Meet Gennie

Last night, just as I was typing the last sentence about hobos in Hooverville, our power went out. Lucky for me that New Blogger is a miserly curmudgeon, what with saving, saving, saving constantly, and I didn't lose my wordy little ray of sunshine upon which I was laboriously laboring. My new Delly went black. As did four other computers, and Lappy. Oh, THE INHUMANITY! The #1 son was unphased. He dashed to the barn to tell HH, "THE POWER IS OUT!" Because you know, by cracky, that HH bought that generator last December, and has not had a chance to fire it up. He and the boy rushed back to the house so they could start generating before the power came back.

First, the boy turned off the main breaker in the electric box in the master bathroom closet. Then he turned off power to all surge suppressors connecting the computers. #2 son and I turned off all light switches, and gathered the flashlights for re-batterying. Never mind that it was 7:50 p.m., and still daylight. We wanted to be prepared. Some of the choicer flashlights, the kind that look like little plastic lanterns, had corroded batteries. Darn HH for not making sure the dehumidifier thingy works properly.

Anyhoo...HH wheeled Gennie out of the garage and cranked him up. The power lights on the satellite receivers came on. The refrigerator started to hum. HH came in and flipped on a couple of light switches. He babbled something about how we could run ONE TV, and maybe ONE computer, and a lamp or two. And we could flush the toilets willy nilly, because the well was powered. Then the true insanity began. HH mumbled about when the air conditioner was going to kick on. Back when he bought Gennie, HH told me it would not run the AC. He said if we turned off everything else, maybe the AC would run. That was then. We didn't turn anything off. After about 30 minutes, the AC did indeed kick on. Within several seconds, the whole house went black again. The AC had tripped Gennie's breaker.

It didn't matter anyway. The power had come back by then. I told HH he told me so about the AC. He faintly remembered it. We powered up the house again with the regular electron juice from AmerenUE, then sent #1 to check on the electronics. All are safe and sound. It's not the going off, but the starting up that damages them.

Tonight, #2 son and I are off to play Trivia. It is a last-minute deal, with about half of our regular team. I hope we didn't need to register ahead of time.

The #1 son is having a sleepover in the MiniMansion. He was only allowed to invite two cronies. I think they will end up sleeping in the BARn, because it has electricity and air conditioning, and the MM is in the deep, dark woods. Time will tell.