elrod-tom
Moderator - Prefers "stereo weirdo" to "audiophile"
Well, like a lot of you, I was stuck in the **** known as the largest power outage to ever hit the US. My power just came back on an hour ago. It was out for a little over 24 hours, but it seems like a lot longer than that.
I was at work yesterday when it hit. I do software development for a tax software company, and computers (and power) are central to what we do. Then, the power went out...in the strangest way I can remember. It was like it was trying so hard to stay on, but just couldn't do it. Just like that...POOF!! Hours of work down the drain. That assumes, of course, that things aren't a REAL mess when I report to work on Monday.
Then came the drive home...normally an hour, it took damn near three. I was low on gas, so I was sweating bullets the whole way. By the time I got home, they were saying that the power would likely be out throughout the weekend. UGH!!
So we went through the usual drill - do we have enough water (we did, and the tap was running), do we have enough candles and flashlights (we did), is there anything we can save in the fridge (there was little), and so on. Oh, man...it was hot. Muggy and hot.
At some point, everyone but me went to bed. I spend about an hour trying to read the University of Michigan football annual by candlelight before I gave up. I decided that I wanted to go outside, and I managed to dig around in the dark and find the Cuban cigar that my brother sent to me. I went outside, and my neighbors were passing out melting ice cream sandwiches...the first good thing that has come my way since 4:00 PM.
So I ate the ice cream, and lit the Cuban. This is one tasty cigar, and I note that it is the second good thing that has happened to me since 4:00 PM. It's very dark in my neighborhood, as it's usually very well lit by streetlights. It's quiet...no car noise, no AC, nothing.
Then I looked up...straight up into the night sky. Stars...not just the one or two that you see on the average city night. The sky was filled with them...like they were in the small town in northern Michigan where I grew up. It was beautiful.
Hey...what's that over there? To the north, there were flashing lights in the night sky. Could it be...Northern Lights?? I'll be damned...Northern Lights in metro Detroit!! For all I know, it was just a police car with it's strobes on, but what the hell!!
As I leaned against my car and looked up in this beautiful sky, I was overwhelmed by the moment. A great cigar...a beautiful night sky...maybe this isn't so bad after all.
There was one thing that I was missing...that was music. I could hear that great tune, "One Sweet World", from the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds CD Live at Luther College playing in my head, and it made for the perfect background music. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to be able to run inside the house, plug in an extension cable, and listen to that CD while I lay down on the lawn, looking up into this breathtakingly beautiful sky, and polish off this great cigar.
Ah well...two out of three ain't bad.
I was at work yesterday when it hit. I do software development for a tax software company, and computers (and power) are central to what we do. Then, the power went out...in the strangest way I can remember. It was like it was trying so hard to stay on, but just couldn't do it. Just like that...POOF!! Hours of work down the drain. That assumes, of course, that things aren't a REAL mess when I report to work on Monday.
Then came the drive home...normally an hour, it took damn near three. I was low on gas, so I was sweating bullets the whole way. By the time I got home, they were saying that the power would likely be out throughout the weekend. UGH!!
So we went through the usual drill - do we have enough water (we did, and the tap was running), do we have enough candles and flashlights (we did), is there anything we can save in the fridge (there was little), and so on. Oh, man...it was hot. Muggy and hot.
At some point, everyone but me went to bed. I spend about an hour trying to read the University of Michigan football annual by candlelight before I gave up. I decided that I wanted to go outside, and I managed to dig around in the dark and find the Cuban cigar that my brother sent to me. I went outside, and my neighbors were passing out melting ice cream sandwiches...the first good thing that has come my way since 4:00 PM.
So I ate the ice cream, and lit the Cuban. This is one tasty cigar, and I note that it is the second good thing that has happened to me since 4:00 PM. It's very dark in my neighborhood, as it's usually very well lit by streetlights. It's quiet...no car noise, no AC, nothing.
Then I looked up...straight up into the night sky. Stars...not just the one or two that you see on the average city night. The sky was filled with them...like they were in the small town in northern Michigan where I grew up. It was beautiful.
Hey...what's that over there? To the north, there were flashing lights in the night sky. Could it be...Northern Lights?? I'll be damned...Northern Lights in metro Detroit!! For all I know, it was just a police car with it's strobes on, but what the hell!!
As I leaned against my car and looked up in this beautiful sky, I was overwhelmed by the moment. A great cigar...a beautiful night sky...maybe this isn't so bad after all.
There was one thing that I was missing...that was music. I could hear that great tune, "One Sweet World", from the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds CD Live at Luther College playing in my head, and it made for the perfect background music. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to be able to run inside the house, plug in an extension cable, and listen to that CD while I lay down on the lawn, looking up into this breathtakingly beautiful sky, and polish off this great cigar.
Ah well...two out of three ain't bad.
