Someone, Somewhere Touched a Button

Someone, somewhere touched a button and the world went dark. I’m sure the unknown Edison worker didn’t mean to send 5 million Californians into electronic paralysis. He probably didn’t know that such a small mistake could cause bedlam on the freeways, in the hospitals, at the gas pumps and ATMs. He doesn’t know that at our house my husband and son are watching a football game on TV. My daughters are doing the homework on computers and I’m playing solitaire on my I-pad. We have power when most of our neighbors don’t. Are we special? No. We just happen to be in a tiny pocket where the wires still sing with power.

So. No school tomorrow. The newsman tells us our electronic grid is very fragile. We don’t know what this means, except that we’re to use our electronics sparingly. (Thank heavens the temperature has dropped.)This is the perfect excuse not to do laundry. Vacuum? Wouldn’t want to upset the powerboard. We don’t know how the electronic grid works or who mans the powerboard or who was responsible for touching the wrong button and sending our neighbors into the dark, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re all connected, riding in the same boat and to some that means loss of power to a life saving device and to others (like the Tates) it means a day at the beach.

Is it fair? Is it right? No. It just is what it is.