The delights of living in the country

[valis2]

Well, the edge of the country.

Yesterday, while I was on the phone with subrosax, the power went out. I was right in the middle of prepping items for eBay and Etsy, so that kind of sucked.

Good thing is, Husband's grandmother had a generator system installed a couple years ago. And this thing is like a generator fairy tale--it automatically turns on when power is interrupted, and it runs on natural gas from a permanent feed. Incredible. So after about a half minute it came back on. We didn't have to do a thing. In my mind generators are messy and smelly and dangerous and necessitate going outside in the snow and kick starting them, and are more hassle than they're worth, but it turns out that my thoughts are pretty damned outdated and that the next generation of generators are pretty damned awesome.

Only drawback is that Husband's grandmother picked which circuits would run while the generator was on, and apparently she felt that the guest bedroom was important but the microwave/stove was not. Given that I've been in situations where we've lost power for three days or more, I'm not happy about not having a microwave or stove in the event that we do lose it for multiple days, though Husband assures me that because it is a gas stove (I've never used a gas stove before and know nothing about them) it is still usable with matches. So if we do lose power for a few days, we can at least use the stove. I shouldn't be whining at all, considering how awesome it is that we don't have to huddle around the fireplace like I did in my youth, but still, there's a teensy bit of worry there.

Hell, I should be absolutely ecstatic, considering that we have well water here, and that without a generator you can't flush the toilets. My parents' house routinely went without electricity for two or three days, and we had well water, and let's just say it wasn't pleasant.

I've found that there's one major advantage to having made the master bedroom the office, and made our bedroom in one of the smaller bedrooms; the generator is right below the window of the office, and the noise is pretty loud. So huzzah for that. I mean, it's still noisy, but at least it was within the realm of possibly being able to sleep instead of being within the realm of no sleep possible.

The power came back on about ten hours later, thank goodness. So now I'm going to get caught up on Etsy and eBay listings.

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

hee! Only thing is--I don't think I've ever been camping.

It's really scary, actually, for someone who has only ever used electric. I keep freaking out because, y'know, open flame and all.

[(Anonymous)]

Gas is infinitely better than electric as far as cooking goes, fyi. The heat is quicker and steadier, you don't burn out the bottom of your pans and once you've had steak cooked fast and hot over gas, you'll never want one cooked over electric.

[tapedeck.livejournal.com]

That was me, by the way.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Ooh...now I'm totally craving steak! Mmmm.

Then again, I don't do any of the cooking, so I suppose none of this really matters...

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

I was that way when we moved here--I had never used a gas stove before and was sure that I was going to blow up the house. But now I would never voluntarily go back to an electric stove. For one thing, I can tell when the heat is on because of the flame. With the electric, I used to destroy dishes by setting them on burners which were still hot. (But normal, coordinated people might not do things like that.)
Your generator sounds awesome! I am most envious.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've always had an electric stove, always, and this gas thing--*shivers*. Seriously.

I really hope that I get to the point you are. Because one shouldn't be afraid to use one's stove, y'know? hee!