It's been an eventful few days. Terry got into a car accident on the 401 in Toronto Wednesday afternoon. She wasn't hurt thankfully, which was quite amazing considering there were two semi-trucks involved, and her car got munched by one of them. Her car probably won't be repaired though, as it looks like the repairs would cost more than it is worth. Thursday I drove to Toronto and back to rescue her. The big power blackout started while we were driving back home. As soon as we figured out what had happened I slowed down to economy cruise, and we coasted into our driveway with the car running on fumes.

After we got home I pulled the generator out of the garage, but I couldn't get it to start. I pulled on the starting cord until I was ready to have heat stroke but it wouldn't fire. It hadn't been started since the Ice Storm of Jan 98, when we went ten days without power. Geez, I guess gasoline (winter gas at that) doesn't last 5 and a half years. It sure didn't smell like gas when I opened the tank.

The power came back on at 2:50 AM Friday morning. The federal government announced that all non-essential employees were to stay home on Friday, so I did. I headed to the local gas station to fill the car up, but they didn't have power. The next gas station had power, but the unleaded fuel ran out just as I arrived. They had already run out of mid-grade, so the car and jerry-can got filled with premium fuel. The generator and lawn mower should really purr now.

One of the Canadian Tire stores was open, so I managed to buy some carburetor cleaner. The carb on the generator was really gummed up from the remains of the gas from 1998. But, after I cleaned it and replaced the gas in the tank with the fresh premium I had just bought, it started right up.

Friday afternoon and Saturday we started shopping for a replacement car for Terry. I really, really hate car shopping.