Had some excitement on the Hill a week or so ago. Had a storm come through , blew over a huge pine tree from across the road. It sheared off a pole, had wires all over the ground. West Penn [ our power company that is now owned by First Energy ] came out after a day or so later to take a look, the guy said that they had a lot of people out of power, and it would take several hours to replace the pole, so they would work on easier fixes first and get to us when they could. He put up emergency tape across the road so no one would drive into the tree across the road and left. There was a huge mess up around where I had planted the decorative grass and butterfly bushes. We were with out power for 2 1/2 days. I was worried about the freezer and ref, we did not open the door on either one and came through alright. Some minor damage to the stuff in the freezer door but the meat was alright. We have oil lamps and I have a crank radio, and with a fire in the fire place we survived quite nicely. When I got up after the storm [ I knew the power was off because I had the call of nature during the night ] I suggested that I fire up my rocket stove cooker and boil some water for tea etc. My wife said she had a better idea. She said lets go out for breakfast.
That was a better idea, so we enjoyed a very nice breakfast at Kings Restaurant. The next day the neighbors, who still had power, invited us down for breakfast. It was a lovely visit with friends. Friday night I listened to the local High School team win their 1st play off game, Saturday I listened to the Prairie Home Companion, and then listened to the Pitt Game. All in All we survived very well with out power for 2 1/2 days. I am somewhat prepared for power outages, but I still don't have a generator. Two of my neighbors have them, Don offered me his, I told him no, and he gave it to a neighbor with well water to run his pump. Len is the other guy who has a generator, he asked if I could come up and help him get it started. The gas was maybe 2 years old, he did not have any starter fluid, and he is 78 years old. So I went up and helped him pull. It started after a few pulls and a bit of starter fluid, sputtered a bit and then shut off. Another neighbor came over to see what we were doing, he and I both pulled that thing till I thought our arms would fall off. During the process Len and decided to turn the switch from off to the on position, that is when it started and sputtered a bit and then quite. He finally decided that maybe I would run better if he turned the valve to the gas tank open. Well, that certainly made a BIG difference, it started right up after that.
After taking my cap off and hitting him over the head with it, we all had a good laugh. Its no sin to be stupid, just Damned inconvenient.
Any way, we survived the power outage pretty well, and I now have stories to tell.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.