I'm Dreaming of a White...

Day after Christmas. Ah, well. Never paid much attention to Christmas, anyway.

It started snowing around a quarter to eight this morning, and basically never stopped. We've had dustings, maybe an inch or two, and it always melted off without much delay. But today it snowed and snowed. Not like up north, to be sure, but six or eight inches is a pretty good dump for the desert.

The weekender neighbors were due this morning, and I called them and gave them an update. Fortunately they were bringing their 4X4 so it wasn't a problem for them to get in. Ghost teleported into the meadow to greet them when they came by around noon, and I haven't seen him since. Looks like he's back to normal and I get to sleep alone for a couple of nights.

So the older boys and I just spent the day in the lair snoozing and reading, respectively. Around five I took them out to the pantry for Snacky Time. The solar panels are completely covered with snow, of course, so after the dogs were done I went to the power shed to fire up the generator. Lord it was cold, and the generator didn't want to start. No surprise there. But it did finally kick over, as it always does. I headed back to the lair and barely had my gloves off when - disaster! The engine made a horrible noise and died. I've heard that noise before. It's the squeal of death.

Sure enough, the engine was locked down hard. I know the oil was okay, because I topped off the level before trying to start the generator. But it was so cold it flowed into the crankcase like honey. Probably that didn't help, but it shouldn't have caused the problem. The thing's six years old, which is old for a consumer-grade generator. I guess its time had just come.

Fortunately there's a back-up, all tested and charged. It's a lot younger, and - glorious day! - has an electric starter. But I'm not at all sure of the condition of its governor. But once I got everything hooked up right the system started taking a good charge, so I guess that's all right. Trouble is, now there's no back-up. A good replacement is going to cost like Gehenna, but I mustn't delay saving my pennies.

Sure wish I had a wind generator - then I wouldn't be so dependent on these gasoline-powered monstrosities. Someday...