soapbox

Kirsten and I were sitting in the kitchen last night playing with Sarah and talking to her parents on the phone when there were two very loud bangs and the power failed. Very not cool when it means that you don’t want to open the fridge to get milk for your tea. Even less cool when it’s the second night in a row where you don’t get to have your tea because of some issue with milk.

A few minutes later there were a whole bunch of sirens just down the street, so I took a little walk and saw a most impressive wreck. Some [presumably, this is Baltimore and it was 11:30 pm] drunk driver misses a turn and completely sheared off the power pole at the bottom of my street. They ended up sideways across the road. No idea of injuries, everyone had been taken away in ambulances already and I couldn’t see the front of the truck without walking across downed wires. It must have been a slow crime night in Baltimore though because there were a huge number of police, fire engines, and utility trucks.

Cutting to the end of the story, the utility people had to replace the pole to get power back to us. Unfortunately, this pole happened to be sunk in solid cement on a small bridge. The police and fire people were gone by 1:30 am and it took them until 8:30 working with jackhammers and pry bars to get the base of the old pole out and the new pole in.

The problem is that the power ended up being out for about 9 hours. That’s longer than the hold time for the freezer in a commercial refrigerator. And that means I have no ice cream!

If I were a good American, I’d sue the driver for lost goods and emotional damages.