After Irene

     So it's now technically 3 days since Irene has wreaked havoc in the area and I have to get up in a few short hours.  Luckily, our house was relatively unscathed.  My car even survived the storm, considering how many branches and trees in the area came down.  That's not to say that it's not full of scratches from fallen branches, but nothing a good buffer can't take care of.  We did lose power for about 13 hours and I realized just how much losing electricity isn't as wonderful as it used to be.  Granted, not having running water always sucks, but I used to love the absolute silence a power outage brought.  No phones, computers, blaring televisions....just complete and utter silence.  Now within minutes of an outage (our area loses power pretty frequently considering we're up in the mountains) all that is heard is a myriad of generators running.  I can understand wanting to use one if the power has been out for over an hour during the summer months, but do we really rely on electricity that much now that in a span of minutes diesel and gas-powered generators have to be started?  Whatever happened to lighting a few candles, picking up a book, board game, or even just relaxing in such an amazing, total silence?  

     The news is still talking about the aftermath and cleanup, massive flooding, road closures, and how NYC came through relatively unscathed.  News about North Carolina has all but disappeared on local channels, and one of the hardest hit areas--NW New Jersey has barely been covered at all.  There's some major flooding south of here forcing evacuations, road collapses, and traffic jams, but that's pretty normal considering the areas affected are over-developed, flood prone areas.  Here?  Hardly a word.  Even from the "New Jersey News" channel.  It seems this area is some remote part that doesn't exist in the state unless something weird or unusual happens in a wealthy town.  Based on some of the pictures I have seen, it's still pretty bad.  To add insult to injury, my parents and I have yet to hear a word from my brother to see if he's even okay.  I saw on the news that his town is the latest in a long list of evacuation zones, but not a word from him.  We'd contact him if we had a way, but we have no phone numbers for him--still.  So much for family, huh?  Hell, even my neurotic neighbor stopped by Monday morning to make sure my mother was okay.  (There's 3 of us in the house, all adults, the news says to check on the elderly and the sick and she still comes over to make sure everything is all right).  I'm not going to stress myself about it.  To each their own, I suppose.  For me?  I'm going to pick up a book I started just before the storm and hopefully get some sleep.