"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

** Lesson: Run the generator every year, even if you're sure it works fine.
Don't let your handyman neighbor come over and spray ether in the spark plug
hole. Washes the oil off the cylinder wall.

You should start the generator more often, like monthly or at least
quarterly. Once a year, it needs maintenance, like an oil change, and
cleaning.


I called a bunch of people from church, and other friends. Several people
were without power, but they were all "doing OK". Radio news guys say about
50,000 people without power.
** Lesson: Call a few people and get the word out. But don't spend all day
on the telephone trying to be nice to people. You're wasting your time.

How about this one, make sure you have a phone that works on phone
company power? Lots of phones, answering machines, etc, which are
plugged into wall warts, go dead when the power is off.


** Lesson: Travel takes twice as long in storms. And the State still wants
their highway tolls.

The state has backup generators.

Ursula, elderly and frail, was very cold. She was worried about the burners
on the stove, but more worried about it being cold.

Another advantage to a gas stove.

More telephone calls. I reminded a lot of people "have generator will
travel" but no one was interested.
** Lesson: Don't waste a lot of time on the phone offering to give your
services away.

Save it for more urgent needs. Have "gen will travel", might sell better
when the power is out during a summer storm, and things are flooding and
not cold.

It isn't like the stuff in the fridge will defrost...

** Lesson: No matter how comfortable you are, Mother Nature is still very
powerful.

Yeah, she always deserves respect.

Radio says 67K people without power. Someone found a creative way to warm
the house. He hooked a garden hose to his laundry sink, and snaked the hose
around the floor of his house. Ran hot water thruogh the hose, and into the
bath tub. The hot water hose helped warm the house. Very clever. Must
remember that.

Good idea, as long as one has a gas water heater. I don't know about
these fancy ones, with power vents, I suspect that it wouldn't work with
the power off.

I mentioned gasoline to Skip, and he told me which gas stations had power
today. The van was low on gas, so I threw two gascans in the back and took
them along. I found a couple gas stations without power, and one which had
power, and long lines of cars waiting to gas up. I got in line. At 1.73, I
was able to fill the two gascans, and then put some in the tank before the
pump shut me down at $50. But it sure is nice to have some gasoline. But
fifty bucks! Wow!

When you hear stories about the weather on the news, one of the things
to do is fill up. This is a good thing to do any way, since it reduces
the problems with condensation, in the soon to follow cold snap. In
winter, you should keep the gas tank more full than the summer for this
reason.

I made a few more calls, and found one friend of mine who had borrowed a
Honda generator from his brother, and the generator refused to start. Went
there, and it started with a shot of ether, and a change of gasoline. Can't
kill a Honda. It was very quiet, too. He had sent his son to go fill up the
gascan, and the Suburban. His son came back much later, there was a very
long line of cars waiting to buy gasoline.
** Lesson: Stock several cans of ether starting spray at home. You may need
it.

And add fuel stabilizer, such as "stabil" to the gas, so it doesn't go
as bad when left in the machines. You shouldn't need ether. A heat lamp
spotlight goes a long way towards warming up a small engine in winter.

I learn that the reason he was pursuing a generator is because the cellar
had flooded without a sump pump. About two inches water.

That more urgent need thing I mentioned earlier.

I also wired a plug into the furnace wiring, and they can now run the
furnace on the generator.
** Lesson: Even if the home owner has tools, go get your own tool box. Sure
is faster if you know what tools you have, and all the wirenuts and parts.

And do the wiring and testing before you need it? Yep a spare parts box
bucket of what ever is great. I've used a metal paint roller tray, for
2 generations now, throw all the old, unused, misc, hardware in it. One
can sort through it reasonably rapidly by spreading out the nuts and
bolts and stuff.

www.mormons.org

Ummm, don't you mormon folks have a thing about stocking the kitchen
with supplies?

Now that you know who the good people are in your 'hood, this spring
when the weather is nice, you should have a get together, since you'll
have plenty of memories to share.