November 8, 2011 Posted by Kory in Kory

Tags: personal

True Colors

It’s a great thing when “Natural Disasters” occur – it let’s you test your mettle and see everyone else’s.

People here are worried about their hair and their television shows and their laundry. Is their hairdresser open? Can they get their nails done? Even some people who are staying in hotels are bitching……”it’s so far away that we had to leave before the free continental breakfast was open so I could get to work”. People with GENERATORS are whining because they can only power part of the house; gods and goddesses forbid you have to decide between watching tv and heating your child’s bedroom. REALLY? Welcome to friggen New England.

Yes, it looked like the end of the world on Sunday and Monday morning. I wish I had been able to take a picture of the red fog as I drove through Hartford Monday morning. It really looked like the background of a movie. The streets away from the highway were a M-E-S-S. There were power lines and trees down everywhere. I had to turn around a few times and there were a lot of patches that were down to one lane because of debris in the road. It was very dangerous driving to work even in the daylight. I was not excited to drive home in the twilight. Thank goodness the time change was still a week away.

There are no rules of the road anymore. There are no traffic lights in most places, so people just drive however they want. They continually remind us on the radio that all stop lights that are out should function as a four way stop. I remember this from High School – but I learned to drive in Illinois. Part of the difficulty is from so many people not understanding what a four way stop is even under normal circumstances. People also seem to have forgotten their driving common sense – as if their brains are powered by CL&P as well as their houses. I won’t even get into the rude drivers…

In many ways the holidays have come early for many New England families. Too much time with too many people that you spend the rest of the year avoiding. Unwanted houseguests that are there for too long and don’t pull their weight while getting in the way. The only thing missing is too much food and the related leftovers. I wish people would learn from these situations, but I know they will not. They should try communicating with the people they are with right now. There is always something new one can learn about friends and family. People complain about no TV and no computer and consequently nothing to do. Hello – life DID exist before TV and computers – try picking up a book or getting to know the people around you.

The best part of the events of the past week is the blame game. For some reason, everyone blames CL&P for the power loss. I did not know that CL&P was in charge of Mother Nature and related natural disasters. I did not know that CL&P was responsible for maintaining all the trees in the state of Connecticut. I did not know that CL&P was responsible for providing water to shelters. I would rather have my electricians working on getting everyone's power back than delivering water to places that already have access to it. A few places with well water were advised to boil the water for now – but water came out of all the faucets!!

This last week with the storm and no power to most places for a week or more is a perfect example of humans at their best and their worst. Some people did their best to help each other and their neighbors. Most did not want to be inconvenienced more than they already were by the lack of power. These are the times when people say "you don't realize what you have until you don't have it". Is this the kind of reasoning that lead to Leah Dieterich of THXTHXTHX being such a novelty? I lot of people could learn so many things from the experience of the past 10 days, but I will not hold my breathe hoping to see their actions change any time soon.