The Long Saturday

*Sigh*  But It's Finally Over

The electrician had told me he'd be here "bright and early" this morning to set up my generator.  9 AM came and went. I called the company. No answer. I finally dialed the emergency number only to get a call back from the Senior Owner, who knew nothing about my generator, my appointment, or who I was. He kept denying I'd ever called his company. But then he decided perhaps his son, Junior Member, had made the appointment and gave me JM's cell number.

Called JM. I finally got through and he told me they were "swamped" with work and he'd probably be able to get here some time after noon. He promised he'd call.

I then went to the feed store to get alfalfa cubes for the Boys. There I had a nice chat with the store manager who was amazed I'd managed to find a generator. Apparently her parents had been looking for one and were now 15th in line on the list from Home Depot, or someplace. From what I have now learned, my serendipitous generator shopping trip was a far more dramatic success than I realized. There were no generators left in Central New Jersey as of yesterday.

Came home, waited another hour or so, afraid to got too far from the phone. I'd given JM my cell phone number too, but you never know, and he had called my house phone before. JM had said if he was tied up he'd have "Charlie" come out instead. But it wasn't until well after 1PM, that Charlie finally called to assure me he was coming and would be here sometime around 4 PM.

In the meantime, I called another electrician with a pretty reliable communications system and the girl there told me she would put me on the list for service. If JM showed up, fine, I could cancel. If not, they would get to me before Sunday's promised storm. At that point, I was breathing again.

Finally around 4PM, the phone rang again. It was Charlie, and wonder of wonders, he was only a few miles away!! Bless his heart and his damaged finger--he'd dropped a generator on it--he pulled into the driveway before dark.

Setting up the new generator proved to be a relatively simple job, but I'm not sure I could have done it. Since Charlie's company were Generic dealers, he was super familiar with my generator and had it put together and ready to go in less than a half hour. He gave me a quick lesson in its operation--no biggie--started it up and wow! Compared to my old generator, it is really quiet. It doesn't matter too much as I run it in the detached garage, away from the house, but still.

As it turned out, Charlie was the guy I had spoken to on the phone the first time I'd called the company. And he was the one who had sent me out generator shopping. Luck was on my side! Then, he told me the company had been through nightmares today trying to get generators for customers who were desperate. He'd had to travel out to far western Pennsylvania and they'd managed to scrounge up only 30 generators. Everyone else was sold out. As it was he was heading to try to set up some people who had gotten standby generators--a wonderful but far more complex set up--as a last resort. He said he had no idea how they were going to get them working by Sunday.

After he left, I headed out to the gas station to get more gas cans filled--lucking out again because there were no lines--had been in the morning.

In between all the anxiety, I made a small pot of chicken noodle soup and a batch of egg salad so I don't have to worry too much about food prep if the storm hits as predicted. If we go to the diner tomorrow after church, I'll buy a container of their amazing beef barley soup too. All I have to do is heat and eat. Yummy!

I'll fill an extra water tub for the Boys tomorrow and take and extra bale or two of hay to put inside the barn. I have plenty of grain, the alfalfa cubes and rainsheets if it starts to get chilly. (Temps are supposed to stay around 50-60F, however, but we'll see.)

I don't know what else to do except wait, with the rest of New Jersey, to see what happens. My cousins, who live at the shore on Long Beach Island have decided to stay instead of evacuating. I will worry about them, but I guess this time, I need to worry about all my friends and relatives in this area--and that includes my Blogger buddies.

Meantime, I'm about as ready as I can be.

Maybe Sandy will change her mind and head out to sea....my wish for the weekend.