A "Power-ful" Tale

A Moment Of Reflection
Originally uploaded by boondockma

I loaded so many photos onto flickr yesterday, it was difficult to choose which one to post here. I decided to go with one that included both kids. There was one picture though that really stood out, so I decided to share it today. The neat thing about this one was that it was an impulse shot, and he didn't know I'd snapped until he saw it uploaded.


Our generator developed a problem a few days ago. The starter rope broke, which meant we didn't have a way to start it! Fortunately, the last couple days our electricity was in a cooperative mood. Just the same, we knew that wasn't likely to last so Pa had planned to take our alternate power source in to the shop to get it all fixed up. It was due for a tune-up anyway.

It was nice of our power to hang in there over the weekend. However, as if it somehow knew the weekend was over and done with, and it was business as usual around town this morning, it decided to act up. It was kind enough to hold off until after the coffee was brewed, something I'm sure Pa appreciated at least as much as I did; Not so much because he needs his morning jolt of caffeine, but because he has experienced life with me when I'm deprived of my cup of steaming goodness. It really isn't a pretty picture!

Sufficiently caffeinated, I turned the computer on and proceeded to go on line. That lasted just long enough for my mail to come in. Then my UPS started beeping. I looked and noted the number going down into the low 30's. I also noted that the beeping was constant. *sigh*. Time to shut her down...

While having to shut my PC down prior to even begin to do my morning rounds was a bit annoying, it was when I noticed the UPS was still beeping merrily away as it continued it's downward numerical spiral that I became truly concerned. I shut it off and unplugged it, then proceeded to stroll around the house.

The bathroom light was barely noticeable it was so dim. Okay. Time to light the kerosene lantern in there. I then proceeded into the dining room and kitchen where I noticed the lights were nonexistent. Hmmmm. Pa got the Aladdin going in the dining room, while I proceeded to check the fridge. Huh! The light bulb was on, but it was exhibiting the same dim view as the bathroom light. Alrighty then! Time to keep our visits to the fridge to a minimum.

The one bright spot of the whole power issue was that the water pump was still working. So far as we could tell, that was the only thing that was drawing enough juice to function at an adequate level. This was something worth smiling over. Water is the one thing I dread being without more than anything else during a power outage. Most everything else can be dealt with in one way or another.

Now that we had light in the dining room, I was able to get the kids going on their school lessons for the day. Fortunately, today was pretest day for spelling so I didn't need to stress over my inability to make copies. The math I had planned for the day did require copying though, so math plans changed. I thought about it a moment and decided on one of the two more fun math books that they could work on together. Great! Two subjects down! The writing lesson of the day was journals so that wasn't a problem. I only had one other subject planned for the day which we didn't get to, but that's alright. It'll wait until tomorrow.

While we were busy with school, Pa made a phone call to the place we purchased our generator a couple years ago. Unfortunately, it turned out the repairman was on vacation this week. Naturally.... Okay, any chance we could do a trade in?....Why sure we could do that! But....not until the trade in was repaired. Uh Huh! The fellow on the other end of the phone line was sympathetic though, and he had his thinkin' cap on. He suggested perhaps we might purchase the one generator of the model we were interested in that they had in stock, then bring the used one in for repair at which point they would buy it from us. Yeah, we could do that! He placed our name on the available generator and Pa headed into town to pick it up.

By the time Pa returned with our shiny new power source, we had finished with the days lessons and were outside playing with the cats and taking pictures.

The fact that you are reading this now is proof that this little tale had a happy ending :)