On Aug 29, 4:20*pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:

[lotsa bad stuff snipped]

Wow - sorry to hear about all that, Ed.

Fortunately (in this case only), I'm a light sleeper, and when my
power went out at about 5am The beeping from the UPS downstairs woke
me up. I had the generator going within three minutes. As unreliable
as our power has been lately, at least five of the 24 houses on my
block have generators - most in the 5KVA range, but at least one of
them is just big enough to run just a pump or a fridge, but not both.
Mine is 5KVA and I backfeed it into the house so I can run whatever I
turn on (but not all at once). I think it cost about $600 several
years ago, and that's among the best money I ever spent. Iggy can
probably find you one for 20 bucks. I also hooked it up to three
neighbor's houses to pump out their basements.

One of my customers, in East Brunswick (and five of his neighbors),
has about five feet of water in his basement and four feet of water in
his back yard, thanks to a new sound deadening wall erected by the NJ
Turnpike which is acting like a dam. They're supposed to be bringing
in a cran this evening to lift the wall and let the water out.
Unbelievable stupidity.

You'll be happy to know, however, that Rich Grise thinks we're all a
bunch of pussies (see some other thread).