I'm snug and warm inside...and the power lines are out of your reach!
I just got back from running errands. The wet cold blustery arctic weather is most definitely here. On my drive back, between stopping at Ydnew’s for lunch and hitting the discount store for a few essentials (soap, straight pins, nails, boxes of holiday cards at low prices) I saw the tops of trees whipping back and forth. As I drove along the major arterial nearest to my place, I saw that the wind had picked up. “Oh, dang,” I thought. “We’re going to have a power outage this weekend. Good thing I’ve got all those candles and holders. Better get another mini-maglite, though.” And then, while stopped at a traffic light (watching the trees whipping closer and closer to the nearby power lines), I realized:
*WE* won’t have a power outage. In this city, sure, but not necessarily in this neighborhood, and definitely not in this complex. Because all our wires (regular cables and fiber optics) are not only newer, they’re all underground. I have lived in places that have above-ground wiring for so long (buried wires weren’t all that popular in the California subdivision where I grew up - largely because of all the earthquakes which made the initial developers think, “Let’s make it so the repairpeople can easily get at the wires without having to rip up folks’ lawns.”) that now when I do have my wiring underground, it’s something of a pleasant shock. (Maybe not quite so pleasant when the city has to shut off my power without warning because they have to install the junction box for the new houses across the street. But…everything has its pluses and minuses.)
So go on, wind. Give the Puget Sound region a big, cold, wet blustery 72 hours. Me and my neighbors are good. (Nyah-nyah-nyah NYA-A-AH!!!!)
(And for those keeping track of such things, it’s now official: the United States is in a recession and has been since December 2007. In other news, water is wet, even when it’s in solid (ice) or gaseous (steam) forms.)
Update: It’s now night. I took the chimes back down earlier today, when they threatened to get a bit too incessant. It’s rained most of the day, and I think we even had a brief bit of sleet in there. I’m now listening to the rain on my rooftop - always one of my favorite sounds. When I began my condo search, I was looking for a top-floor unit, but realistically accepted that I might just have to take some condo where, for a few years at least, I would not be able to listen to rain on the rooftop. And then this cottage came on the market.
I really like this “being a homeowner” stuff.¹
Update the second: it amuses me, in a thoroughly infantile way, that the “Best of Holidailies” box currently lists the following two entries, in sequence:
Now you, come at me with this banana
He Knows If You’ve Been Bad or Good
(see?)
1. ...and that’s the cue for the Universe to unleash cosmic doom upon my pointed head. So check back tomorrow to see if I’m still alive, or if I’ve just curled up into a fetal position and am reduced to typing “bwrm, bwrm, bwrm, bwrm” over and over.
