Blogging while the power's out. Or, at least, while the power is so diminished that while the two old ceiling fans will spin v e r r y s l o w l y, the new one won't spin at all, and the entertainment appliances won't entertain me.
Except for the laptop. Which rocks. Not only am I online, I've got all episodes of The Tick cartoon to watch, because BitTorrent also rocks. So freakin' there.
In about another thirty seconds, it's going to get INTOLERABLY HOT inside. That's when the looting starts. Me, I'm hitting the Radio Shack up the street. But before I do that, I'm going out to the deck.
Which brings to my sweaty mind something that's always bugged the hell out of me.
For the past several years, we in the general New York metro area and beyond have enjoyed summer blackouts - - collapses of our local power infrastructure. There was the big one in 2003, but anyone who has lived in New York knows that every summer there's one hapless neighborhood after another that supplies the local news with night - time footage of families camping on stoops and sidewalks because the Con Edison transformers have exploded again. Just last week it was 14,000 "customers" on Long Island.
Yet, if you go shopping in Manhattan, you will invariably pass by retail establishments with their doors wide open, blasting icy cold air onto you as you pass by. The goal, of course, is to get you to come in and buy $120 pairs of pre - worn acid - washed jeans.
I'm no physicist. But I do know that if you're cranking your heat exchanger up to cool a patch of sidewalk on a 95 - degree day in New York, you're using up much more energy than you would if, say, you had your damn doors closed. In fact, you're being downright profligate.
Now, I'm all for doing whatever you damn well please with your own money and your own infrastructure. But when your desire to sell your crap directly impacts the broccoli in my refrigerator, I get pissed off. You want to entice passers - by with icy - cool air - conditioning, you either invent your own inexhaustible power supply, generate your own electricity, or pony up for infrastructure improvements. Until then, keep your doors closed, and suffer the consequences of trying to sell items that no person in their right mind is thinking of on a day with a 101 - degree heat index.
Now. I'm fixing to enjoy this here collapse of civilization. Gonna get my gun and get me some 'sumer 'lectronics, you betcha!
