Our two nights of stormy weather Tuesday and Wednesday have caused the most widespread power loss in my state's largest utility company's history (a long history of not answering their phones and giving customers the runaround).
I know they're working hard to fix the problems. We are fortunate enough to have power; it only flickered a couple of times at my house. Half my neighborhood has nothing; a small percentage of those have a helping hand. Say what you will about the suburbs, but there are some friendly people. As great as urban areas are, few of your neighbors would happen to have a gas generator they'd let you borrow.
On a much smaller scale, the power problems remind me of last year's NYC blackout. Humor me. It's different (obviously) because of the way the power grid is laid out. On any given street, only houses on one side of the road are without electricity. Bad for those without power, but kind of neat for the opportunities it offers. We also have the luxury of throwing open all our windows or escaping to our large, shady back yard if the in-house heat gets to be too much.
I wrote not too long ago about knowing your neighbors – literally and figuratively – to include people you come in contact with during your day. There are extension cords running across streets in my neighborhood. There are people who've fired up their portable gas power generators for themselves, and run cords to the homes next door. An old guy out walking his dog told me he's been without power for three days, but he took it in stride. That's during the beginnings of our long Texas summer. His outlook is rare and refreshing, especially compared to the other old dude who was talking with his neighbors about how the power company lied to him.
Neighbors are helping neighbors cut up fallen trees or large limbs blown down by the strong winds. In a slower time, in another world even, the neighbors would drag wood into the middle of the street, we'd have a bonfire and sing campfire songs until midnight. People could block traffic by parking their overblown SUVs at the ends of each road. There'd be hot dogs, beer, American flags waving in the clear summer night sky.
OK, so that's laying it on a little thick. I feel blessed that opening the front door to my house affords me a greeting whoosh of cool air, happy wife and kid and a refrigerator more or less full of food. I hope my neighbors can have that back really soon.
Have a good weekend. Stay cool!
My sister lives in Toronto and was affected by the blackout big time. She had to walk 26 blocks home that day and then up to the 13th floor of her apartment building. In sandals.
My Mom happened to be flying to see her for the first time that same night and they had to lug all her suitcases up said flights.
It was scary not being able to communicate with them.
I can remember the power going out for me once during the winter. I don't think i've ever felt that cold in my life.
By the way, don't light all the candles that you own...ususally there are some "smelly" ones in there and the mixing of the different scents can make you pretty nauseous. Or at least they made me feel that way. Just thinking about it right now makes me feel like hurling.
Have a great weekend, T.!
We finally got our power back yesterday ~ it is amazing since we are new to this neighborhood how the one's without power all pulled together to keep a check on everyone. One side of our street had power and the other *murphy's law would be my side* did not ~ but the one's with power invited those of us over to cool off in air condition and the like....I'm just glad to have our power FINALLY restored!!
matt and i always have the most fun when the power goes out. i can fianlly get his mind off of tv. it is awesome! of course...the power never stays out too long...we would eventually run out of things to say...i'm sure. there is a movie about blackouts...just caught it last weekend....late at night...when everyone else was asleep. it was about people just going nutty over the blackout...buying guns...accidental shootings...scary. glad you are in such a good neighborhood.
I had such a good time during the NYC blackout. I lay in Central Park, went walking through the dark streets (everyone was hanging out with their neighbors), saw Times Square totally dark (what a sight!), saw the stars twinking in the sky from the Upper West Side, and slept with the windows open and letting in the breeze.
I was in Palestine Texas during all of the bad storms, in the BOONIES at my Mom and Dad's house. My youngest son got severely sick from all of the heat and my hubby had to come get us and cut our vacation short. :( The funny part... My dad and I sat on the porch all night and watched the storm. I remember making a remark "I hope none of these gigantic pine trees fall on a power line"...
Yep, you guessed it. A gigantic pine tree fell on a power line at the north end of their property. Their electricity was out from Tuesday night until Friday morning. Ugh! (I'm glad we came home Wednesday night!)
Love your blog!
2nd try
I've always found people from Texas to be very helpful and friendly.
It's always nice to know that there's lots of friendly, helpful folks around.
Lucky you to have all your utilities.
BTW, I had to take all the dashes out of my identifications above.
I was part of the blackout last year in Detroit (well - the suburbs) and we had a BLAST. Nothing brings out the neighbors like a good power outage!