I’m Back

As Sam says at the end of Lord of the Rings, “Well, I’m back.”

Compared to some, my neck of the woods didn’t take much punishment. Still, it was five days and five nights without light or heating or use of the computer. Having to have supper on the table by 4:00 or else it’d be too dark to eat, or wash the dishes. Cold all the time. Couldn’t work. Couldn’t play. (Believe it or not, it’s a hardship for a writer not to write.) Having to go to bed at 9:00 because our supply of candles was limited and there were no more to be had at any price. And having to listen to neighbors who had “inside information” that it would be another 10 days to 2 weeks before we had any power back. Have you ever noticed that some people really, really get off on delivering bad news?

But the power came on again today at around 3 a.m. Got out of bed and went outside just to see the lights on again in my neighborhood.

I think the worst moment came around 7:30 last night. All week long we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of a power company truck. We did hear on the radio a report that volunteer repair crews who had driven all the way up from Alabama, with their equipment, to help out, had been cursed and driven away by our own New Jersey union goons.

All of a sudden, a PSE&G truck came rolling down the darkened street, followed in quick succession by five more–a convoy! Help had arrived! Yahoo!

And they just kept going, and soon vanished out of sight. Then I knew how the poor sods in a life raft feel when the rescue plane just flies on overhead and never sees them.

More later…