I Love Electricity

I've never been so happy to wake up before 5:00 a.m. as I was this morning. At 4:55 the lights blazed on in my bedroom, signaling the end of over one hundred hours without electricity. 101 hours and ten minutes to be exact, but, really, who's counting? Besides me, that is.

The power in my neighborhood had vanished like a David Copperfield elephant at 11:45 Thursday night, during the height of the ice storm that crippled the Northeast, plunging us into darkness and disappearing for more than four days. When the electricity finally came back, it did so with remarkably little fanfare considering how much it had been missed. One barely perceptible click and that was it - we had power again!

Some people in this area are still without light or heat and according to New Hampshire Governor David Lynch, could remain so until the end of next week, meaning, if true, a cold and dark Christmas for those still affected. An emergency shelter has been set up at our local high school and I'm told administrators will be holding a meeting tomorrow to decide whether to just forget about trying to get the students back to school until after the first of the year. You can probably guess where my kids stand on that issue.

Anyway, my thanks go out to all of the anonymous, hardworking individuals who have been, and continue to be, putting in long hours under difficult conditions, working day and night to get power restored, to clear debris from roadways and power lines, and in general to do all of the work that people tend to take for granted until they are affected by a situation of this magnitude.

Now, of course, forecasters are calling for an old-time Nor'Easter to strike the area on Friday, dropping six inches or more of snow. Normally that doesn't even qualify as a big storm, at least here where I live, but with so many people still unable to heat their homes it could make a difficult situation that much worse.

A week ago I would never have believed it if someone had told me we would be without power for well over four days. Now I'm just glad it's back. If you're so inclined, spare a prayer or just a good thought for the people who are still shivering or unable to return to their homes.