this morning the gas pipe crew outside our house put a JCB bucket through the electricity cable. The power is still not on. To be honest the gas pipe gang have been working their way through the village and it has been mayhem. Powercuts have been common. So has car damage. Yesterday my Wife's car was trashed by said JCB swinging into the side of it. You do not need to be an insurance assessor to see it is a right-off.
anyhow courtesy car is here, and I suspect we will do ok, as the offending company have been good about it all, and we are having a 'meeting ' in the morning. So, the power. Fortunately I have a substantial generator. I have kept the freezers and fridge powered by 'blipping' them in every couple of hours or so. My frozen water in the chest freezer has been great to put on the top shelf of the fridge to keep it cool. Our elderly neighbour is all electric, so I ran a cable to his fridge too. He is here for his dinner right now, and I have fired up the woodstove as it is a little chilly now the sun is setting. Maurice is a tough old boy, 93 and fought the Japanese in Burma. He is quite philosophical, unlike our 30 something neighbours who are freaking out. My immediate neighbour the other side of us asked me-seriously-why I was powering my elderly neighbour. She said that ahe was just as important. My Wife told her that he was an old man, and when our children were young and we had no money, he helped us with our plumbing and did not charge us. Anyhow, we are going to fix him up with a couple of flasks of hot water and an LED lantern. He is happy with that, and two pints of my homebrew bitter went down well too!
He thinks it is great that we are the only ones with the telly on.My Daughter has just been told that the power should be back on by 8.30pm, but it has been a good test of gear. If anything, I need more petrol. I keep it in metal jerry cans in a concrete coal bunker. Yes, I know the law.
Also, neighbours will be the first,in a real crisis, to kick off and expect YOU to help them. Just my meandering thoughts.
