Amazingly, the servicer for the generator just happened to be less than a mile away on his weary rounds, and he was here in 15 minutes with the necessary to fix the thing. Just needed some oil, apparently. We have never run it for four straight days before. So we had power for the cpap machines and fridge last night and will be able to recharge phones and iPad today. Con Ed said our power would be back on tonight, but many others will not have it restored until late Tuesday. Con Ed has a lot to answer for. One does so strongly feel that after Hurricane Sandy it should have internalized what would be necessary to restore power in these parts and been able to leap to it rapidly. Instead, there are so many places around town where the trees knocked down last Tuesday are still down and untouched five days later. 
the silver cloud is that we have learned that all that AC may not really be necessary. So long as it isn’t too hot our house is fairly pleasant if we open all the doors and get a breeze going.

When the neighbor bought her house a couple of years ago, one of the first things she did was to install a whole-house generator.  It's come in handy a couple of times when lightning struck a main transformer somewhere and our power went out.  I've got a portable generator, about 5500 watts, but hauling it out of the garage (after taking all of the accumulated stuff on top of it, and then having to start it is not my idea of a good time. Still, it needs to be run again, and I haven't done that in several years.  A new whole-house generator and transfer switch would run about $4,500 or so, and I've got another major expense coming with the lateral sewer line from my house to the main sewer.  Estimate on that is $3,800 and it has to done, for a couple of reasons, it's clogged with tree roots, and the EPA has mandated that ceramic tile sewers  that allow rain water to infiltrate must be replaced with PVC pipe.  Well, it was inevitable.  My insurance agent says there's an endorsement that some people have that will help defray the costs.  I believe that endorsement is on my policy, and I did call and ask a couple of weeks ago.  I'm still looking to get that whole-house generator, though.