—————————————————————–

Greetings from the oasis of light in the land of the dark. Once again I feel I should somehow feel guilty. This time, most of the east coast of the US went dark, and I stayed lit. Of course I had to suffer through the fact that many TV stations were off the air and such, but one finds a way to manage through these troubled times. I did find it interesting that there was a line over a quarter mile long to get into the village last night as it was one of the only powered gas stations in the area. All those people who thought they were so well equipped with the back-up generators apparently never bothered to stock up on fuel for them. It’s always something.

And bad form for the Democratic Congressmen who suggested the power failure was somehow Bush’s fault. I’ve certainly blamed the man for all kinds of ills, but even I’m finding it hard to pin this on him. It is easy to pin it on the power industry though. Like most businesses they are trying desperately to cut costs. And like most businesses, they are increasingly deciding to take risks about things like disaster recovery plans. They are expensive and unlikely to be used, so it’s hard to justify the investment. That is, until you get caught with a bone fide emergency. Busted.