Lemons and Lemonade

We are currently without electricity. It went out around 6:30pm tonight. Tried to call Hunter on his cell phone. He works for the local electric cooperative and I thought he might know what was going on. He did not. Turns out it is a region wide outage. Friends and family all called here wanting to know if we knew any scoops on when it would be back on. We haven't a clue.

Luckily, I had decided early today that I didn't feel like cooking tonight. Sometimes when the weather is warm I like to do a little antipasto platter for us. So I picked up the ingredients on the way home. I was able to blanch some tender asparagus from the garden and mixed them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar before the power went off. So when Hunter got home, we dined al fresco on the deck. The heat of the day gave way to a nice spring breeze. We sat enjoying our simple meal while watching the sunset. A very Mediterranean style dinner, if you will.

Now I'm sitting here listening to the sounds of generators up and down our neighborhood. We had Hurricane Isabel go through in 2003. Power was out for some people for 2 weeks plus. That was after an ice storm spoiled Christmas in 1998. Again, people were out for weeks. So now, anybody who can afford it has a generator. We actually bought one with a push start after Isabel. When things like this happen, Hunter is usually pressed into service by the electric co-op, so I am by myself. There was no way I could start our other one which you had to pull on like a push mower or an outboard motor.

Hunter just got a call from his boss. Turns out a substation had an explosion and there are around 12,000 people without power. Sounds bad, but they think they might have it under control by 10 or 11pm. Of course there's more to it than that. But when he starts talking about substations and such, it all sounds like the teacher from the Charlie Brown specials to me. "Bwahh wah wahh wahh. Bwah wahh wonh wahh wahh." I think some wine is in order for the rest of the evening.