Saturday, December 17, 2005

It's getting kinda cold out there


I just now got internet connection back. It's been off since the ice storm two days ago. Sounds pretty horrible, doesn't it? No internet. How are people to survive?

We do have electricity, something 400,000 of my neighbors don't have.

Ice storms are pretty. Icicles on everything. The problem is that ice is heavy, causing tree branches, and many times entire trees, to come crashing down. Often times they bring down power lines also. Thankfully, we never lost power on our block. Most of my co-workers do not have power. Yesterday they were complaining about sleeping in their coats and having no hot water. Then they would look at me and ask if I had power. In a very soft voice, while looking down, I would reply, "um.. yeah, we never lost power." That's not a good way to make friends.

The morning that the ice storm was the worst, I was driving to work about six am. Every once in a while, I would see a flash of light in the sky. At first I thought it was lightning, but then I realized it was transformers exploding on the power poles.

Birds sit on power lines during the winter to stay warm as the electricity flows through. That's why I thought it was funny driving home from work yesterday and seeing about thirty birds lined up on some wires. Wires with no power.

I realized last night, as I was turning off my Christmas lights that most families in our area don't have a way to heat their house, keep their food, or see in the dark, yet I'm using electricity to power Christmas lights.

This will be a scene I'll be wishing for in July:
It's going to take a little while to get caught back up. I just wanted to post something quick this morning. Sorry my thoughts are so scattered.

1 comment:

John said...

At some point, it seems like winter left us (40F yesterday!) and headed your way. I imagine we'll switch back soon enough, though.