Within minutes of the last entry three days ago the Internet Gods recognized my hubris by knocking out the power (as well as the heat and all the other fun things that go with it) from our house.
I am at the office right now - warm, bright and connected. More than 100,000 customers have had power restored over the weekend , we are not yet in that club.
We drove to Rochester on Saturday, purchasing batteries, lanterns and a little black-and-white battery operated television which was apparently manufactured by a battery company.
In the age of running an iPod for 14 hours on a metal piece smaller than a fingernail - this sucker takes 10 "c" size batteries and runs for about six hours.
For those of you who live in places with electricity - C and D batteries are the coin of the realm in our world. We should have stocked up more in Rochester.
There are hundreds of power crews using every available hotel room in a hundred mile radius. Their trucks have logos from companies as distant as Quebec, West Virginia and North Carolina.
We've discovered it is possible for it to be colder in your house than outdoors (lack of sun) and have a major household schism on just how long food is "good" in a sealed refrigerator.
Life has been a series of small insults and inconveniences which are frustrating but not fatal. An idiot radio reporter drove it home this morning when he actually asked an out-of-town electrical lineman how this situation compared to Katrina.
It doesn't.
Not in the least.
It's a freak storm with freak result.
Within a week or two life as we knew it will resume.
The loss of so many beautiful trees is sad, but it is not a tragedy.
We're going to be OK.
Cold, cranky and aboslutely stir crazy for a little while- but OK in the end.
Copyright 2006 Judi Griggs