Where in Chicago ridge are you? I'm on 110th and oak and I haven't had any power issues.
I have a small 1800 watt gas generator. It has saved me several times. It will run my entire tank (working hard with both heaters on), but takes all the stress out of power outages.
This is a nice one similar to mine:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/boa/3158795406.html
We live super close saltymike ... I live on 111th and oak park .... No outage here either
We live super close saltymike ... I live on 111th and oak park .... No outage here either
Bignicks power outage allowed us to find out how close the 3 of us are.