Man Plans. Weatherman Laughs.
A Winter Weather Alert!
On the Tuesday before the storm, I called my wife to begin the necessary bureaucratic process. We make each other jump through hoops to justify big purchases, if for no other reason than one of us—usually her—can say “I told you so” once the purchase proves imprudent.
“I think we need to buy a generator,” I said, sneaking the comment nonchalantly into a conversation that started as inquiry into our dinner plans for the night.
“A generator!?—where did that come from?” she asked.
“They’re calling for a big snowstorm this weekend.”
“Weren’t they calling for snow last week too—and we didn’t get anything?”
“Yeah, but this one is different. They’re saying it’s going to be bad—even catastrophic.”
“Generators are dangerous. My dad burnt up a refrigerator with a generator when I was a kid.”
“Well, how else are we going to stay warm if the power goes out?” Although our old farmhouse has three fireplaces, the unstable fieldstone chimneys have been cut down. The fireplaces are now defunct, and we have no alternate heat source if our heat pump is without power. “Remember how bad it was when we lost power during Helene, and that was when it was warm,” I continued.
“Let me think about it,” she said. At that point, I knew she would acquiesce, but the problem with our bureaucratic process is that it takes time. By the next morning, when she verbally rubber stamped my acquisition request, saying “I guess you can get a generator,” there were no generators left to acquire. I had done my research overnight and had hoped to buy a small gas generator in the $500 to $600 dollar range but Lowes was completely wiped out, not a single generator remained in the store.
I was left to hurry home and scour Amazon in search of any generator that could be delivered before the storm hit on Saturday. The cheapest one I could find was $1000, but supposedly it could be delivered by Friday afternoon. I don’t think I’ve been so nervous about a delivery since the birth of my son.
“Why are you so wound up?” my wife asked.
“I’m worried the generator won’t get here in time.”
“We’ll survive if it doesn’t.”
Sure enough, on Friday, I got a notification from UPS that my delivery was delayed. Had the original forecast proved accurate, we would have been doomed to shiver, but the storm had slowed and the generator was delivered Saturday afternoon, right before the first sleet pellets began to fall.
Sleet was actually good news. Meteorologists had been waffling back and forth on sleet versus freezing rain, warning that freezing rain would be the worst case scenario in terms of power outages. But the freezing rain held off until the tail end of the storm on Sunday evening—and, of course, the power never went out.
“I told ya we didn’t need a generator,” my wife said, though she did sprinkle her “I told you so” with some pity, “but at least we have one now if we ever need it.”
Despite being secretly disappointed the power didn’t go out so I could justify my big purchase and prevent the marital “I told you so,” I am glad it wasn’t all freezing rain. Thomas got to go sledding for the first time!
My wife and I spent a bunch of money this year to prepare for the possibility that one or both of us might eventually need long-term nursing or memory care. This has helped to focus my thinking on the cost of preparing for disasters. The win-win is NOT to get your money’s worth.
The anti-power-cut generator is much like the anti-rain umbrella, only much more expensive. You can guarantee that your power will never be cut now. Until you're out of gas or the spark plug needs replacing.