Weather?

 11/12/2020

When Jeff and I moved to Maryland 30 plus years ago, most of the family had ever really seen snow! I lived in Illinois when I was a teenager, and we did get snow. A lot of snow. In the 60's, there were no underground wires, nope they were outdoors, and occasionally we'd get enough snow to bring the wires down.

My Dad told me, before we left California, that we would likely get buried underneath snow. We don't get a lot of snow every winter, but when we do it's heavy and wet. In my telephone conversations with Dad, he would always have an opportunity to basically say, I told you. 

This many years later, I'm glad we left California, when we did. Now, there are forest fires, generally not enough water, mudslides, along with earthquakes, just to name a few things that I'm glad, we don't have to experience anymore.

Our first year in Maryland, we never froze to death. I had bought coats, but they weren't the kind of coat that is needed back here.

The boys loved the snow, Jeff and I not so much. When I was working, there was a special automatic phone number, so that we could find out - if the company closed, or had a two hour delay. The other option was to use up a one of your vacation days. 

I worked at Marriott headquarters for 13 or so years. Everybody in my department, that I would begin to panic, even if all I saw, was just flurrys. My bosses knew, as well as my co-workers, that if we received any snow, I had to get home now! 

One winter, when we had a lot of snow, and our house was run by electricity. Hence, there was no cooking, no heat, etc. At the time, Benjamin was a toddler, and he didn't understand why our food was cold, and that there wasn't heat. When it came time to go to bed, we wore our warmest clothes. Benjamin, was wedged in between us, and our combined body heat, kept him cozy.

After the storm, Jeff decided that we would never lose power again. He bought a whole house generator that gets it's power through the gas line, or something like that. The generator has a name - Jenny. Kind of cute, don't you think? Before putting Jenny in place, we had to get the HOA's approval, and the county to come out and bless us. 

Mind you, Jenny would never even come to winning a beauty award. Jenny's cover, which is some kind of a tan color, and she is big! Oh, and when she's running, which she can indefinitely, since she gets her power from our gas line, she can run the whole house indefinitely.  We now have two neighbors, who have attempted to put Jenny out of their sights. I guess we could paint her green, so she would blend in a bit more. Thankfully, up to now, we haven't really needed her for a period of time.

But one of our neighbors asked us, that if the power went out, could they run an extension cord to their house. Hmm - no. If we ever do loose electricity, and I know it's mean, but I want to turn on every light in the house. Doing so, would give us a smug attack! Jenny sits on a fairly high concrete pad, which makes our immediate neighbors, not very happy. But, like Scarlet O'Hara - frankly I don't give a damn what you do or do not like. 

A neighbor on our street, wants to buy a generator also. But, when he asked Jeff's advice, Jeff told him that a small generator would likely only be able to do small things, keep your phone charged, and perhaps one light. Clearly, it cannot run a house, and you have to keep putting gas into the generator.

Checking out the numbers today, a whole house generator will cost you between $3,700 to $9,500. Plus the installation cost about $4,471. So you see, Jenny was a fairly expensive purchase, but will be needed some day in the future, I'm sure. Both of the boys also have whole house generators. Plus side, their houses are on acreage, so they are not subjected to neighbors, who don't like the noise or the color! I know Jenny isn't pretty, and one neighbor has put up a tall fence to block their view and the other neighbor, put several pieces of lattice on their deck.

Oh, to back in California, minus all the weather events, to have a 6 foot concrete wall between neighbors. This type of fence, offers a lot of privacy.

That's all I have for today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

P