Wow...

It's amazing what something that we can't even see can do to newly constructed houses, 100 year old trees, and million's accessibility to electricity. You've heard the old cliche "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...(pave paradise, put up a parking lot, ooooh, la la la...sorry)," but it's so true. We kept saying how it was like living in the Little House on the Prairie, which, by the way, explains why every family always had so many kids. I used to think it was so they had help working the fields, but now I know that's just a fortunate side-effect (or 'positive externality' for my econ friends). They had so many kids because there was nothing else to do!

But anyway, I'm sure many of you experienced a similar feeling, and some will experience it in the near future, but it was totally awesome getting power back. And, no, it wasn't great just so we could have TV back (although it is nice...). For light, if you're using flashlights, you have to worry about the batteries dying. If you're using candles, you have to worry about the risk of your house catching on fire. For food, we did it camping style, with an old pot full of baked beans over a fire, and steak and chicken on the grill. And the thought of not being able to go to Kroger to restock was a little scary. It gave us a little (very, very little) taste of what some of the feelings had to be for those in Texas, and to an even lesser extent, those who experienced hurricane Katrina. The thought of having to depend to someone else to bring food to your city makes me a little uneasy.

Maybe if we expected to live long periods of time without power, we'd better prepare by taking up canning, salt-packing, and other forms of preservation. But what a shock to the system when a resource we depend so heavily upon is yanked from under us.

And for those of you who spent 2 hours waiting for gas, did you really need to fill up at that moment? Could you not have gone 2 more days? Anyway, it's good to be back to normal. Now I just have to find a way to make it to (and out of) the grocery store without getting mauled. Wish me luck!

Obeying Him...