Some Thoughts on Going Powerless

Hello again Internet People!  I want to thank everyone for their support and cooperation concerning yesterday's Blog post.  In less than 24 hours it has already become the 5th most read post in the history of this Blog, and I thank every single one of you for that!  I probably should have mentioned before that I have no real world connection to Mr. Rick or his book.  He sought me out on Mother's Facebook Page, probably because of my reputation for supporting ALL anti-bullying efforts, but I really don't know why, I never asked.  When he first approached me about promoting his cause on my Page, I didn't know him, at all.  Since then we have exchanged a few emails, and though I still don't know him at all, I have grown very fond of him and his family.  It is so comforting to know that there are people like them out there in the real world fighting to protect children from a system built for efficiency rather than effectiveness, and I will continue to do anything I can do to help them in their efforts.

In other news from Mother's house, I actually got to talk to a female friend of mine from my past today (well we chatted on Facebook, at this point that is close enough - thank goodness I was talked out of closing that down or I would have missed this!).  We haven't really spoken for over 15 years, but she was once upon a time my very bestest friend.  I was so thrilled when she took the time to chat with me this morning, and I hope she will do so again.

About an hour after that our power went out.  Completely and totally gone.  Took just over an hour for them to get in turned back on, which is really not bad and I am certainly not complaining knowing how many people on the other side of the country are still suffering.  It was just funny to me how completely and totally dependent we have become on electricity.  I have told you all before that once upon a time I spent three years living without "mains" electricity, "off the grid" as they say, so one would think that an hour without power should be no big deal, right?  Well, it really wasn't so much a big deal (until after the power came back on - but we'll get to that), but I just found it amazing how difficult is was to be forced to try to find something to do that did not involve electricity.  Every idea I had of what I needed to do today, or was set up to be able to do today, came back to requiring electricity.  I had the kids playing a board game within ten minutes, but I was still running ideas for myself for another 15 minutes before my husband finally gave me the mail to wrap. Fortunately by the time I was half done with that the power was back on, and life was back to normal.  Except, of course it is not.

Nothing around here is ever normal or easy, what would be the fun in that?  (Read sarcasm into that statement - it is heavy with it)  The network router is fried, and I have no idea what else also fried, but my poor husband has been bitching and grumbling for the last 3 hours trying to get everything back up and running again, and I do not think he is done yet!  When I lived "off the grid" it was long before computers were a part of my world, I am not so sure I could ever do it again.  

I remember all those years I waited for the day I would finally be able to have a computer of my very own.  Long before the internet or any of the fancy programs so common today were even considered I knew that having a computer would change my life.  Unfortunately no one else wanted me to be able to change my life, so it took a very long time before I was able to get my first one.  And I did buy it for myself, just after I started college in 1997.  I remember that I paid just over $1400 for it and it did not even have a gigabyte of memory!  And it did indeed change my life.  I graduated College with the help of that computer, I even met my husband on it!  I have been through many, many computers since then, all of them thanks to my husband, and every one of them has helped in making my life better, even if they have caused more than their fair share of grief as well.  I sure would not ever want to live without a computer ever again, even an hour without it was stressful enough.

Fortunately for me, my husband is a computer genius and as long as the world doesn't fall to shit I will probably never have to worry about it (knock on wood).  I will continue to take comfort and pride in the knowledge that I could live without electricity if I had to, but I am sure as hell glad I don't have to!