We weathered a storm
Did you? I hope so.
If you live in New England, you, too, got a snootful of weather yesterday. We lost power just after 5 a.m. As I looked around the dark bedroom, I realized that just about every activity I had planned for Monday involved electricity.
I also thought, as the trees braided themselves outside, that this is what our lives have become — dire warnings of horrible weather that comes and then wreak havoc. Generator? Check. Camping gear? I should get me some. Mine’s pretty dated and there will come a day when I need to heat up some water. \
Yesterday, I decided I’d just go without a bath.
As it turns out, we were among 90,000 other people without power in the state, and we left that frustrated crew just before noon, when everything flickered back on. We had some 60 mph wind gusts, and in some spots, five inches of rain, but on this day and at this time, it just wasn’t that big a deal. Given the changes in our climate, we’ve come to expect horrible weather.
When things calmed down a little, I went out and picked up sticks to use for kindling.
Where we go from here is anybody’s guess. Let’s join hands and move forward.
Vital words: "Let's join hands and move forward."
Join a local sustainability group. Think about, and then plan to be, resilient. Plant more trees (they soak up the water even in winter and young trees rarely topple,) plant native hedgerows like they do in Europe (they never topple or cause power outages, but they do serve as windbreaks, help mitigate flooding, and provide food and shelter for you, birds and other creatures.) Become comfortable with sharing what you have and receiving (not taking) what you need. All of these things are counter-cultural, but then, so is climate change.
No school for this teacher yesterday — yippee! Snow days without a flake to be seen: the new normal in climate-changing times.😢