Monday, May 11, 2009

Random Thought Monday, Powerless Edition

Our power was off from Friday around noon until Sunday evening at 5:00. The cause was an electric pole that was washed out of the ground by a creek. A creek without even a name, that flows into a named creek. The named creek was 15-20 feet over its usual level. The pole floated in a new lake, its wires swirling around it.

Thank the Gummi Mary, our generator, "Ginnie," kept us sane.

Did you know that a 30-amp generator will power a refrigerator, a deep-freeze, a mini-fridge, assorted lights, a regular TV, a big-screen TV, and a well pump? However, the lights will dim every time you flush a toilet, or when you try to microwave something. If you turn off the big screen, you can run two computers.

Well water makes for extremely cold showers.

A 30-amp generator will not power a 32-amp hot water heater. Even if you turn off everything else. HH says it should, but he couldn't figure it out.

Ginnie consumes 10 gallons of gas every 24 hours. Glutton.

Washing dishes in cold well water is not a pleasant pastime.

Generators are the new SUV. Everybody wants one.

My mom's neighbor works at a Lowe's-type store, but without the big chain name. They sold $90,000 worth of generators on Saturday. Oh, they don't normally stock that many generators...they made a trip to St. Louis to buy them and resell them. Nobody was complaining.
My mom got her power back on Saturday evening. I accused her of stealing our work crew. Because nobody worked on our little problem from Saturday night at 6:00 until Sunday morning at 9:00. Then there was a 4-hour break after the tree trimmers left until AmerenUE showed up. Don't believe it when Ameren commercials boast about how hard they work to restore your power. There were 55 families affected by this little electric faux pas. This time, they didn't put the pole in a creek bed.

2 comments:

Stewed Hamm said...

I tell you what, HM, you a just a naming MACHINE! I mean, seriously, where do you come up with all those fanciful names for your various appliances?

Word Verification: Sessi - probably the name of your Cessna... I mean, if HH has 30-odd cars hanging around, he's bound to have some aircraft, right?

Hillbilly Mom said...

Stewbiteyourtongue,
No aircraft yet. But I'm sure somebody at work will be looking to unload one for ONLY $1000, and so what if the altimeter and the flaps and the radio don't work. A Garmin should be able to fill in the info for the pilot, right?