1gary
About a year and a half ago I purchased a generator. My wife thought I had fallen in a hole or something. She thinks I'm too much becoming a survivalist. I laughed and reminded her of 13 years ago when we had such bad storms and flooding that we were without power for a week. It didn't effect us much at the time, because the water heater, stove and oven were all gas powered. So we pretty much just needed a few kerosine lamps. Today with central heating, on demand(electric controlled water heater) and electric ovens, and a freezer full of meat we are in a much different situation. Funny thing was two weeks after I got it, some nimnut took out a main power pole on highway 101 knocking out power to our whole town for about 12 hours. When my wife got home from work 1 1/2 hours late because of the accident itself, she was hungry and tired and quite please to find a gourmet dinner waiting for her with powered up dvd player and tv. All in all I think she is quite pleased we have a generator now!