October 2008

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We had a power failure the other day that not only caught me off-guard, it showed me that sometimes I really don't deal well with being so caught.

It hit right around lunchtime, and I hadn't had lunch. This meant a change of lunch plans, because I wanted something that needed cooking. But the bigger nuisance was that my coffee cup was about to be empty and I had put off making more so I could pay attention to the news. Yes, I know how to make coffee without power, but I really didn't want to have to drag stuff out if the power was coming back.

The real deal is when the power goes out and there's no hurricane or ice storm to blame, I want the head of the power company to come to my apartment, knock gently, hand me the receptacle end of a working extension cord, and apologize for the momentary disruption. No need to offer monetary compensation; the bill will have gone down enough thanks to the outage.

And before you tell me, I know it isn't all about me. It just felt personal!

Turned out something had gone flooey in Chapel Hill, and for that hour or so there were about 6,000 customers without power. All has been well since.

Then yesterday I got caught in parade traffic when I went downtown to run an errand. I have no idea what the parade was about, though someone on the bus said something about an "education parade." I can tell you it involved a seemingly-endless line of people just walking down Franklin Street. The end of it was four police officers (also on foot), followed by all the traffic that got stuck.

I'm not sure interfering with traffic while not carrying any signs or anything to indicate why you're out in the middle of the street is the most effective way to get support.

Of course, it occurred to me as I walked in the opposite direction (on the sidewalk), that I must seem to be going against whatever.

For the record, I was just marching to my own drummer, heading toward buying what I needed from a local establishment.