It Was A Dark And Stormy Night…And I Liked It!

Okay, the whole “open thread” thing was really just a lazy way of getting something up on the blog today. Ever since Gordon Mumpower put the word out that I wasn’t posting enough I’ve felt compelled to post more regularly. It is not that Gordon holds some kind of power over me or anything like that. It’s just that when I hear something like that, be it Gordon or some other acquaintance, I often hear my mother’s voice in the background.

Alright already mom, I hear ya. I’ll write a real post today.

My real post is about is last nights storm. It was a dandy. I should note here that I love a summer thunderstorm. Last night I stood just inside my open garage door and watched it roll into from the west. As the storm approached and the winds kicked up I could feel the air charged with electricity. Someone once told me something about the negative ion thing but all I know is that it just felt rejuvenating.

Around 8:30 PM our lights went out. Out came the flashlights and candles. I dutifully dialed the BGE Power Outage hotline and a live, real honest to god person answered and told me they were aware of the problem and that a crew had already been dispatched to fix it. No problem, the same thing happened a couple of weeks ago and the power came back on at 4:00 AM.

I got up at 5:30 AM to go for a run. It was a gorgeous morning. We still did not have power. The talk at the bus stop was all about the power failure. Several of the parents had phoned BGE numerous times. A few were getting agitated. That made me think of this article I read in the Washington Post this past weekend. Life without electric power takes an adjustment period for some I suppose. The latest word was that BGE expected to resume service around noon.

Perfect. I had to come back today at noon anyway. Today is one of three half days the HCPSS tacks on at the end of the school year. I drove to my office in Columbia, charged up my laptop and my mobile phone just in case and then left at 12:30 PM.

When I arrived back at the bus stop I quickly learned that the power still was not back on. I was even asked if I had heard anything. No, I hadn’t.

It is now 3:00 PM in the afternoon. I am sitting in my screened in porch. My daughter is across the street playing with her friends. It is quiet, sunny and there is even a gentle breeze. There is still no electric service so I can’t get on the internet but my laptop is fully charged so I can write. I’ll just post it whenever I can.

My mobile phone is also fully charged so I can call my sister Nancy in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yesterday was her birthday.

I think mom would like that too.

Post Script: The power came back on at 7:30 PM, approximately 7,000 customers of BGE were still without power at that time, down from a total of 78,000 last night. BGE expects to have everyone reconnected by 7:00 AM tomorrow.