I'm Staying Right Here

Despite Hurricane Irene being downgraded to a tropical storm before her arrival in New England, the high winds associated with being on the wrong side of a hurricane still showed up and managed to do quite a bit of damage to the Eastern part of Massachusetts. Lot of trees and powerlines down; it was quite a mess on Sunday. But, what continues to blow my mind is that it's Wednesday and there are some people in the area who still don't have power. Look, I know Irene was strong as tropical storms go, but this should not be taking this long to fix. We didn't get it nearly as bad as others and it is not like we live in an area which is hard to get to, so I really don't see why this is still an issue.

A check online reveals that not only are parts of Wareham still devoid of electricity (which they lost almost before the storm even got here), but they aren't expected to get it back until Friday or Saturday. Alright, near the beach, I can almost forgive that. But most of the town of Foxboro still doesn't have power (I mean, the stadium does, let's not go crazy here). During the storm I never would have thought that area was being hit hard enough to even lose power to begin with, let alone for it to be out for an entire week. This kind of stuff should not be happening in this time and this area. Personally, I would be freaking out if I didn't have electricity this long. I don't like being without Internet access for too many hours, let alone lights. And don't get me started on A/C. If this week had been as muggy as last week was someone who was without power could have gone on a killing spree and no jury in the world would have convicted them.

This, as happens every time I experience a blackout, got me to thinking about how these dark nights were what it used to be like in back when this land was first being settled. And by that I mean really boring. No wonder those people were in bed by 7 pm and up at 4 - they had nothing to do once the sun went down but go to bed. Normally people talk about all the other periods of history they would like to have seen, but in thinking about it for more than five minutes I can safely say that I am good with staying put. Even if I had access to a time machine I don't think I could go back and live in colonial times. I might go back and visit just long enough to witness some type of major historical event, but as soon as that was over I would be back to Wi-Fi, Ipods and flatscreen TVs. (Not to mention that if we have time machines you know some other really cool inventions have also come along.)

People on the History Channel always talk about how much they would like to go back and experience these things for themselves. I call bullshit. I think they say stuff like that to sound sophisticated, but if push came to shove they wouldn't give up Starbucks and ebooks for a second. Even the people who work at historical reenactment sites are probably very grateful that they get to stop playing at 5 pm, then go home to their DVRs and iPhones. Just because you admire the grit and determination of the people who were tough enough to conquer the wilderness that doesn't mean you have to feel guilty about living in a technologically advanced society. But, if you are really curious to hear a first-hand story about what is like to live in a time where you don't have cable, Internet and electricity, why not ask some people a few towns over? I can sum it up for you: it sucks!