Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Generator Works

Forecasters predict a big snowfall later today, and possibly some ice first, so I checked out our 5KW putt-putt generator just in case. We have had outages of over 80 hours (more than three days) here in past years, so we have installed a transfer switch that disconnects essential circuits from Xcel Energy and hooks them to the generator instead. The generator is sufficient to run the furnace, water heater, refrigerator, freezer, lights, TV, computer, and DSL modem. In other words, it’s enough for comfortable living, though it won’t run the AC in the summer.

It’s helpful to run the generator now and then, even if we don’t throw the switch and power the house off of it, just to be sure that it will run when it’s really needed. It putted just fine today for 30 minutes. Hopefully it won't be needed tonight, but it’s ready to swing into action.

First we went to the club this morning, though, where I ran another 6 miles and my sweeties ran 6k. Just an easy run today, cruising speed, trying to enjoy the sensation of the motion of my body and the air in my face. I wasn’t as full of energy as Tuesday, but did well enough. Slight pain in a muscle atop the left hip, and another slight pain in the center of the right knee at the bottom of the kneecap. Neither was a show-stopper, but logged here in case it does matter later.

Splits: 8:54, 8:42, 8:34, 8:35, 8:38, 8:39, total 52:01, pace 8:40. I’m happy with that. Lots of snow shoveling ahead ...


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Last night's dinner: Organic romaine lettuce under Trader Joe's organic chicken breast, organic mustard, kiwi, organic mixed vegetables, organic black pepper, sea salt.

4 comments:

Beth said...

I hope you don't need the generator tonight. It is really coming down out there- we have a couple inches so far. Stay warm!

Don said...

Yup we have four inches already and it's snowing hard ...

Jean said...

We got hammered pretty good out here in the west metro, Don. The drive home was not fun, and it has been snowing hard pretty much since noon. This was a decent storm. Hope your power stays on.

Great looking dinner! Mmmm, love that Trader Joe's stuff!

ShirleyPerly said...

Nice cruising pace, esp. on such a small track!

Glad you're prepared if you should lose power. I think doing so up there in winter is much worse than losing power during the middle of the sweltering summer down here, which we did for a week back in 2004 when we had multiple hurricanes hit our area.