lo' powah
What's to envy about the loss of power across what may as well have been an entire seabord? That people who've never really seen a starry sky should suddenly realise that there's a lot to be said about looking up? That there are a thousand and two things that you can do, and enjoy, no less, without the intervention of electronics? That the perennial tele-addict should come blinkingly out of a his unnatural stupour to see that there is so much more to his own neighbourhood than the rooms and Café that those Friends never leave?
All that I've read about the power outages in Canada and the US, via the blogiverse, has been, bar the tragic loss of many a tasty food item, largely positive; people, seemingly surprised, coming to notice that communities can really pull together and have fun, that there's something to be said (other than "nuts") about those who choose to live without the 'luxuries' of the modern world. No, it's not convenient, but it's refreshing.
I've only experienced two power outs in the UK in ten years; they lasted less than an hour. Where's the fun in that?
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I remember the power cuts of the Seventies, as a child. We used to have to go to the toilet with a candle. It was in the middle of winter, but we had a coal fire to heat the living room, at least. The rest of the house was an icebox!
I do take your point about people getting the opportunity to see and do other things. The fact that they don't continue them might indicate that they're seen as being OK as a novel experience, but not for a lifetime.
I don't think the "outage" (sounds so gay!) in North America seemed so important to us here in the UK, right? At least not until we heard that between 50 and 60 million people had been affected, which would almost be like turning off the power to the whole of Blighty. Imagine that! I think we'd have a lot of looting, for a start!
I suppose there is that; you sometimes forget that we're smaller, even, than the state of California, which is both humbling - the sheer size of the USA boggles the mind - and impressive - our relative clout; per head, we remain the most influential country on the planet. Where are we at now, anyway? 60 million, I think. That's a lot of white skin and supposedly "bad teeth"!
LOL!!!
Eek, just imagine Arnie lording it over more people than there are in the UK. Now that's a scary thought!
I still 'enjoy' power outages. The last one lasted almost half the day. Rarely an entire city at once though. But trust me, you only enjoy it when you're in a cooler climate. It really is no fun being hot and sticky.
Not so scary, when I think about it; I'm surprisingly unopposed to Arnie's decision to run, though he is a Republican, and not likely to sway me on that front. What gets me is the way they've treated the whole Gray Davis situation; it's a mockery. What were they expecting when installing a new Governor in a state which was already in financial ruin? Repairing that magnitude of damage can only take place slowly. Utterly ridiculous.
You know, ks, we only ever used aircon at night, for an hour before bedtime, as falling asleep at 30 C is not overly comfortable. But in the daytime, I'm all for sweltering heat, sweaty groins and sandpaper skin; I guess that while living in KL, I spent far too much time running around in the jungle - yum!
You can take the man out of the jungle, but you can never take the jungle out of the man can you?