Power's out!!

[Conquest10]

Dammit! It just started raining and the sound of the rain and thunder along with the lightning is so beautiful. I was about to put some pizza in the microwave so I can sit down and watch the season 2 opener of Venture Bros. Suddenly, there's a flash and all the lights go out! What are the odds of that? So, no pizza and I guess I will miss the season 2 opener of Venture Bros. (starts in 15 minutes)!

[Conquest10]

I hate these CSR. I call in to report the outage and she asks me, "are the lights on in your house?" I say, "no". She replies, "what do you mean 'no'?" She then says that she'll transfer me and then hangs up.

[Conquest10]

2:04 it came back on. WTF?

[Guest]

So I assume laptop(battery) and dial up?

We should be getting that in a matter of hours.

[Conquest10]

So I assume laptop(battery) and dial up?

We should be getting that in a matter of hours.

Yeah. Funny how the other side of 63rd didn't loose power. Lucky bastards.

You got rain over there yet?

[Guest]

not yet.been cloudy all day.

[ZAPPER]

Dude!

It's the 21st century, get a back up generator. $500 for just the basics and $5000 for the whole house. A Chicago winter (or summer for that matter) without power wouldn't be any fun. You should be able to "rough it" for maybe three days without the help of the utilities. Power and heat is the easy part. No running water is a major pain (try going three days without a shower while "roughinging it" Peeee-eeew)

[Conquest10]

That seems like a lot of money. How long are they good for? I once got a surge protector with battery back-up that just went to waste and I had to replace without ever using the battery. Blackouts are very, very rare here.

[ZAPPER]

Well maintained, the rest of your life.

The real problem is fuel. A three day supply would be like a hundred gallons of gas or a BIG LP tank. Gas goes bad and LP tanks have to be replaced over time. I couldn't stay powered that long. I went three days a year or two ago, but only ran the generator a couple of hours each evening after work for the well and some TV/PC time and then lights out for the night and work/school during the day. I am lucky enough to live kind of in the sticks (fireplace, well, clothesline if needed, BBQ grill out back and the microwave) We ended up loosing alot of stuff out of the deep freezer but we would have probablly wasted it anyways in the long run.

A "real" genset would most likely be a dual fuel job, LP and natural gas, or a big diesel job and cost $20,000 plus. It would have an automatic transfer switch and either a seperate distribution panel for emergency circuits or just do the whole house. 3 or 4 hundred gallons of fuel might get you through a week (just guessing)

I was just bustin' your chops in my first reply, but the sad truth is very few folks could get by real easy in a real disaster.

As redneck as it sounds, I am thinking about getting an old camping trailer and outfitting it up for like a week long campout. It ain't like I am a hardcore survivalist, but I won't have anyone to blame but myself if I am caught out in the cold. (And the wife and kids would blame me for sure!)