Our Girl Jenny

8/30/2017

The "Jenny" I'm referring to is the generator that sits in the backyard ever ready to be put to use.  Last night, Jenny got her chance.  We lost power twice.  The first time I think the power was out for 30-45 minutes I think.  After the power went off, we sat in our chairs and within 30 seconds or so, Jenny kicked in.  Later in the evening, we lost power again briefly - Jenny to the rescue.

We have owned Jenny since Benjamin was a toddler.  He was staying with us during a very heavy snow storm and we lost power for a long time.  Try to explain to a toddler why he's eating cold food and sleeping in warm clothes snuggled in between Jeff and I.  After that storm, we vowed that we would never be without power again.

Enter "Jenny".  Our generator runs off of the natural gas line that runs into the house.  Jenny can run pretty much forever, and she's big enough that she can handle all of our power uses in the house.  We can, for example, still have a/c or heating, run all appliances, watch television, use the computer .... well you get the idea.

I'll be the first one to tell you that "Jenny" isn't a particularly pretty girl.  She's more of an industrial sized generator is painted a tan (I guess that's what you could call it) color and she's a big girl.  Before installing "Jenny", we had concrete poured in the backyard, where she would sit.  The installation was up to code and the county inspector gave us a green light for use.

The neighbor next door has a deck that when he's on the deck, he gets a birds eye view of "Jenny".  He actually filed a complaint with the HOA about her.  At the time of installation, we wrote to the HOA, telling them the how, where and why of our plans - and we were approved.  So the complaint fell on deaf ears.  Would I like to see "Jenny" disguised in some way?  Perhaps.  Although to be fair, I don't actually have to look at her unless I'm in the backyard!  Since Jeff and I both have sleep apnea, losing power is not an option for us when we're sleeping.  We try to be good neighbors.  We don't let the dogs bark incessantly, bring our trash cans into the garage the same day and keep the lawn mowed.  It's true that when we first brought Daisy (the terrier) home, she was able to jump the fence into said neighbor's yard.  This didn't make us or them happy.  Thankfully, Daisy is now past jumping the fence, probably because she's heavier now.  Would that I could build a 6 foot cement block fence around my backyard, like they do in California. Want to be a good neighbor - build a fence.  Want to be a better neighbor - build a taller fence!  Just saying.

P