Having grown up in a farming family, it’s inbred in me to keep an eye on the weather forecast. When the meteorologists started posting maps showing my location solidly in the pink range (meaning freezing rain) of the upcoming storm, I took action. I always keep bottled drinking water (our well water isn’t fit for consumption), but I also started filling the empty jugs with tap water. I moved stuff from our refrigerator’s freezer section to the chest freezer in the basement. My husband made sure our generator was in good working order. I worked frantically on several writing projects that were almost due and sent them off. I also worked frantically on my tax prep and printed out my spreadsheets. I made sure all of my electronics were fully charged.   My husband even took a vacation day on Friday in case the roads were impassible.   I rescheduled a workshop I was supposed to teach Saturday on Zoom. Just in case.   The rain started Wednesday. By lunchtime on Thursday, ...

When a person has electricity in the middle of a state of emergency, where most of her friends and family do not have electricity, that person should never mention that she has electricity. Even if that person doesn’t mean to be bragging about dodging a bullet. It’s a law of nature. By simply saying she’s been lucky, the universe will sneak around behind her and slap her. Yes. After being fortunate enough to have NOT lost power during the monster snow storm last Friday, we did indeed lose it on Tuesday morning. Another storm was in the forecast, but at 11AM, it wasn’t doing a blessed thing. I had a ton of online work to do and was attempting to get it completed JUST IN CASE we weren’t so lucky during this second storm, when BAM. Without a flicker or a hiccup, the lights just went out. Oh, I have my computer plugged into a battery-powered surge protector, so I was able to save my work and shut everything down without losing anything. But there would be no more computer work on THAT day....