Thank you, Danny...

Well, Danny Lantz... you are a very wise man.  He is supposed to be taking my whole house generator home with him.  He has slowly been taking the stuff that he and Marji want back to their home in Maryland.  

When he came up to get the lawn tractor, I asked him if he wanted to take the generator.  He asked me it I maybe I should keep it, just in case.  I am so glad that he did.

There have been some really wicked thunderstorms here in the Northeastern area.  Last night, yet another one blew through.  Around 7 PM the lights went out with a loud thump.  Sometimes, when the power goes out there is a little flickering and then they just go out in a woof.  Last night it just went out, they just went out... no flicker, just dark.

Now, for the last several years, I have not had to connect the generator to the house.  The power goes out and then a minute or two later, it comes right back on.  Not last night.  It went out and I waited and waited and waited, but no power.  So, once the rain eased (it was teeming)  I headed out to the garage, managed to get the old, rusty padlock off the side door and got in to get the gasoline I had saved... just in case.

I filled the gas tank on the generator, plugged the big plug into the outlet I had installed several years ago.  I put the gas line into the open mode, put the choke on and pushed the automatic start.....  Silence.  I checked to make sure I had everything right and it looked like I did, so I pushed the button again.  Nothing,

The little battery had gone dead.  It has a pull cord, and I tried it, but I just no longer had the strength to pull it hard enough.  I called Danny to see if he had checked it the last time he was here.  He had not.  I had also called my neighbor< john (the man who is buying my house) and he said he was on his way home and would be over when he got in.  In about 15 minutes, he was on my deck.  He checked everything, made a couple of pulls and the generator sprung into action.  We got it running smoothly and headed home, with my grateful thanks.  Then I went down to the basement, shut off the big draw things like the central air, hot water heater, etc. and then flipped the main power from outside to off, lifted the Interlock switch and flipped the generator input to on and the house lit up like a Christmas Tree.  So, by 8 PM, I was back to normal, fans running to stay cool and TV and Internet back on.

It was after midnight before my account on the phone app for PECO indicated that my power had been restored.  So, back to the basement, turned all the switches back to normal to find the power was indeed back.  Turned the generator off and headed to be.

Do not think the house in Alaska has a generator.  It may be one of the first things I get.  Not so much in the summertime, but I do not want to be without power when it is dark and 40 below outside.