You never know what you've got until it's gone and that's especially true when the power goes out. We live in the country -- no city water, no sewers -- so when the power goes out, we're done for. No heat, no water, no lights, no flushing toilets, no nothing.

Our power is frequently out. Lots of morons hit telephone poles on our street, it seems. Last year's late-winter snowstorm put us in the dark for two entire days. Hell hath no fury like a wife who can't run (no treadmill) and two toddlers who can't watch PBS.

Vowing not to suffer the same fate this winter, my husband recently plunked down nearly $700 for a generator. I winced at the hit to our savings account, but knew that it would all be worth it the first time the power goes out.

It was out when we came home on Friday night.

The generator was still in the box in the garage ... that wouldn't open ... because the power was out.

My husband is a master electrician -- licensened in three states -- who put an entire 2nd floor on our house, added onto our basement and is more than capable of hooking up a generator (not to mention manually opening the garage door).

If I had my way, he'd have been out there hooking it up that night.

But, no amount of guilt or dirty looks worked that night. He swore it was too big of a job.

The next morning, he went hunting. And, I woke up to a still-powerless house.

I was not a happy camper as I dug around for batteries (because the kids play with all the flashlights and none of them work) and managed to round up all our stuff so that we could go to Grandmas for breakfast and a shower.

Lucky for my husband, the power was back on when we got home from our afternoon holiday party.

He says he's hooking up the generator this weekend.

For his sake, I hope the power doesn't go out before then or he may find himself traveling very quickly toward a bright light.

:-)