Damn you, Irene

So as I drive home, I come across detours and downed lines. I see trees leaning heavily on lines directly in front of homes which still have power. I continue and the lights a few hundred mere feet up the road still work. I go further and more trees on more lines in front of more homes with more power. Surely not all these people have generators. And then I get to my road. There are no downed trees (except the neighbor’s willow – to my personal disappointment – but that’s by the lake). The lines are all in fine condition. There is still a bit of debris on the road, but I think everyone is hoping it gets pushed into the potholes. By all visual accounts, there is no reason why there should be no power, especially considering all the power just up the road. Yet, here I sit, laptop transported to the Barnes & Noble cafe, so I can get back to the Internet for a spell. Most of my food has gone bad and the majority of the cookware is too dirty for cooking and impossible to clean without water (though we have utilized many gallons of lake water for the back of the toilet – necessities, you know). In short,