Thunder and lightening

Did anybody else catch that crazy thunderstorm that rolled in around 8:00 last night?



Those of us in the Central New Jersey area got slammed with a sudden burst of torrential rain, wind, and what certainly sounded like hail. I was indoors when it happened, and as soon as I heard the pounding on my windows, I knew that a power outage was inevitable.

See, my side of the street is special in that the second we get a drop of inclement weather, the power goes out. The thing that gets me is that every time this happens, it's only my house and the dozen or so other houses on my side of the street that are forced to go without power. The rest of my neighborhood is fine - I know, because the last few times this happened, I made a point of driving around to confirm it.

I've complained to the power company about this on multiple occasions. While I'm no electrical engineer, I have to assume that if everybody else keeps their power while ours goes out the second a breeze rolls in, then it must be due to some type of flaw in the construction or maintenance of our power lines.

The power company, in turn, has assured me that "sometimes, these things just happen," and that there's really nothing they can do about it.

Right. I'm sure it's merely a coincidence that the same twelve houses constantly lose power while our neighbors across the street get to sit there in the comfort of their amply-lit homes, microwaving popcorn and snuggling up to a good movie while the rest of us fumble about for our flashlights and try not to injure ourselves as we seek out our cell phones to call the power company to report the outage to learn that it could be hours before we get power back, to which we complain, to which we are told that "sometimes, these things just happen."

Well sure, maybe these things do just happen, or maybe it's that everybody else's power lines are properly maintained while ours are simply being held up with fun-tak.

Last time I checked, I paid my electric bill on time and didn't receive my "faulty lines" discount...but apparently, I have no right to make any demands of the power company because "these things just happen."

Surprisingly, last night's outage only lasted a few minutes - just long enough for me to have to reset all of my clocks and miss a few pivotal moments of the Law and Order episode I was in the middle of watching.

Still, as I stood there during those few moments of darkness, watching the rain beat against my bedroom window, I couldn't help but take comfort in the fact that I wasn't alone, that my spoiled neighbors across the street, too, had lost power. I realize that sounds kind of petty, but after years of being left along in the dark, you start to give in to your true feelings when these situations arise. I know that's kind of messed up, but hey, sometimes these things just happen.