A few weeks before Hurricane Sandy hit, my parents were having many conversations, arguments, and talks about buying a generator so that we didn’t get stuck without power, like when Hurricane Irene hit last year. This topic kept coming up throughout the weeks before Sandy hit.

We looked for a generator online but we couldn't find one. Then about a week before Sandy hit, my dad got home from work and announced that he had found a generator in one of his online catalogs from work. The generator was a 5500 watt for 750 dollars which is what we were looking for.

So he went to go place the order online, but right when he went to press, “Place Order” a sign came up on the screen that said, “Sold Out”.

Then it was the day the storm was supposed to hit, which it did, and left us and surrounding neighborhoods without power, and my household without a generator.

At this point, our hopes of finding a generator were slim to none because everybody in New Jersey was in a panic and bought any generator they could find.

So my parents went ahead and they were asking all of our friends and family if they had a generator that we could borrow and use for the time we were without power. We finally found one.

This generator was one of my mom's co-workers and was 2000 watts, which could be enough to power the upstairs fridge and freezer, and the coffin freezer in the garage. This was better than nothing so we took them up on their generous offer that allowed us to use the generator until we got power back.

Within minutes, we were in our truck on our way to Rockaway Borough where the family with the generator lived.

Fifteen minutes later we rolled up to their house and got out of the car. While waiting for the husband of my mom’s co-worker, we saw him flying up the street at 50 mph in a 25 mph zone. He then cut the wheel to the right really hard to pull into the spot across the street from the house. A loud noise came from the car and startled me when he pulled into the spot. It sounded like a gunshot that came from the house that he parked in front of.

The husband got out of the car and slammed the door shaking his head while he walked over to the other side that was up against the curb and cursed loudly.

My dad then proceeded to ask him, “Ya blow it?”

He replied with a few more curse words and said, “Yeah,” in a stressful voice.

After we got the generator in the car, we started to head home from Rockaway and I asked my dad what he meant by, “Ya blow it?” He answered and said that the guy blew out his tire. I basically was puzzled that there would be such a loud noise from just the tire.

We were about half way home when my dad had an idea that he announced to me and my mom, that was, “Why don’t we ask Ginny?” So then I went ahead and called my grandma to ask her if she was using her 2000 watt generator, but she didn't answer her phone.

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Later that night she returned our call. We told her the situation and she ended up never losing power.

We rushed over to her house which was only two minutes away.

Since my dad works for a electrical company, when we got home he back-fed my grandma’s generator into the breaker box so that it could power our furnace, which would give us heat throughout our house.

Later that night, the conversation came up again about buying a generator and how nice it would be to have one thats around 6000 watts so we could have full power.

I then shouted out loud to them, “Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.”

My mom replied quickly with, “Get out of our conversation, this has nothing to do with you.”

I giggled after she said that, because it was just so funny that we could’ve gotten one if we were that desperate, but I guess we weren’t.

It had now been seven days since we lost power from the storm, and in those seven days my dad and I probably called all of the Home Depot’s, Lowe’s, and anywhere that would sell generators in the surrounding areas including surrounding states. There was nothing. The only type of generators there were, were 3250 watts which was too little and would be a waste of money. My family and I were in total shock that there were no 6000 watt generators anywhere at all.

On the eighth day without power, my dad came into my room at 8:00 in the morning and woke me up. He asked me a question that I couldn't understand, because I was still in a pretty deep sleep.

I answered and said, “Sure,” even though I didn't know what he asked me.

Then he replied again this time he said in a fairly loud voice, “Well then you need to get up now.” When he said that, I knew I chose the wrong answer of saying yes.

Once I was fully awake I asked him, “What did you ask me when you came into my room to wake me up?”

He answered, “I asked you if you wanted to go into Pennsylvania to try to find a generator.” I was kind of alright with that but I really didn't care since I had nothing to do that day.

So within a half an hour, we were in the car on our way to find a generator.

An hour later we were at the Delaware Water Gap entering Pennsylvania, my dad and I knew that there would probably be nothing right inside the border so we drove another half an hour deeper into PA.

We had arrived at a Home Depot in a town called “Tannersville,” I had no clue where we were, but I knew it was a chance to find a generator.

So we walked into the store and started looking around for any of them but there was nothing so we asked an associate if they had any and the answer was, yes. We thought we may have found one and we could go home early but the man then proceeded to say, “But we only have 3250 watt generators.” So the guy was nice enough to give us some help and call the surrounding Home Depots for us. Once again the many people that he called only had 3250 watt generators.

Then he gave us directions to the nearest Lowe’s that was about a half mile away. So we got back into the car and headed to the Lowe’s nearby. The answer was the same answer we got from all the other Home Depot’s, “All we have are 3250 watt.” So we went to seven other stores around Tannersville.

It was then 2:00 and we had found nothing and were in PA for a little over six hours. I was tired and so was my dad so we started home.

It was only an hour and fifteen minutes later when we were driving through Long Valley and I had a great idea.

I snatched my dad’s iPhone off of his knee and started searching on the web for the Lowe’s in Long Valley for one last try at a generator. My dad got angry because I took his phone without asking him and he followed up with a, “What are you looking up anyway?”

I replied and told him, “I’m looking up the number for the Lowe’s in Long Valley.”

He quickly said, “I’m telling you there is not going to be anything there because everyone is still desperate for a generator.”

I just blocked out his lecture and called the Lowe’s.

Before I knew it the lady picked up the phone and said her greeting. I replied quickly without even saying “Hi” back all I said was “By any chance did you guys get a shipment of generators in?”

She answered my question with something I wanted to hear she said, “We just got a shipment in five minutes ago of 40, 5500 watt Briggs and Stratton generators.”

I then said, “Ok we will be there to pick one up” and then hung the phone up.

Since I had the phone on speaker, my dad could hear what the lady was saying so when she said they just got a shipment in my dad hung a quick illegal U-Turn.

When we arrived at the Lowe’s in Long Valley we entered through the “Lawn and Garden” section which was where the operator on the phone said they were located and sure enough they were.

The guys that were guarding them asked us, “Are you here for a generator?”

My dad replied with a, “Yeah,” and he veered a flat bed cart with one on it towards us.

We looked around and there were still almost all 40 left. So I steered the cart to the register that was just a few feet away, and the guy asked us for his own curiosity, “Where are you guys from?”

My dad answered and said, “Morristown and we haven't had power for 8 days so far!”

The man was wide eyed and surprised and said, “Luckily we never lost power.”

I then said in my head, “Well you’re one of the lucky ones then.” The cashier ended the conversation at that. He scanned the barcode on the box and the total with tax came up on the screen and was 851 dollars and change.

That was a bit pricey for a 5500 watt generator in my mom and dads opinion, but my opinion was that we got lucky and this was going to be the best we were going to get. So we bought it anyway. My dad’s car is a Chrysler 300c which is a pretty small car to try to fit a huge generator in the trunk. We didn't think it would fit in the trunk so we tried the front seat it was a very tight squeeze but we managed to fit it in.

While we were putting it in the front seat my one sandal on my foot was getting in the way so I kicked it off my foot and by accident it went under the car. Once I was settled in we then left the parking lot not remembering I only had one sandal on. By this time we were already about two miles away from the Lowe’s we went to and I told my dad, “I only have one of my sandals.”

Since it was a long day he was very cranky and said, “What do you mean you only have one sandal?”

I then proceeded to say, “I kicked one of them off because it was getting in the way and I think it’s still in the parking lot.”

He didn't reply to the statement too well and started cursing. I apologized to him many times before I finally got him to turn around and go back to Lowe’s to retrieve my sandal. I then thanked him many times after that.

So we were finally on our way home after a long day of searching for generators when my dad said, “Now that I think about it this generator is way too expensive for a 5500 watt.”

My jaw almost hit the ground and I looked at him and proceeded to say, “So we went all the way deep into PA and now we aren't going to keep the one we just got?”

He answered my question quickly and said, “I don't know we’ll see.”

So the next day, school was cancelled once again but my mom and dad went to work to make some money. My dad’s work is located in Bloomfield, New Jersey and got the thought while he was working of calling the Home Depot right down the street from him just to see if maybe they got another shipment in. They did, they got a shipment in fifteen minutes before he called of 100, 6000 watt generators for 700 dollars. It was perfect and exactly what we were looking for, it was the right price, perfect wattage, and would help my family a lot.

My dad bought it and attempted to fit an even bigger generator in his Chrysler 300. Once again he did, but this time he took off the cardboard and fully unwrapped it to put it in.

When he got home with it I rushed outside to help him get it out of his car. After a while of working it out of the car we had to put the rubber feet on the bottom and that took about fifteen minutes.

My dad then back-fed it into the whole breaker box which would power the whole house. The good part about buying that generator was because we didn’t get power back for another four more days after that which in total was thirteen days. And since we didn't open the other one we returned it for a full refund and got 500 more watts for 100 dollars less.