It’ll ruin the VCR

Photo by BobbaLew.

“I need to test,” said our stand-by serviceman.
We have a stand-by generator (pictured at left).
It’s Generac®, installed years ago.
It kicks on automatically should our electricity fail.
It’s a large industrial-grade V-twin internal-combustion engine of one-liter displacement turning a generator.
It’s fueled by natural-gas, which means if Armageddon occurs it has to also take out the natural-gas supply, not just kill the electricity.
It’s seen use out here in the sticks where the electricity dives occasionally.
One time it ran all day after a winter storm.
Another time it ran about five hours after a semi took out a power-pole up the street on 5&20.
It self-tests about five minutes every week.
We have it pushing everything but our bedroom and the air-conditioning. Which means our freezer stays cold, as does our refrigerator.
Our tankless water-heater is partially electric, as is our furnace. It has an electric blower, and electronic ignition.
Our garage-door is also electrically opened. It’s twin bay, seventeen feet by eight — extremely heavy.
There’s just one problem.
There’s a 20-second delay before self-starting, which it does with a car battery.
That delay is just long enough to kill all the digital clocks, plus discombobulate our VCR.
Our VCR was claimed to have battery backup, but it doesn’t.
If the electricity goes, I have to reprogram the VCR; the entire kibosh, clock, station-seek, and recording program.
“I need to test,” said the stand-by serviceman.
That means disable the electricity input, to see if the stand-by kicks on.
“It’ll ruin the VCR,” I said.
No biggie; reprogramming the VCR is about 10-15 minutes.
Everything went dead, and 20 seconds passed.
Then the stand-by kicked on, and everything came back on.
“Works like a charm!” the service-guy said.
Except now all our clocks were dead, and the VCR off in the ozone.
Okay, reprogram VCR start-to-finish.
Reset clock; make sure it’s P.M. instead of A.M.
Check recording program — it’s all still there.
It must have a battery backup of some sort.
Do channel-search; about 5-10 minutes.
Back in business, we hope.
We’ll see if it records the Evening TV News as programmed.
It didn’t, of course.
“NOW WHAT?”
I looked at the clock, and that was still right.
I looked at the recording program, and it was completely gone.
“That was there earlier this afternoon,” I said.
Ain’t technology wonderful?

• RE: “Out here in the sticks.....” —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.
• “5&20” is the main east-west road (a two-lane highway) through our area; State Route 5 and U.S. Route 20, both on the same road. 5&20 is just south of where we live.
• A “tankless water-heater” is just that; no hot-water storage tank. (It heats the water with a gas flame as it passes through.)