....

I'll be buying a generator soon. Summertime outage is inconvenient,
nothing more. We do primitive just fine. But an ice storm causing
a similar outage midwinter could be serious. Frozen plumbing can be a
very costly mess. There isn't a genny within 75 miles of Mnpls
just now, but they'll restock eventually. I'm looking at a Honda
5.5KW per recommendation from Fitch.
....

This one strikes a nerve at home. When I was a newlywed (26 years ago), we
bought an old farm house way out in the country. The SO was still carrying
laundry to town when I came home with a portable generator that I had got a
deal on. No talk about it ahead of time. My point that life out in the
country without power in case of an ice storm didn't carry squat against the
washer/dryer combo that she had spotted on sale. AND now we couldn't afford
it. We've still never had that ice storm. AND its still a sore subject.

Don,
I'm glad to see "Minnesota Nice" exists in the Metro area. With the folks
we've seen move out to our little spec of Paradise from the Metro, I
wondered if it was gone.

Karl