Early February 2020
Power to Live: The Dark and Stormy Night
Many years ago, during the late 1980s, I was experiencing my one and only phase, ever, of a form of Writer’s Block. The condition was, in fact, more of a stalled engine in terms of creative thought. My fiction was being befuddled by vultures, vultures, everywhere around me, lying through forked and un-forked tongues.
In truth, I was unable to write fiction because my everyday life had become so littered with so many non-true lies. A packet of betrayal was delivered to my doorstep, monthly. I was not the only one wondering what the heck was going on with the American people of the post-Reagan era. False-ties from everywhere came to call upon one and all.
Time has revealed the sell-outs of so many louts! A dark and stormy night was upon the land of the free and the home of the brave, but we Americans somehow believed that we were entering into a world of limitless light, post-Cold War, when we would bring those troops home, and . . . spend the money on us, we, the American people. The majority of Americans, however, failed to see their peace dividend that went down the sewer of social spending.
For many American workers, the dark and stormy night was just beginning . . .
I owe it all to Dear Husband who pointed me toward how to write my way out of my own Dark and Stormy Night. The first NORTHSTAR became a reality in 1994, followed by its publication by a treacherous fraud in the publishing world. That CEO thief took off with millions of dollars from His Own Publishing House. I was then off to the races of getting my book and my royalty back, and moving forward in my life . . . toward non-fiction activities that did not include white-collar crime. Alas and alack! School and church were even more filled with white-collar crooks!
There are many times when I wish my life to be as far away from fiction as possible. I greatly prefer to live in The Real World. Despite its awfulness at times, the real world roots me, and it suits me just fine.
This desire is not shared by people who wish their lives more filled with flights of fancy. And there are millions of them. Some clever individuals even turn to writing reviews online with the touch and the tone of the mystery writer, intermixed with mildly droll social commentary. But more on that reality later.
The Milligan Homestead, Larkhaven, is now in possession of its 3rd Generac. The first one was purchased in November 2019 amidst construction of our Dream House. That productive activity was concurrent with constant power blackouts, courtesy of PG&E. I believe framing was underway, in more ways than one.
That Generac, #1, died sometime in October 2020, right next to The Garage. The Generator Repair Lad from the electric supply store came to service it, and he was very upset. I dealt with the poor boy who wanted to know why this patient had basically died on the table. The inoperative Generac, moreover, was, in his opinion, a greasy, dirty mess. The look of revulsion on his face as he touched the oily parts indicated to me that he was undergoing some sort of trauma. He suspected generator-abuse that ought to have been actionable. I promised him that we would take better care of the next Generac.
Generac #2 was purchased from the electric supply business of the Generator Repair Lad. That baby was an orphaned model, used and regenerated. The #2 (Regenerated) Generac lived from its purchase in early November 2020 until Christmas Morning. It was a rainy, cold day here in Placer County, but the candles were burning bright with hope in my homestead during that Noël.
In early January 2021, near Epiphany, the Regenerated Generac, #2, was attended by the 2nd Repair Lad. This technician looked much less traumatized by the ailing energy source. That backup Generac received a major overhaul, but, by that date, the machine was no longer necessary. At long last, after 6 months of delays and postponements and waiting and waiting and waiting, the Milligan residence received installation of electricity by the PG&E crew. The young whippersnappers pulled 800 feet of wire through the underground conduit (built and paid for by the Milligans) on the day before the New Year!
Neighbors celebrated for us because, by that point in time, Dear Husband and I were nearly worn out by the power-on, power-off generator routine. Two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening, and the occasional two hours in the afternoon when a winter storm came barreling through the region. The hummmm of the generators in the forest during the latest PG&E blackout was a familiar and soothing song to which we added our own harmonic line.
The evening generator power cut-off was 7 o’clock. Some nights, I still look at the clock and prepare myself to start lighting candles and retrieving the LED Work-light Orbs from the battery-recharging station atop the washer in the Mud Room. One of the smaller orbs slipped from my hand one winter evening, and it rolled, like a giant eyeball, across the floor. I nicknamed it “Marty”, after Marty Feldman.
It’s only been within the past week that I was willing to purchase, on sale, another 12-count box of candles from Colonial Candles to replenish the exhausted exhaustive supply.
Generac #3 is meant to be the Forever Generator. I am already envisioning its demise, one dark and stormy night, when PG&E has doused the rural counties into pitch-black darkness so that the slum-cities can live with abundant light, amidst the darkness of their every-day lives.
The Generac is a hot-ticket item in California, and all over the country of the USA. Generac #1 was the last model for sale in the inventory-yard of Placer County during that hectic week of November 2019. We presently own 1 non-Generac generator, of lesser vintage and voltage, as the makeshift portable generator that we quickly purchased on Boxing Day 2020 for — when all else failed. All else failed routinely.
Presently, I look out upon my generator graveyard, and I ponder the possibility of going into an underground resale business, peddling semi-used generators to the Desperadoes in northern northern California. Those desperate people are the Bay Area refugees, the city slickers who think they can move into the sticks and live off-grid just as easily as The Locals do . . . until the muddy road gets the Prius fender all dirty, and then, well, it’s a calamity. A true crisis. I’ve been “asked” by the Princess Prius to cough up money to repair the shared private road so that she can endure the savage winter here in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
The current, continuing and never-ending crisis in U.S. energy has become a catalyst for creativity online. People everywhere around the country are attempting to use the Imagination as a way to live in The Nation of civilized citizenry. We civil taxpayers are trying to prevail over all of the stupidity that seems to be normalcy in America, and world-wide, among the Political Class and in Academia.
For peace of mind amidst the moronic malarkey, I offer this stunningly superb drama, in written form, from a reviewer of the Generac. It’s an instant classic! It proves the power to live is alive and well in the U.S.A.
Great peace of mind!
February 4, 2021
Russ from Michigan Age: 45-54
It was a dark, starless night, and something wicked was in the air. The presence of evil was almost palpable. My family sat huddled together, listening to the howling winds, wondering what malice was carried on them. As if on cue, lightning streaked across the sky, thunder crashed and shook the house, and the power was lost! ...but only for an instant! Before the children barely had a chance to scream, we heard the rumbling of the powerful 16kW motor in our Generac automatic standby generator come to life, and within seconds we were again basking in the warm glow cast from our energy-conscious LED bulbs. Just then, I chanced to glance outside the window and saw the Metro Electric truck drive by, the technician a white knight, giving a wave and valiantly charging forward, ensuring all with the foresight to purchase a Generac automatic standby generator were safe and secure. Later the next day the power to the community was restored, but at what cost? Food spoiled, children's homework from on-line classes left unfinished, and deadlines missed. But for one family, all was not lost, and they held their patriarch in the highest regard, for his wise purchase of their Generac automatic standby generator ensured that life as they knew it continued unabated, even as the world around them fell to ruin.
