When the going gets tough, they get out the candles

The Full Cold Moon sets this morning far right just as the salt piles of Eastern Salt across the street pick up the rosy fingers of dawn.

"This is the worst disaster we've faced for decades," says a local mayor in a WBZ-TV Boston interview broadcast this evening. "More than a million homes were left without power," says another. The ice storm snuck in upon our area on cat feet under the radar Thursday night. Our own venerable Down Easter Goomp in York Harbor was among the hundreds of thousands of our fellow New Englanders who've been without power for 48 hours and still counting. He was able to fire up the generator to keep things reasonably warm but was unable to cook or telephone or get online. His cell phone wasn't working, but fortunately, our dear bro and sis, who live about 45 minutes away from the Goompster, both checked in with him this afternoon. It was a great moment to be together for one and all. Family values rule.

Down Chelsea we just got a lot of rain, a fortunate result for us of the heat-island effect of the big city just to our south combined with the heat sink of the ocean to our east. But for so many of our neighbors inland to the west and north along the coast, it has been a Katrina-like period of unrelenting hardship in the face of Mother Nature's wrath. No word from Al Bore Gore. Not really given much news coverage nationally, thanks to the fact that it can't be pinned on George W. Bush, we imagine.

TigerHawk was on the road with his daughter for prep-school interviews in our home town of Exeter, NH and Andover, MA during the worst of it:

Last night, the TH Daughter and I drove from Princeton up to Exeter, New Hampshire, where she will, in theory, interview at a school of great repute later this morning. As everybody who lives in the Northeast can surely imagine, the drive was miserable. It rained, a lot, for the entire six and a half hours. By the time we arrived at the "Inn by the Bandstand" — a cute little bed and breakfast in the center of town — everything other than the salt-covered roads had a brilliant coating of ice.

Now it is a little before six in the morning. I awoke thinking that the room was awfully cold, but then I thought that perhaps that was a New England bed-and-breakfast thing and that there was a very nice comforter on the bed so we had planned for this. Then I realized that the lights on the tiny little Christmas tree by my fireplace were dark, and I thought "huh, I wonder if they are on a timer." Then it occurred to me that the power is out. Moreover, I judge from the temperature of the room and the condition of my computer's battery that the power has been out for several hours.

We were wicked delighted at the way things turned out:

Exeter the school did not have any more power than anywhere else in the region, but a silly inconvenience like no electricity does not shut down a New England boarding school. The admissions office was dark and cold in temperature, but the people inside were bright in attitude and warm in spirit and carrying on with business as usual, but for the winter coats and candles everywhere. I let myself imagine that there was a day when Exeter must have conducted all its admissions interviews by candlelight.

As we wrote in the comments:

My hometown, Exeter, NH. In my day, it was boys only, and said boys were the center of us dreamy-eyed girls' lives.

Wondering whether the weather difference between Exeter and Andover will influence the TH daughter's decision when the two acceptance letters arrive?

Will she choose Andover for its easier clime or Exeter for the challenge of it all?

Bottom line, when the going gets tough, the Exonians don't start mewling and keening and whining for someone to bail them out. When the going gets tough, they get out the candles.

Comments

[Teresa]

Oh yes, it's been delightful in Central Mass. So glad to hear Goomp is okay. I have friends in NH who are hard hit too.

Blackberry blog reading has been hit & miss. But we are hoping for electricity tomorrow or Monday. (Trucks were spotted on our road tonight-a good sign? We shall see)

[Donna B.]

I feel for you folks up there. I honestly did not know that the northeast was a place for ice storms.

We have them periodically in the south, the last one here putting us off the electric grid for 9 days. However, a few Coleman lanterns heats our living area to a bearable temperature and we have a gas stove in the kitchen. I suspect the outside temperature you're dealing with is much lower.

[Gayle Miller]

Several Christmas holidays ago the city of Columbus was hit with a major ice storm and my neighborhood was without power for six days! Sam the Wonder Cat and I did a LOT of bonding as we huddled under blankets together. Even the mayor of Columbus was without power (and I was on his grid) and I do know from reports in the newspapers that he was ENRAGED that the power company was so slow in getting people back up to speed! Mind you, I lived 3 miles from downtown Columbus at the time!

It's no pleasure and I hope all is well sooner rather than later.

[Elisson]

The ice comes
On little cat feet.

It sits, encrusting
the harbor and city
with glittering beauty
and then knocks out the power throughout the region.
Gawd, I hate the sleet.

(Apologies to Carl Sandburg)