Ed Huntress wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in message
. com...

Ed Huntress wrote:

"Ignoramus4719" wrote in message
...
Life lesson #116: having a generator or two is essential.

In my case, in this storm, a generator wouldn't have done anything. The
last
time I wished I had one was after a nor'easter 25 years ago. And all it
would have done for me then is save maybe $50 worth of food.

You misunderstand the purpose of having a generator. Saving $50 worth of
food is great, but being able to go about your life as normal is
priceless.

Pete, let me repeat: I'm in a place where we don't have long power outages.
We had one once, 25 years ago. This time, and a couple of times in the past,
I've just whipped out my 200 feet of extension cords and borrowed power from
a neighbor who didn't lose his drops.

A generator would not have done anything for me this time. After 33 years, I
have acquired a sense of risk and reward on this issue, and a sense of
whether it's worth it to devote precious space to another gadget that has to
be maintained.

I have no objection to generators. They make good sense for many people. As
a college student, I sold lots of them in the farm and garden department at
Sears in Lansing, Mich. On commission. In a sale, I could scare the hell out
of someone who said he didn't need one. d8-)

For me, though, it makes little sense. Actually, I was more worried about
losing gas than electricity. My wife took a lukewarm shower yesterday before
work and *that* is where I'd be at risk of divorce.

--
Ed Huntress

If the power is out more than 10 minutes I start a generator (before the
UPSes run out of battery). I expect to be able to go about things
normally regardless of external events. I also work from home, so I need
to be able to keep my computers online for that as well. If the cable
modem goes out I have 3G backup for that as well. If both cable modem
and 3G are out I'll hop in the truck and move to an alternate location
to get online.