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Hey Y’all: In Communicato

There are pros and cons to being without electricity. I realize that having pros may make no sense to some of you, but it is true.

Marlene Ratledge Buchanen

I am not advocating returning to the days of oil lamps and wind up clocks. There are some pluses to cold rooms and no electricity.

Some poor soul decided to come down our road and try to fly. At least we guessed he tried to fly. From the time he left the asphalt until he hit the telephone pole there are no skid marks, torn up grass, nothing. Just broken pole and a crushed AT&T junction box.

Now I live with two men who want heat, and lots of it. I have my own internal combustion engine and rarely get cold until we hit the 40’s. Those two boys of mine, think anything below 75 degrees will cause frostbite.

Late in the night or early in the morning, the flying car hit and caused complete electrical AND Internet, television and phone service failure.

The Cons
1. My husband and son took on the Nanook of the North ward robing. Long sleeves, vests, jackets. You name it they wore it. And the house was 61 degrees.
2. No hot water. Our son James had to go to work. He alcohol bathed and deodorized his body as he groaned and shivered while dressing.
3. NO COFFEE and a cold cereal breakfast
4. No power means no computer, telephone, television, and Internet service.
5. James couldn’t play his computer games.
6. Cell phones were not charged.
7. Five EMC trucks had the driveway blocked. I couldn’t bathe, do my hair and looked like Nanook’s last wife in the frozen tundra.
8. Snell missed the World Series Game of the Century, in his words. This may be the biggest problem we had.
9. Laundry was piled up.
10. Everyone went to bed early.

The Pros
1. The house was 61 degrees. I had on jeans, a t-shirt, and no shoes. It was heavenly.
2. Snell, my husband, and I had breakfast out.
3. Gas stove. I heated left over coffee on the gas stove
4. No computer, telephone, television or Internet service. No one could call wanting us to renew the car warranty, offer to buy the house or claim we had an odd charge on the Amazon account, which is never used.
5. James couldn’t play his computer games.
6. James was ready early and wanted to go to work as soon as he was dressed. NO fussing and calls of “come on.”
7. Five EMC trucks with several handsome, buff hunks had the driveway blocked. It was a pretty site. (Sigh. I wasn’t. And I was old enough to be the grandmother to all those pretty boys.)
8. Couldn’t do laundry.
9. With no television there were no wars being fought in our den.
10. Everyone went to bed early.

The electrical service was restored late that night. We have a pretty new telephone pole in the front yard. It took two days to get the phones, television, and Internet back. I’m not complaining. Almost three days of no telephone, no TV, and no Internet was heavenly. I read, cleaned house, and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

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