The lights went out around here at approximately 4:03 PM. Thirty seconds later, the lights came back on. For the first time since I had it installed ten years ago, the heavy duty emergency generator outside the house got a major workout. Not only did we have lights, phones and a working refrigerator, but even the cable stayed on. We had more neighbors coming over in one night than in the last month as folks came by to make calls, watch the news, and just look up at the lights with about as much amazement as Edison’s neighbors must have done when they swung by to see what the latest invention he (or his people) had come up with. The amusing thing, as darkness fell, was watching cars cruise by and slow when they passed the house as the drivers must have thought, “Oh, the power’s back on…wait…”
I admit I did keep worrying about that “Twilight Zone” episode, but fortunately the generator is loud enough that neighbors would attribute the continuing power to that rather than aliens.
The thing that bugs me is imagining bin Laden watching CNN in a cave somewhere, snickering over the continual reassurances that it wasn’t terrorists. Before 9/11 I doubt it even would have occurred to anyone; no one shouted “Terrorists!” in the previous NYC blackouts. But concerns have so insinuated our culture that terrorism has become the first line of panicked reaction.
This has been another fair and balanced blog entry.
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