Hell Is Cold

Last Friday, my area was pummeled by a northeaster that toppled trees and snapped power lines.  At our house, the outdoor bar my sister had constructed on the patio was smashed to smithereens and the barbecue was thrown several feet, missing our sliding glass door by inches.  Our screened in porch no longer has screens. We were praying the wind would knock the porch down completely, as it has fallen into disrepair.  Then Homeowner’s Insurance would have to cough up the money for a new one.  No such luck.

                All day long, the lights flickered on and off, until finally, at five thirty, plunging us into total darkness for the next five days.

                I was fortunate. I fled to my friend’s condo in Troy, where I drove him nuts talking during the Oscars.  I had to return on Monday for a job interview, and I can tell you, that frigid night in my house convinced me that hell is not hot, it is cold.

                We’re lucky.  We don’t have a well, so when the power goes out, we still have water.  It’s so cold, I’m surprised there aren’t ice cubes floating in it, but we can flush our toilets, and, if desperate enough, even shower. 

                It was so cold in my house the milk in my fridge didn’t spoil.

                Many of the people who live in my area were in the same dire straits.  At the time of this writing, many still haven’t gotten their power back, nearly a week after the storm.  Others lost it again in yesterday’s storm.  My heart literally aches for them.  The experience of utter, total cold made such an impression on me that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.  Had we not gotten power back Tuesday night, I might have wound up in an insane asylum. 

                This is what I want to address.  I keep seeing judgmental comments from sanctimonious assholes who did not lose power and live in places like Florida.  Calling us folks that are expressing frustration about not having power spoiled and entitled.  Making comments like “first world problems.”  People that don’t have a clue that hello, it’s dropping below freezing at night.

                I’m seeing, “Don’t complain, parts of Puerto Rico haven’t had power for five months.”

                “What would you have done in the last century?”

                I’d like to let loose a string of four letter words to express how I feel about those kinds of ignorant comments.

                First of all, unless you’ve lost power for five plus days in below freezing conditions, you don’t know what you’re talking about, SO SHUT UP.  You have no right to judge people’s reaction to an experience you lack.  And I can guarantee that the people snickering and making self-righteous remarks would be the ones screaming the loudest and longest if they were in our shoes.  Because those loud mouthed obnoxious ones are loudmouthed and obnoxious in every situation, and they have zero self-awareness about it, too.

                Second of all, it’s not a first world problem or “a minor inconvenience.”  Switch places with me for a minute.  I’ll sit on your porch drinking cocktails in eighty degree weather while you hold your bladder for eight hours because the worst thing on earth is having to peel through six layers of clothes to plop your butt down on a freezing cold toilet, and even then you’ve got to be grateful that unlike many of your neighbors, you can actually flush it.

                I can live without television, internet access, my Kindle, my laptop, even lights.  I can light a candle and read a book or write longhand in one of the fifty million blank spiral notebooks I’ve mentioned owning in previous blogs.  I can survive on crackers and Easy cheese.  That isn’t the problem.

                The problem is the temperature dropping below freezing.  That can kill people.  Do the people in Florida understand that?

                What would I have done in the nineteenth century, you might ask?  Well, back then, houses were equipped with coal and wood burning stoves.  My house doesn’t have that.  It’s a typical cookie cutter suburban house built with modern conveniences in mind.  And before you blame me for choosing this house (because I know loudmouthed obnoxious people love to victim shame) I didn’t pick this house.  I inherited it from my dead parents, thank you very much.  Back when they bought it (1978) losing power for so long was unheard of.  It never happened.  I lived here until the age of thirty-seven before I experienced a power outage that lasted more than six hours. 

                And now this is the third power outage that has lasted for days.  There is a definite problem here.  I can remember many bad storms such as the Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 1984 and the Hurricane Blizzard of 1996 when the lights never so much as flickered.  We need to ask WHY this keeps happening when it never did before.  Technology is supposed to be improving.  We’re going backwards.

                I think if you’re in the unique situation of listening to people complain and vent frustration, instead of judging, you should put yourself in their shoes.  Try to help your fellow human beings.  Don’t make them feel worse.  There seems to be a lot of people eager to judge and kick us when we’re at our lowest.  Don’t.  Listen.  Ask what you can do to help.  Don’t make smart remarks.  That’s not helpful.  That increases everyone’s frustration.  It’s already a frustrating situation, no one needs your ignorant judgment.

                And PS, for anyone reading this, I agree that NYSEG and ConEd have some explaining to do, but remember, the people out there trying to restore our power are trying to help.  They’re not responsible for the bad decisions made by their bosses.  They’re just doing their jobs, and many of them are working around the clock.  Thank them.  They’re doing the best they can.  It’s their bosses, the ones not in the trenches, that are the problem here, not them.