure out what was happening.  It took me a few seconds to notice the light by the front door was on.  I felt a rush of relief rush over me.  I had been getting close to going out to the generator to fill the tank with gas.  Instead, after several minutes, I was able to go out and shut it off.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening getting the house repaired from running without power.  Removed the three extensions cords that were running through the back doors to run the fridge in the kitchen, the TV in the Living Room and my desktop computer and a couple of lights.  They are rolled up in the mud room but I can close the door to the kitchen completely!  I flushed the toilet a couple of times to clear the water in the bowl.  After the hot water heater had a chance to warm up I did the dishes and finally emptied the tub and cleaned it....It is amazing how really dirty beautiful, white snow is when it melts in a bathtub.  I still have a couple of buckets of snow water that I should dump, but I think I will just combine them into one and keep that water as a backup, just in case I have another outage.

Lessons learned??  Well, I ordered my own generator.  It is a Westinghouse WH6500E.  It has 8000 watts starting power and 6500 watts of running power.  I am planning to put in a transfer switch that will then let the generator run the well pump, fridge, more lights and maybe even the furnace.  I am getting too old to be without life's basic needs.  That is somewhere down the line.  For now, I will run extension cords.

And it looks like I may bet a chance to try it out, provided it gets delivered before the storm.  Mother Nature is planning to dump anywhere from 6 to 12 inches or more of snow on the area starting Wednesday night  through Thursday!  Could even finish up as ice.  Either way, chances are good that power will go out again.  The new generator is being delivered between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM.  Marji and Danny will be here to help me set up the new generator.  Hopefully it will come early enough to get them home by the time the snow begins.

Geesh, I am really thinking this could be the winter from Hell!!