Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Thankful for What We Take for Granted

MICROPOLITAN DIARY
Dear Diary,
I missed the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965, then still coddled and cosseted in my hometown on the shores of Lake Michigan, but I was in New York City for the blackout of 1977. What I remember best of that experience--forget the looting and mayhem--was the elation and general sense of celebration that prevailed when the power was finally restored. I feel that same elation now whenever the power is restored, no matter how brief the outage.
This evening, as I reset the clocks on the stove and the microwave, after exactly two hours and ten minutes of being without power, I was overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for electricity and the things we take for granted that we are dependent on it. When the power went out this afternoon, my life ground to a halt--mostly because there was no internet connection. So, after the rain had stopped, Joey and I took to the car, which has air conditioning and a radio, and drove around town to assess the extent of the outage and wait things out. (In the process, in the cool after the rain, we went to the cemetery for our evening walk).
My sincere gratitude to everyone who worked, in whatever capacity, to restore what we all take for granted.
"Micropolitan Diary" is Gossips' homage to and blatant imitation of "Metropolitan Diary" in the New York Times. The term micropolitan was coined (by Gossips) because Hudson is a metropolis in microcosm.
COPYRIGHT 2018 CAROLE OSTERINK

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