Friday, January 12, 2007

The iceman cometh

The last time we had an icestorm here in my small town, power was knocked out for quite some time - weeks to months, depending on where on the grid your house or business resided. Ice accumulation on powerlines and tree branches that are situated too close to power lines are major power robbers out here.

My family and I were not here for that one back in '02 (we arrived months afterward) but the memory of it's effects and the inconveniences of the havoc it wrought linger on.

While standing in line at the local market, picking up some "just-in-case" essentials (water, milk, eggs, oreos...), Ali, the pixyish waif of a checker commented that she thought everyone in the county was in the store last night -- checkout wait times were in the double digits. I joked that maybe everyone must have needed some last minute ice for the weekend.

She didn't get it. It's all in the timing, which in my case, was bad.

If no further posts to yastm are made in next few weekdays (I usually take weekends off), it may be attributed to a lack of power flowing through the new 12-3 romex in my home.

Time to go to the cellar and check on our emergency stores and suppliles. I think the plastic bin full of goodies I set aside for the Y2K crossover is still down there. What is the shelf life (if any) for Spam, vienna sausages, Power bars, and Jolly Rancher candies?

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