It was a little breezy and wet.
28 August 2011 9:10 am
I lost power around 9:30.
It really was raining like a .. um, well..it was raining buckets.
Pouring rain
Some trees and wires were down. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic...
Branches and clutter
Big old trees came down here and there
Some small trees came down around the barn. Kind of funny. There'd be a gust of wind and a loud crack and all the horses would pop over their doors all bug eyed. One really needed their wits about them picking stalls!
Small trees downAnd this used to be a corn field.
Total loss I think
Still no power at dinner time. Good thing I love Chef Boyardee. I didn't have the good sense to have a book handy. I saw the damaged lines down the street and it looked to me like about 30 minutes work to restore power. I figured the power would be back on any minute. After all. They said
they were ready for this. (They = the combined electric utility companies)
So I passed the time for what I thought would be a short while...
That short time became longer.
So I hit the National Geographics. I have every National Geographic back to March 1960 and when I'm *really* bored they provide hours and hours of amusement.
I mean look!
Here, thanks to Bell Telephone, back in 1962
The cook has everything she needs.
And, after dinner, in 1961, while the cook did the dishes, the man of the house could
Tune out trouble with a Zenith TV! Anybody remember
Red Skelton?
And look carefully at that advertisement and note the Space Command remote control. That was the very first remote control - it was mechanical. It used ultra sound. In 1961 I think that was a second generation improved model.
And this was air travel back in the day? Really?
Gregory Peck?!
I was lucky. Very lucky. I got power back at 1:30 Monday morning. I threw out some crab and some goat cheese. I'm told getting into some bad shellfish is one of life's worst experiences so I didn't feel it was worth it. The goat cheese might have been on its way south before the power went out.
Rant alert!
I am appalled. Positively appalled. With the electric utilities here. This wasn't a bad storm and they were "prepared". I have nothing to complain about. I went for 16 hours without power. There are
many people around here went
4 and 5 days without power and some people
still don't have power.
It
was not a bad storm. It was a passing tropical storm almost 90 miles inland, 60 miles from here. It got breezy for a few hours. It rained like crazy. Our electric utility companies reassured the public they were ready. And
what I find appalling is the fact that after the storm, while some trees were down and some lines were down, and roads were closed, the
utility company crews were nowhere to be seen.
We have old trees and all of our services are strung along telephone poles. The wind blows and wires come down. I can't emphasize it enough: all week long I've seen
two utility trucks. In storms past I've seen those crews out in convoys and I've seen them work like pit crews to restore service and they're to be commended for that.
But regarding
tropical storm Irene (60 miles away) they should be ashamed.
And we should all be concerned about what will happen when we have a real storm come through.
