(no subject)

[the_rck]

Scott has bought a small generator. It will give us enough power to run his bi-PAP, his alarm clock, our internet connection, and my laptop, but it will only operate for eight hours at a time before it needs refueling. Scott's pretty sure that refueling it (which includes turning it off and starting it back up again) will be beyond what I can do with a bad ankle and a bad shoulder, so we'll probably only have a couple of hours first thing in the morning and then time in the evening after Scott's home.

The generator is moderately noisy, not quite as loud as our lawn mower but still loud enough. Scott is worried that our neighbors will complain. I'm hopeful that they won't. It's a steady noise that I think will be fairly easy to get used to and tune out. Also, we're not the only ones to get a generator like this. Ours is in our backyard; theirs is in their front yard.

In order to charge, my laptop has to be in the dining room. That's less than ideal because I can't tolerate the chairs in there for very long at a go and because the light coming in the windows in there tends to make it hard to see my screen. I have cut down the brightness on my screen in hopes of extending the battery life of my laptop beyond thirty minutes.

Scott decided on a generator while we were at the library. He figured out that it would be cheaper than 3-4 nights at a hotel and require a lot less packing and hauling. Cordelia and I should be able to figure out how to feed ourselves at home during the day. We can still get the stovetop to work as long as we have a lighter. In a hotel room, we wouldn't have that much. Scott will be able to grill in the evenings. Our meals likely won't be as well balanced as we're used to, but it's much better than pop tarts.

Scott's parents did offer to put us up, and that offer is still open. Scott really couldn't take them up on it because it would add an hour onto his commute each way. He gets up at 5 a.m. to get to work on time from here. Getting up at 4 a.m. somehow doesn't appeal. I am still tempted to take them up on the offer for me and Cordelia, but the bed there would likely be painful for me, and Cordelia complains a lot when she has to share a room with me-- She says I snore so loudly that she can't possibly sleep. I'm also not convinced that their internet access would be an improvement over what we'll have here. What they've got is extremely slow and limited. There are a lot of things that won't load at all.

It's not supposed to get above 75F any time between now and Thursday, so we should be fine that way. The current plan is to open all of the windows again, the way we did while we didn't have air conditioning. Our hot water heater seems to be working just fine.

My ankle is hurting a lot right now. I walked around for a bit more than an hour yesterday and then did it again today, and my ankle has informed me that I really, really shouldn't have done all of that. I'm seriously considering digging some ice out of our cooler to put on my ankle. In the meantime, I'm going to put as little weight on it as I can get away with.

I have emailed the other metanews link finders to see if either of them can cover for me this week, but I kind of suspect they won't be able to. That'll mean double the work next week, and I have no idea if there will even be a post this week. Each of them usually finds about half a dozen links a week, and I do the rest. I just don't think I will have enough time with internet to do all of the work necessary this week, at least not before the end of the day on Tuesday when it's supposed to be done.

At least, being online right now means I got to read and comment on the remix written for me. It's a Chronicles of Narnia story, a remix of my story "Genesis" about Queen Helen and the earliest days of Narnia. The remix is called "The song will remain (the joyful, joyful remix)." It's really lovely.

And now the power company claims we should have power again shortly before midnight tonight. I'm not sure I actually believe it. If we do get power then, Scott will be annoyed at having invested in the generator. We can use it if this happens again, but power outages like this haven't been common for us-- I can think of three others in the years since Cordelia was born. The generator is only cheaper than a hotel if the power outage runs for days. Maybe he can return it?

Comments

[chomiji]

You're lucky with your power outages! We usually have at least one a year, and with Hurricane Isabel (Sept. 2003), we were without power for about 4 days, IIRC. We're seriously thinking about getting a large, macho generator at some point. I have a CPAP machine myself.

[the_rck]

I know we've been very, very lucky. Mostly, when we lose power, it's for an hour or two in the middle of the afternoon. Scott has speculated that maybe it's because we're less than a mile from a major hospital, but I'm not convinced we're actually near enough for that to make a difference.

We've had friends lose power for days here in the same town, though.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. This is awful. If you get a chance to go to a drugstore, you can get chemical cold packs (they're intended for first aid kits. You don't have to put them on the freezer.) You can keep them in a cupboard in case you need them in the future--maybe when you're traveling. I hope your power come right back and stays on.

[the_rck]

I'll ask Scott to pick some up so that we have them on hand if this comes up again.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the power outage postings until after your power was back on, but if it happens again you are welcome to stay here.

[the_rck]

Thanks! We will bear that in mind.