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Lights POWERR AC-
OK, so the blackout is serious. There are safety and economic ramifications galore and I don't want to minimize the impact, but...
I'm somewhat amused by the whole thing. Some parts of the country and many parts of the world have outages all the time. All the sudden a blackout gets wall-to-wall media coverage 24/7. It seemed to me everyone (especially the media) should have swallowed a chill pill and taken a long weekend.
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Lights POWERR AC-
I think maybe your overlooking the small fact that it is the single largest power outage in us history. I could do with out the 24/7 nonsense, but then my tv has this nifty little button !
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Lights POWERR AC-
Please don't misread this, it's mostly tongue in cheek, but the only reason it's a story is because people are used to the power being reliable. Maybe they need to have more blackouts to get people used to the idea that it can happen.
(I'll duck and run now....)
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Lights POWERR AC-
I dont know about more black outs. Theres been a Lot of people killed and injured. But I do agree with your point. I doubt we could do much for those who were unprepared as it is their mentality at fault not the system (electrical). I was in line to buy gas at 6 am this morning and thinking to myself about all the conversations we have had on the forum in regards to generators, alarm systems etc. Even talking about it made us more prepared than many of theese people. So many people dont think that the stuff the rest of the world endures can happen to them, Stand at ground zero some day. It will change your perspective. You being those who are un prepared, obviously they were never Boy Scouts.
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Lights POWERR AC-
I think the LP make the most sense for persons who live in areas like mine. 90% of my neighbors cook with propane and have a 100 gallon tank on the side of the house. My automatic delivery usually keeps it around 70% full. With even 50 gallons I could run the generator for 30+ hours at full power. There are several propane delivery outfits in the town who are glad to deliver and take my $$$. In a pinch if yuo run out most of us have 10 gallons right next to our BBQ and HomeDepot and Walmart have a zillion 5 gallon tanks.
Best thing is the units come with the hookup for the side of your house and a really nice panel to put next to your box inside. With the portables they want about $500 on top of the $2795 for these acesories. The other feature I like is that it turns itself on and off. If your away who's going to start your generator, hook it up and feed it fuel every 5 hours or so? I also can't see my wife lugging a 250lb generator outside and getting it hooked up without difficulty.
HomeDepot actually had the 12k Generac Guardian LP standby unit on sale at $2698 but we went with the local guy who stayed OPEN and helped us yesterday when all the big guys abandoned ship. Today some of the guys at HD were grumbling and not happy that their management closed. Granted the outage was short but nobody new how long it would last and the original news sounded bad. Home Depot is the one place that SHOULD be open in these situations. Walmart, BJ's, HD all were ZERO help. Shoprite stayed open to there credit with limited power from a generator.
I don't care if the others had only limited backup power you have 20+ workers there so you let people in say 15 at a time and escort them through the store so they can get necessary items. When you sell out of ice, water, batteries, flashlights, generators, power inverters, candles, kerosene lights, etc. THEN YOU CLOSE. I have seen it done before in similar situations and it worked fine, you just allow small numbers of people in so you can control the situation.
Heck, the local guy had no power to process the sale he just took down the credit card info. and gave my buddy a 3000 generator! He couldn't even look up the price so he said it's somewhere between 2500-2900 and charged him the average. The next day he adjusted it to the correct price.
He was willing to take it back toda with no problem even if we didn't order the LP model. Of course we did. He doesn't even sell Generac Guardians but he went online, found the model we wanted, called a distributor and ordered it for us.
Darn HomeDepot had generators galore  and didn't sell any or help anyone.
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Lights POWERR AC-
If I lived 10 miles north of here that IS the system I would have. They are very nice and the Generacs are a GREAT bargain compared to other "name" brands. In my opinion Home DePut ranks (literally) right down there with Wally World...The Pits !
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Lights POWERR AC-
Everytime I go into HomeDepot I feel like Michael Douglas in Falling Down. I just want to go NUTS!
Is this wrong, do I have issues or is this just the normal reaction to a level of incompetence that is only rivaled by the Federal government? 
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Lights POWERR AC-
The power never went down here. Just a few drops and brown-outs when it happened. There's not many people or money around here so I figure there's not enough power used on out leg of the grid to be worth grabbing for somewhere.
Self-sufficiency to me is a small idea. It's being fed, warm and dry according to my wife and she considers our Honda 6500 generator a luxury. Well, it's only needed because we turfed the wood stove after the chimney became unsafe. Like most people around here we could heat wood and go to bed when it gets dark if there are no lights. Any level of self-sufficiency above that probably exceeds the value of what we can produce on our own as individuals and as such it's a trap.
Self-sufficiency then is just another dependency and goal to be chased and never attained. There'll always be another problem and another crisis and then more 'self-sufficiency' stuff is needed. Self-sufficiency to me is consuming no more than I can directly produce. Anything else is luxury that I don't need, and there always are neighbours to get ya over the hard spots (neighbours are a luxury that comes with the territory around here). Anyway, it's an idea that should greatly simplify generator buying. Most anything works and it's really no problem if it doesn't. Keeps me out of the box stores and that definitely makes me happier.
Well, this site makes me happy, or at least doesn't make me feel worse, most times if for no other reason then it keeps me from the morning news, which I can't get anyway. We never bothered with SAT TV so I sat here instead of there.
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Lights POWERR AC-
I think the reaction to box stores, TV etc. is entirely natural and the explanation isn't incompetence. I think it's just the carnival and big buz, big gov or big whatever finally found each other. Most everything seems to have turned into a carnival nowadays. Lots of noise, flashing lights, confusion, and it really doesn't work unless there's also bunch of people milling around.
While at a carnival once I asked myself, has anybody ever really wanted a cupie doll? Then why do people spend time and money trying to get one, or pay to play games that can't actually be won? It might be good to get yourself in a real fun frame of mind sometime in a manner of your choice and take a look at people on a mid-way before your fun wears off. To me they appeared like people in trances wondering around with cupie dolls. They sure didn't look like people having fun even if the sounds and sights of fun were all around. Well, hey, how else are you going to move junk that nobody really wants? The trick is how to get people there, how to keep them there long enough for the magic to work and best of all figuring out how to get people to blame something else for their failed good time. That's the second chapter of Pavlov and it works on people too.
People have the same look on casinos and to a lesser extent when watching TV etc. We've allowed ourselves to be turned into receivers of messages and the senders mostly have their own rather than our interests in mind. They really are very good at what they do and big organizations have huge resources to do it. I believe that a lot of confusion is far from accidental. I've learned to trust my sense of a good time. If I'm not having one I believe I'm about to carry off a cupie doll and then I would make somebody else happy instead. It's sort of like tractor safety, if it doesn't feel right then it probably isn't. It helps a lot to become your own censor (nobody else can be) and recognize that most stuff in messages received is to get you to pay for somebody else's good time. I'd rather have the good time myself.
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Lights POWERR AC-
We did not loose power here either. Me still thinks the 65 black out was worse and covered almost as much ground 100%. Had to milk 40+ cows by hand that night and next am plus feed. No body had generators on the farm then. They where still family size.
Self suficiency would only last till the meat runs out. Treaspassers would be fair game.
I'll take my little diesel tractor and my 175 gallon heating oil tank anyday. The hours on the tractor be damed. Agood solid ice storm can shut down the north country for a week or more. I'd make it thru that ok. Anything longer and there are gonna be a lot of hurting people that have not and are gonna want something.
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08-15-2003, 19:33 
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