No Thanks, We Had Power Yesterday

Just last night my husband and I were talking about the next house plans.  The only thing on my list (after the patio is done) is a whole house generator.  We lose power all the time and it drives me crazy.  It might be for just an hour or two, but it's pretty regular.  Since I work from home, not having power is a huge problem. 
My husband thought we should put the generator on the back burner and get new front doors instead.  The ones we have are wood, old and in bad shape.  In the winter we get frost build-up on the bottom of the doors and the doors rattle in the wind.  They might be original to the house, and that's not a good thing.  I argued for the whole house generator and then we were too tired to talk about it anymore.
This morning we had a storm rumble through about 8:00 a.m.  It didn't seem that bad, but we lost power anyway.  It turns out it was much worse than I thought.  Nearly 700,000 people in the Chicago metro area are without power.
By the time I realized we weren't getting the power back quickly, it was too late to rent a generator.  The girls and I ran into the basement, lifted everything we could off the floor and waited.  The rain stopped before our basement flooded, which was a big relief.
The girls and I toughed out the heat until Jayne came by to take them to the pool.  The dog and I survived the afternoon, but it wasn't pretty.
I was starting to worry about the food in the fridge/freezer when a friend said we could borrow their generator.  She said, "It's little, but it works."  She was right.  It is little.  There are only two outlets, but it does work. 
Now the fridge/freezer is plugged in.  For the moment, I'm catching up on work (really, I am).  We might not have power for a couple of days, but I don't care anymore.  Cooler air is moving in and we have a generator.  It's not perfect, but it will do for now.
Oh, and the whole house generator just moved to the top of the project list.  We lucked out this time, but we recognize we might not get so lucky next time.