A 5-Question Multiple-choice Pop Quiz About A Power Outage That Rankled Ms. Bean

/ Ally Bean

Yes, my little huckleberries, today I have a pop quiz for you. Anyone who answers all 5 questions correctly will receive a gold star ⭐️ which, I think we can agree, is quite nice. What more could you want? 

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Q1: What was Ms. Bean doing when the power went out at 6:00 p.m. on Friday?

A. Editing a new blog post about the meaning of life.

B. Playing an old-time word game, UpWords, with her sweet patootie whilst enjoying Classic Vinyl on SiriusXM.

C. Making a chocolate soufflé to celebrate the weekend.

D. Writing a strongly worded tweet criticizing Space Karen for ruining Twitter.

Q2: What caused the power to start flickering and turn off in a dramatic ending to a long week?

A. A roofing shingle on our house came loose, crashed down onto a utility line, and *bam* no power.

B. A crazed squirrel a few blocks over ate through an electrical line and *shazam* no power.

C. Torrential rain and high winds knocked over an old tree onto an electric substation and *kapow* no power.

D. Thor the God of Thunder, son of Odin and Freya and source of the name for Thursday, had a hissy fit and *poof* no power.

Q3: What did Ms. Bean mutter when she saw realized what had happened?

A. Now what?!!

B. Where is that damned squirrel!

C. The end is nigh, repent ye sinners while ye may.

D. Holy Fricking Mole-y! I’M. NOT. HAPPY.

Q4: How long did the power outage last and what was the temperature inside the house when it came back on?

A. A few minutes then all was well again; temperature remained at 68ºF.

B. A few hours just long enough for Ms. Bean to fret about the food in the refrigerator going bad; temperature went down to 65ºF.

C. 16 hours meaning that Ms. Bean slept fitfully knowing the food in the refrigerator had gone bad, but not the freezer… yet; temperature plummeted to 56ºF.

D. over 24 hours thereby causing the food in the refrigerator and the freezer to go bad; temperature bottomed out at 54ºF.

Q5: Did Ms. Bean and Zen-Den go to the grocery store on Saturday and spend mucho dinero to buy food to replace what was in the refrigerator when the power went out?

A. Yes, of course they did.

B. Nope, the power outage was just a blip.

C. Maybe, but first they went to buy a lottery ticket feeling it’d be the best way to finance the unanticipated expense of buying food for the refrigerator again having been grocery shopping on Friday afternoon.

D. What makes you think they went grocery shopping on a Saturday?

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203 thoughts on “A 5-Question Multiple-choice Pop Quiz About A Power Outage That Rankled Ms. Bean”

  5. BADBD! On the other hand: you think you had problems? You should have been with me this weekend, tucked into a hotel whose WiFi went down, in a town where Verizon was having problems and cellular coverage went on and off. You only think R&R stands for rest and relaxation. It also can stand for rant and rave.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Linda, what a lousy way to spend a weekend when you were hoping for something, dare I say, fun. I like your alternate definition of R&R, btw. I’ve been known to rant and rave about things, although this outage didn’t really make me gripe too much. You got 2 out of 5.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. 1. B
    2. A
    3. A
    4. C
    5. A

    This quiz was hard and filled me with intense “Oh noooooooooooo.” Power outages are The Worst, except for the fridge/food fretting, which is The REAL Worst, except for when it lasts long enough for all the food to go bad which is THE ULTIMATE WORST.

    We had a five-day power outage a few years ago after a severe storm, and I was able to transfer some of our food to a friend’s freezer, but most of it went bad. I tried to Aggressively Brightside the situation and appreciate the chance to rid our home of a bunch of half-used condiments and expired salad dressings, as well as to give the fridges and freezers a thorough scrub, but it was still hugely depressing.

    I’m sorry you dealt with this, at whatever level you dealt with it.

    Like

    • Suzanne, you got 3 out of 5 right which is a good score. You also explained my thinking about the whole mess perfectly with your intense “Oh noooooooooooo.” That sums it up.

      You’re right about looking on the bright side of things. After I got over muttering I realized it’d be great to get rid of the half-used condiments + unpopular salad dressings. And I can guarantee you we have a super clean refrigerator now, but honestly it was not what I wanted to be doing on the weekend.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I am lazy and will say all Bs.

    Power outages automatically make me fret about food in the freezers. We’re usually stocked up, and it would be big bucks down the drain.

    Liked by 1 person

    • nance, well you got one answer, the first one, correct with your lazy approach! Once I realized that the power wasn’t coming back on soon I went into full-on food fret mode. You’re right about money down the drain, both literally and figuratively.

      Like

    • AutumnAshbough, I respect the logic behind your choices, but am sorry to tell you got 4 out of 5. This outage wasn’t quite as long as your catastrophic guess. But you were so close!

      Liked by 1 person

  11. My brain is too tired to complete the quiz (and I LOVE gold stars, so you know I’m really tired)…but what a fun read.

    Years ago we had a days-long power outage when I was pregnant and after the first 12 hours which were kinda/sorta fun – it was AWFUL! I’ve been terrified by the possibility of power outages ever since. My stomach drops out whenever the lights flicker!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Elisabeth, we’ve had a few multi-day power outages here and they’re the worst. I can only imagine how awful it was while being pregnant. So sorry. I, too, find that my stomach drops when the lights start to flicker– and I do a good deal of peremptory muttering about what might be happening.

      Like

  12. I’m not “copying off” of anyone else’s answers/comments…so if this sequence/guess has already been played, sorry! B, C, C, B, C. Those are my answers and I’m sticking to them. 🤣

    Liked by 1 person

  14. My guesses are B, C, D, C, C. Although the lottery ticket buying is throwing me for a bit of a loop. Btw, I’m in your state; however, I’m up north and I believe you’re down south, correct? I don’t want to commit a major blog faux pas and miss seeing you if you’re near.

    Liked by 1 person

      • Visiting family and managing to meet a couple of BBs in the process!

        Your next post will give the correct answers, I suppose? Curious to know which one I missed. Since I was close, could I have a silver star?? 😄

        Liked by 1 person

        • Yes, of course you can have a silver star. Others with a 4/5 score have asked for one, too. I don’t happen to have a silver star emoji, so you’ll have to pretend– but that imaginary one is all yours.

          Like

      • Visiting family and managing to meet a couple of BBs in the process!

        Of course the last answer was A! Silly me forgot that a simple yes they went to the store was an option. I did say the lottery ticket seemed off to me. Sigh.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. How about bcbcc? I was going to go with AC/DC but it’s only four. I don’t deserve a gold star though bc I saw the squirrel answer. Chester told me it had to be a squirrel and I was going to guess that!. We have outages on occasion but lately fewer. The food is the worst with second guessing if it’s ok. Ugh

    Liked by 1 person

    • Martha, you got 3 out of 5. Chester would know about squirrels but in this case it wasn’t a squirrel, something less interesting. As for second guessing the food, I stressed over that and went with a better safe than sorry approach. As one does, while muttering.

      Like

  21. It’s hard not to look at all the answers as we scroll down to the comment box. I managed to, and I am absolutely winging it here!

    B – ya just don’t seem the chocolate souffle type (but I could be wrong)
    C – it would be more than bad luck for it to be a shingle!
    D – but if it were me, it might cause stronger language, depending on length of time
    C – speaking of length of time, maybe add a few curse words to the above. A & B was not long enough to merit a post. But it was a toss-up between C & D (and lots of stuff would have survived – if you made sure not to open the fridge door)
    D – They realised barely anything was lost and they were damned if they were gonna go shopping two days in a row.

    Course, if you had been in MY neck of the woods, you would have lost nothing, being able to plop stuff in the piles of snow in the backyard 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dale, I’m enjoying your detailed analysis of each question but have to tell you that you got 4 out of 5. Your last answer, not so much. As for you and your snow, we could have used that here last weekend.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Glad you are 😉 Heaven forbid I just answer the questions!
        Ah well… I took a chance. I was gonna go with A…
        Still have loads if you want… effing stuff is still around and they keep threatening us with more. Enough, already!

        Liked by 1 person

  22. What a frustrating wait that must have been before the power was restored. We need power to use our well and other things like that, so we installed a generator. It doesn’t power the whole house, but it does keep the fridge on!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Margy, neighbors have a generator so we could see their house all lit up, while we lurked around in the dark. Our outages aren’t frequent enough nor do they impact our water supply so we don’t have a generator, but I can understand why you do.

      Like

  26. We actually woke up this morning to find our power had gone out overnight. This would not have made for a good quiz on our end as to what we were doing as neither of us knew it had happened…sleeping. That being said, we specialize in power outages on bright, sunny days. In fact, the outages got so bad several years ago I “told” on our power company to our township supervisor. Power outages…not a big fan…but in the summer when they happen we get the big fan out!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Janet, you got 2 out of 5. Not bad, but not going to be able to award you a gold star. You understand. Hail is one of those events that makes me snarl, too. Glad to know no power outages for you. They’re a drag.

      Liked by 1 person

  28. Oh I am so sorry to have to confess that I am a cheater. I didn’t mean to be a cheater, but I often read comments before I write mine… and uh-oh the comments revealed to me the correct answers. I will hide my head in shame and seek forgiveness from the universe.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Robin, I appreciate your truthfulness and understand how it easily could happen by accident. Therein is the flaw in my idea of asking readers to answer quiz questions. Still once in a while it’s fun to mix up how I write posts.

      Like

  30. BCACC are my answers and I didn’t look at any other responses. I hope my first answer is correct because it means you’re my kind of person.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Bijoux, your first answer is correct, so we are the same kind of person! Yay! However overall you got 3 out of 5 which is pretty good. Thanks for playing along.

      Like

    • Jenn, I understand what you mean about cheating so good of you to know how to remain on the straight and narrow. We, too, are pleased our power is back on. Hoping this won’t happen again for a good long while.

      Liked by 1 person

  32. Okay, I’ve just scanned the existing comments but I love that most, like mine, start with B. That, I think might be the most telling of all the questions. My answers are BCDCA

    Hope you are warm and happy on this Wednesday!

    Liked by 1 person

  33. I just spent like five minutes treating the first few comments like a logic puzzle before I read through to find Dan had figured it all out. I feel ROBBED that I couldn’t continue trying to figure out Q4 and Q5.

    Liked by 1 person

    • NGS, I wondered if anyone would go the logic puzzle route with this. I realize that after one commenter gets a gold star, the suspense is over– everyone now knows the correct answer. Thanks for trying to figure out the answer, try not to hate on Dan, ok? He’s a good guy.

      Like

  36. So … the power was out for less than 24 hours but your food still spoiled? Had you already had dinner? I should have asked that first. In the event of power outages here, we tend to eat up what we can of perishable foods, but, yeah, there would be a limit. You could buy a small generator to keep the refrigerator going, although it’s kind of weird buying something that you hope you never have to use. (And, oh, yes, we have one now since hurricanes started moving north.)

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marie, the food in the refrigerator spoiled but not in the freezer. I followed the AARP food safety guidelines. Living where you do I can understand why you need a generator. Neighbors have a generator but we don’t. We’re just wild kids living on the edge with no back-up power source. 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      • LMAO! Well, I hope we never need to use the generator because machines like that (that need gasoline) scare me. And, in Florida people like to run their generators in their garage so then the family either dies or gets sick from carbon monoxide poisoning. We don’t call Florida FloriDUH for nothing 😉

        Liked by 1 person

        • I’m not comfortable with gasoline powered equipment either. I didn’t know about how generators were a thing in Florida, but I can see how the ways in which they’re used isn’t a good way. Huh, what a duh!

          Liked by 1 person

    • Jean, you are indeed an honest woman and that’s one of the things I love about you. Instead of a gold star I’m going to give you a 🌷of truthfulness. Also I have no idea why your comments aren’t immediately showing up here, but for some reason the system puts them in spam. Please don’t take it personally.

      Like

  38. Well, I know it would be possible to cheat, but I’m not that kind of student. I choose B, C, D, B, C. And I’ve just gotta say: Upwords is our favorite date night game. I would be so unhappy if the power went out while we were playing it. Hope it really was only a couple of hours.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Rita, you got 3 out of 5. Your first three answers were correct. We LOVE UpWords and often play a few rounds of it while drinking a few adult beverages. It’s such a fun unpredictable game in which we are evenly matched. We’d just finished a game, so at least the outage didn’t ruin that.

      Liked by 1 person

      • We also like to play that game with some beverages. And we made up a rule which awards double points for dirty words. There have been some vigorous debates as to what constitutes a dirty word. 🙂 I guess I was really hoping for you that the power wasn’t out that long. Such a hassle.

        Liked by 1 person

        • We’re lenient about the spelling of words and using words from other languages, but you have inspired me to add a new rule to the game. It was a hassle, not at all interesting, but no way around it other than to go through it.

          Like

  39. BCDCA, but I quickly checked the comments to see who got it first.
    I absolutely loathe power outages and am always concerned that they will occur while I am away from home and unaware. Which makes me wonder if my food has gone bad without my knowledge.
    I also have medications that need to be refrigerated, which adds another layer of concern.

    I’m sorry this happened to you. 😘

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Your clever take on ordinary snafus is entertaining, as always. Maybe the energy required to make up the multiple choice questions kept you from swearing in multiple languages!

    I look forward to the next go-round, Amiable Ally! You get a platinum star. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    • L. Marie, you got 2 out of 5. Nice try. The rain + wind took out the power substation and we did go grocery shopping again on Saturday. As for the other questions, nope, nope, nope. 😜

      Liked by 1 person

  46. Love trivia, hate power outages, and out of the hate and sadly, VAST personal experience with them in the summer, despite risking my precious gold star, my answer to the first question is A, since that’s what Murphy’s laws taught us: power outages come at the worst possible time!

    Otherwise, I’d go with the pretty images and guess B …

    For 2, I’d guess C and ask about the fate of your brand new deck? Is it ok?

    For 3, you and me both: a big fat, D!

    For 4, I know the feeling, but we survived a long power outage with, to our surprise, the food intact (we don’t open the refrigerator for anything once the outage starts), but we were in the process of making a pizza, so all of the ingredients, the dough, and our good mood went the way of the dodo since we couldn’t put them in the refrigerator or cook them… So I’m guessing C.

    For 5, I can only imagine A 😦

    Sorry to hear that, glad the power is now restored and you can go back to writing the answer to “life, the universe, and everything”?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Endless Weekend, you’ve got a point about Murphy’s Law but somehow that didn’t happen in this situation. The deck came through the torrential rain and wind with no trouble, which is wonderful; thanks for asking about it.

      We didn’t open our refrigerator or freezer once the power went off. We hoped it’d be a short outage, but no such thing. I’m sorry you lost your pizza makings, that’s a tragedy. We hadn’t started dinner so nothing was lost in that moment.

      Yes the electricity is going strong again, we restocked the refrigerator, and let me just say “42” as a way of thanking you for stopping by to read and comment.

      Liked by 1 person

      • But no gold star. My life is not complete, though I am really happy about your deck! Our neighbors lost their fence with the neighbors on their OTHER side (no, not with us 🙂 ) in a torrential storm, so that’s the first thing I was going to ask about!

        Like

    • Jan, you got 2 out of 5. Good effort. It’s been unseasonably warm here with rain and wind like it’s spring– except it’s still winter. I do like your food in the garage idea, though.

      Like

  50. Fun – not fun when the power goes out. What a fun Quiz, but easy to cheat when you are in a different time zone and many of the answers have narrowed the possibilities.
    I got down to BCDCA or BBDBA but wasn’t convinced there was a squirrel with intent in the neighbourhood.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Amanda, I realize that this quiz is truly a quiz for the first people to show up. After that commenters are on the honor system not to cheat, but if they do how would I know? And does it matter as long as everyone is having fun? 🤷‍♀️

      That being said your first answer is correct and you get a ⭐️ for being right. About the answers and about our lazy squirrels who lack intent when it comes to destroying our electricity substation. They cause trouble, but not in this way.

      Like

    • Eilene, thanks for playing along. You got 4 out of 5 right, your last answer is wrong. I’m sorry they’ll be no gold star for you although another commenter suggested I should give out silver stars to everyone who gets 4/5. Maybe next time I do a quiz I’ll do that.

      Liked by 1 person

  52. HA! My little huckleberries! My choices are ccdcd I admit I’m not sure about the chocolate souffle, but it sounds good. I absolutely loved this! But I did have to google Space Karen….the things I learn here.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Joni, you got 3 out of 5 right which is a respectable score. Nicely done. I do want to make a chocolate soufflé one of these days because it’s been decades since I made one & it sounds good to me. As for Space Karen, when the insulting name fits, use it.

      Liked by 1 person

  53. B—C—D—C—A My favorite wrong answer is “The end is nigh, repent ye sinners while ye may.” It’s always a sound strategy to throw one’s self upon the mercy of the court. 🤣

    Liked by 1 person

    • Pete, you get a ⭐️ both for knowing the right answers and for making me laugh out loud at your interpretation of one of the wrong answers. You, my friend, are so right! We all need a little mercy.

      Liked by 1 person

    • evilsquirrel13, you know the first thing I thought of when the lights went out was Fuzzy, the little scoundrel! You might be the only one who still remembers him, too. He’s been gone a long time now, but his memory stays with me every time something goes wrong with this house.

      Like

  57. ACDBD
    I scrolled a tad too slowly at first and saw one person had gotten a gold star, so I speeded up my scrolling so I could cheat no more!

    Liked by 1 person

  58. I mistakenly glanced at a few comments on the way down to replying, which gave away the answers. Instead, I’ll simply say I’ve tried huckleberry pie (with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream) and it’s delicious, esp. with fresh berries from Washington State!

    Like

    • Dave, I’ve never had huckleberry pie and I’d like to try it. Somehow I know I’d love it. When I think of huckleberries I think of Huckleberry Hound who I adored as a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons.

      Like

  61. I know I’m late in answering questions and I only have one answer of “D” to question #2. Because how could it not be Thor and his hammer? I mean c’mon…I’d let Chris Hemsworth mess with my power any day.

    Yes, I watch far too many streaming shows and movies based on Vikings and Marvel heroes and really hunky guys.

    Liked by 1 person

  63. I was sorely tempted to cheat and read the other comments before responding, but I didn’t, so I’m going with BCDCC. Now that I see I didn’t choose any As, I’m second guessing myself. If I don’t earn a gold star, perhaps you could humor me with a silver…or bronze even. I hope you are currently enjoying full electricity and a full refrigerator.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Christie, you are an honest person who didn’t cheat. You got 4 out of 5 correct. As such you’ll get a silver star that is imaginary because I don’t have a silver star emoji. Thanks for playing along.

      Like

    • Suz, you got 2 out of 5. Torrential rain and wind did in the substation and I did most definitely mention that I was not happy. You’re right it was a loser time, but at least I got a blog post out of it, right?

      Liked by 1 person

  65. Fashionably late, but here for the gold stars anyway: B, C, D, D, A.
    I fretted about the power loss from the downed wire fire on December 2nd … we were out from Fri. 11:30 p.m. to Sat. 1:30 p.m. and my generator had a blip and turned itself off. I had already done my perishable shopping to last until mid-January. Great. My neighbor said “why would you throw stuff away?” We had a one-day power outage one time and his mom ate the potato salad because “I wasn’t going to let it go to waste!” I was horrified … she never got sick from it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Linda, you got 4 out of 5. We were only out 16 hours… only… 🙄 Oh that is frustrating to be organized with your shopping then have it all go to waste because of a power outage. I’d not eat the potato salad either. How did she not get sick? Eww

      Liked by 1 person

      • Well that’s not too bad – just one wrong. Wow -16 hours is bad enough with no power. Out power outage from the ice storm lasted up to five days in some places in our City – I was out three entire days, but I got the generator last Summer, so was okay in that regard, but lost internet for three days.

        I worry about food poisoning, so I wouldn’t take a chance. Marge never got sick from the potato salad – I would never risk anything with mayo. When I worked at the diner, we had a couple of EMTs come in daily for their lunch break – one guy I had graduated from high school with. The diner was closed only two days a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. The EMTs worked Thanksgiving and ate at White Castle and got very sick from food poisoning – it happened almost instantly and they missed several days of work. They both had mayo on their “sliders” and I never ate mayo outside the house again.

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        • Your generator is your saving grace. One house on the street has one, but all the rest of us take our chances. We’ve had multiple-day outages in the hottest part of summer and it is brutal.

          Interesting, but horrifying, story about the EMTs at White Castle. I’m not big on mayo in general, but now will think about where I am when/if I order a sandwich with mayo on it. I’m with you about avoiding food poisoning.

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          • The electrical grid in Michigan is one of the oldest in the nation, coupled with this erratic weather we have made me get it. I have nowhere I could stay in the Winter if we lost power for a long period of time and I worried about the pipe freezing. The Summer is bad too, but I’d go into the basement, but wouldn’t sleep down there even though it’s finished … I’m too scared of crawling insects.

            I adhere to the best buy date too and my neighbor Marge said “I never go by that – that’s wasteful.” She never got sick from food poisoning. Yes, you never know how long the mayo packets sit out or how long the condiments sit out in the prep area. At the diner we kept ours in the refrigerator case.

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            • I didn’t know that about MI’s power grid. You were wise to get a generator, obviously. Makes me wonder how old our power grid is here.

              I follow the expiration dates on foods, too. It may be wasteful from a money point of view, but it’s prudent from a healthy point of view.

              Liked by 1 person

              • People want to know why we can’t have underground wires – they have excuses and say it is too costly to do this. They were having administrative hearings and town hall meetings last week and more next week – people are incensed and to give them a $35.00 rebate only if they were out four complete days is ridiculous. On top of it, DTE lied about restoration times saying “power will be restored this evening” – no time, not even a date. Northern Michigan has Consumers Energy, most of Lower Michigan has DTE Energy – I have DTE. DTE merged our electric and gas utility companies a while back, so it is a huge conglomerate and people want it broken into smaller companies.

                I don’t have any wiggle room on those dates, even with canned items.

                Liked by 1 person

                • $35.00 after four days is DTE’s idea of a suitable rebate?!! Oh that’s pathetic in all ways. I’m glad you have a generator, but know that utility company can do better. What a mess.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • Yes, what type of compensation is that? I don’t blame people for being outraged. Not only that but hotels were price gouging – people reported hotel rooms were going for up to $300.00 to $400.00 a night, for regular hotels, not a Hyatt or Hilton hotel. At the hearing today one homeowner say his sump pump failed and with no electricity for a week he had $20,000.00 of damage from a flooded basement. I am glad I made the investment, even though I had so many fits and starts with it (all deemed to be sloppy workmanship with various parts) – SMH. It is a Honeywell made by Generac.

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                    • I hadn’t thought about a sump pump not working! The whole story is horrible. Thanks for letting me know the brand of your generator, not in the market for one right now but who knows in the future.

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                    • I agree with you – I feel for those people. You’re welcome and I have learned a lot about generators in the last year if you ever have questions. Speaking of DTE, I paid up front to my HVAC company for the gas meter to be upgraded. This was $475.00 that they were to pay to DTE on my behalf for a larger gas meter. I was told “DTE is always behind, but you’ll get an e-mail the day before as you have to be home for them to come into the house to light the pilot light. They have not done the upgrade yet, seven months later. I was told “it’s only you and unless you decide to run every appliance in your home, do washing, turn on every light in the house, etc., you will be fine.” Okay, but during the power outage, after two solid days of the generator running and they had no definitive restoration time, I began to worry. I only had one light on inside the house and my two outside lights on (pole light and a sensor light). I had no internet for three days either not that computers use a lot of energy. So I finally called the HVAC place after there was no power for two days and said “I’m still on a waiting list for the meter upgrade – should I worry about it running 24/7 and it’s not like I can shut it off to give it a rest?” They said “no worries” but me, the perpetual worrier was very glad when the generator finally turned off when the power came on 70 hours after it went off.

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