Well, Andrew got the grill, David got the clock, John the table and chairs, but I GOT THE GENERATOR! It has sat behind our garage for six years now and I never tried to start it or hook it up or do anything at all. After the worst of the storm passed, we seemed in good shape, but then the power went out. So we moped around for a while and the PSE&G recording said we would get our power back a week later. So then Sean and I went out to see if the generator might get started. The wooden enclosure fell apart when when we took it off, but after sixty or so pulls, it started and kept going. It couldn't help with the water or septic, which are wired to the circuit board, but it powered my sump pump, the refrigerator and a couple of lamps. We cooked dinner on the grill. I turned the generator off at 11:00 last night because it's so danged loud, and it took maybe a hundred pulls this morning to get it going, just as the sump was about to overflow. We got our power back about an hour ago and I just turned the generator off again. I coulda kissed that thing.
Johanna, Sean and Amanda wisely came out to put some distance between themselves and the worst of the storm. (Well, Johanna was coming for a vet appointment). We all had a nice adventure together, and they all helped with the pre-storm preparation, which included jerry-rigging some old gutters and downspouts to help route water away from the house.
The downtown area of Hightstown flooded, but Mom was fine, no power loss or anything other than a huge crash in the middle of the night which no one can explain. Janet is just back from driving Johanna, Sean and Amanda back because there is still no NJ Transit service.
Mom talked John out of driving a truck to Hightstown Saturday night, so at this moment he's somewhere in Pa trying to make his way down to DC. Good luck!
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