Auroraadvocate.com - Bobby's World: Making most out of darkness

by Robert Recker

Senior Editor

There's a series of bank commercials on TV right now where everyday regular people stare into the camera and tell you about their precarious position in life at the moment -- they're just getting married and adjusting to a joint bank account with their spouse, or their teenage daughter is just learning to drive and they're worried about car insurance.

And then the camera pans out to show them standing -- rather, trapped -- in this big red dot on the ground, and they always end with a sigh, saying, "Oh yeah, I'm there."

Let me tell you where I was this past week.

"I have four power cords strung through the window over my kitchen sink, winding their way through my home to the refrigerator, a lamp, a portable work light and the occasional coffee maker.

A gas-powered generator thrums along in my driveway, which will most likely remain my sole source of electricity the next three or four or five days.

"Oh yeah, I'm there."

And if you believe what the folks at the power company told the newspaper, I was right there with a lot of people in Northeast Ohio, whose power was indefinitely knocked out by what remained of Hurricane Ike as it blew through the Midwest Sept. 14 and 15.

My wife called the power company 24 hours after our voltage disappeared to get a repair update.

She was told a major transformer in my area had fizzled out in the storm, that the company's truck used to replace transformers had been driven down to Texas last week to help out with hurricane recovery, and the truck would not be back up north for another few days.

So until then, my neighbors and I were stuck siphoning gallon after gallon of fuel into our little generators, at a clip of about $30 a day.

I guess I took for granted the times I got my electric bill and griped about that additional half-cent rate hike.

But I tried to make the most out the situation.

I half-jokingly suggested to my brother-in-law that he haul over the camper trailer that we jointly own, and my family could set up shop in the driveway, like Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

I kidded with my wife that I wouldn't mind keeping the candle-lit bedroom as a permanent feature. She did not laugh back much.

I realize I'm one of the lucky ones on my block who had a generator to borrow, who had caring family members stopping by each day to see how things are going.

I thank the stars that last year I invested $14.99 in a little doohicky that lets you manually override your garage door opener during an outage.

I'm fortunate that the 4-inch thick branch that broke off my neighbor's old oak tree fell somewhat harmlessly behind my garage, and not on me, as I stood awe-struck in my backyard fully taking in those massive, swirling gales so rare in our part of the country.

I was inconvenienced, but I was not waist-high in water, still had a roof over my head and my family was safe.

Sometimes it's not as bad as it first seems to be "there."

Editor's Note: As this column first went to print, power had been restored to the Recker household and the power generator was given a much-needed rest.

E-mail:

rrecker@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3168