...so, what else is new?

One thing Mojo likes about where she lives, way out in a rural area, is that her neighbors likewise subscribe to Mojo's form of intelligent self-sufficiency. Whenever there is a bad snowstorm or ice storm and the news reports start coming in about people freezing to death in their beds or dying from running their gas stoves for heat and asphyxiating themselves, Mojo and her neighbors are just kinda going, what happened? Because we rural types have long ago learned that we are last in line for EVERYTHING, and we need to shift for ourselves instead of waiting for the bureaucrats to help.

Our first month here in the middle of the summer there was a thunderstorm and we lost power. My Favorite Husband did his duty and called the electric company. (Back then you could talk to a real person instead of the computer.) He casually asked when we could expect to see power again. They said not to worry, they'd have power restored within two or three DAYS at the most.

Welcome to the sticks.

Nowadays small talk with the patrons at the library involves ensuring one's stockpile of firewood and candles. It's sort of a friendly competition, seeing who is most prepared for disaster. If a bunch of urban people die through some form of no-electricity-or-heat stupidity (a la using the gas stove for heat) the news brings a sort of bemused confusion with the local folks wondering aloud why on EARTH anyone would do anything that foolish.

This weekend we watched the latest Die Hard movie, in which all the utilities and whatnot are brought down by a Bad Guy and everything is thrown into chaos. The police department, for example, was full of people screaming and demanding things of the government. Here in town I don't see people screaming and demanding things of the government. I imagine them sitting at home with their feet up by the wood stove. After a week or so someone would probably arrange a town meeting and start figuring out a more organized schedule for folks to go around and check up on the elderly, but even that would probably be overkill, for their neighbors are probably already watching out for them. But just to make sure.

So whenever they predict something major Mojo rather enjoys it, and I suspect nearly everyone in town secretly feels the same way. Like a kid does, hoping that school will be canceled. Like last night--they were predicting a major ice storm, so Mojo eagerly anticipated losing power and camping in the house for a while. She got big pots of water ready so she could bathe, since when there's no electricity there's no water (my old friend the well pump again!). The firewood is ready, the fire's going in the fire place, the chimney is swept in the kitchen stove. Mojo even makes some bread dough and sets it aside to raise and sour so she can bake bread in the wood stove oven.

And what happens? Nuffin. Not even the briefest flash of a brownout.

Looks like I wait another day to bake bread in the wood stove. Heck, maybe I'll do it anyway. I was planning on sitting the day out anyway. Might as well enjoy it....

Mojo