Hal - Deliberately Basic

Most of Ohio now has power, and residents are returning to normal, that is whatever they consider normal. Today marks the two week anniversary of the “Great Power Outage” that Ohioans had never before experienced.

Even so, many are still without electricity. In the Miami Valley area crews from all over the country - east of the Mississippi -  have come in to aid the local companies.

Last week I took a drive around the county to see for myself the damage we had sustained. Many large corn fields were flattened, and farmers are scampering to harvest early. I saw huge old trees uprooted, and brush piled alongside the roads nearly everywhere I went.

We will talk about this for years, even though there has been little national news about it. The bailout of corporate greed farms supersede our minor mishaps here in the Midwest.

Our grandchildren will hear about the “great wind of aught eight” and it will become even more tragic with historical embellishment. Then, like all relatively minor incidents it will be forgotten.

The residents of  Fairwood Village retirement, a senior housing community, took to the streets with protest signs September 20. They are frustrated and angry that Dayton Power and Light has not yet restored their power. This according to an AP article today.

Having worked for AT&T I can tell you for certain, the crews are working their collective asses off to get power back. Threatening and harassing will only slow the process.

Homes for the aged, nursing homes and any facility where life and death are at stake should have a backup generator. This should be mandatory. Instead of jeopardizing the efforts of the very people trying to help, go after the facility that didn’t bother to prepare for emergencies such as this.

The rest of the AP article goes on to elaborate about the panic that has set in, one man even threatening to kill a utility worker with a gun. Trucks blocked, Duke Energy had to call for security when angry people threatened a dispatch center.

According to the AP about 2.6 million homes and businesses were without power at the peak.

Come on folks, this is no time to get stupid. In Ohio that may be a contradiction in terms.

I doubt anyone except Otto the mad weather scientist in Cleveland would think Ohio would ever see a hurricane. But Sunday, September 13 Ohio had hurricane winds. No one I’ve talked with, and no media person could ever remember winds as strong as this, nor the massive power outage we had. The governor of Ohio declared a state of emergency, and ask for federal assistance to aid in rebuilding.

What most people did think was how lucky we were not to have the destruction seen in Texas. We thought that even though we suffered massive damage and loss of property few lives were lost. And in comparison, our loss was insignificant.

What did we learn from this? Besides the obvious things, such as being better prepared with backup supplies, we learned how to live in the dark without power.

Yes, it is a pain in the ass to live without that umbilical cord that feeds us our daily supply of electrical nourishment. But consider that for most of the history of mankind the cord was nonexistent.

Overnight (pun intended) we learned that television and computers are not as important as we suspected. At first we were concerned about the email piling up, and work we do on the computer not getting done. We missed out favorite TV shows. We missed having light in the bathroom to see ourselves before going to work. Vanity becomes meaningless without light.

We went to bed earlier, slept longer, and arose with more energy to get us through the day. We bitched a little, but it was no use, the darkness stayed until the sun came up. Basic and simple as that. Had it not been for work, it wouldn’t make much difference. There is simply daylight and dark.

After the second day I found myself thinking less and less about things and gadgets that wouldn’t work without electricity. I started thinking about survival and how long the cord would remain broken. Instead of email, ice becomes important. Television takes a back seat to food and preparation of food. Back to the basics.

As I write this, many people are still without power. I hope by the weekend they are back living as they are used to living, with the cord feeding their needs. We are all babes in the womb of the great mother, the power plant.

I had to make myself write this. A dumb-ass thing like a blog post seems so unimportant now. Of course I’ll get back to normal and start to worry about email and other senseless crap very soon. But for a short time, I will enjoy the power I have over the big cord. I can live without it.

We should all take a moment to remember that on occasion.

I’m a moderate, stick to the basics, always looking for truth, and the lowest common denominator guy. When I got this ad I was a little taken aback at the audacity of AAA - for my non-USA friends this is the American Automobile Association.

Could this be a Freudian slip on the part of the designer? Or the entire company? I admit it sounds interesting, but maybe somewhat toward the liberal end of the travel spectrum.

It does say “escorted tours.” I’m certainly not a prude, but my wife tends to frown on escapades such as this. In the interest of all concerned I will likely stick with my deliberately basic travel plans.