We's Back

We's okay. Yes, our power went out, but it's back on now: It came on after three (3) days. We've had similar power outages before. Living in the mountains in a place of reasonably severe winters gives you this natural experience on a fairly frequently basis. On reflection, it seems that that the pattern is once every two years or so.

This time it was more interesting than most because it was so unexpected. A minor summer thunderstorm abruptly turned into a series of microburst tornadoes that swept across the northern part of the country from somewhere around the Chicago area and left four million people in the dark ... during a persistent heat wave. A large number of those people also didn't have water because our water supply depends on electric pumps. Of course the gas stations get pumped dry first thing, and ice becomes a commodity as rare as gold nuggets. The battery-powered radio worked well enough in our house, so that we could pick up all the tales of disaster from local towns, although interestingly, none from our own; mainly because the telephones, both landline and cell, went down.
Still, it gave us a chance to meditate on how lucky we are having lost only one piece of siding from the house, whereas a local church lost half its roof--just peeled off. An act of "God"? Or maybe of a malicious demon? We heard no one gasping, "Thank you, Lord!" or "Hosanna!" Still, as the pastor told everyone, "We're well insured." Rather he seemed to have a "What? Me worry?" attitude like that of Alfred E. Neuman. They hadn't bothered even to haul tarps over the exposed roof to prevent further damage.