Okay, so Irene wasn’t all bad, it’s good to remember that I only lost power for about 36 hours because if I’d lost it for more, I really don’t think I’d feel this way, but there is a huge part of me that liked the loss of power for a day and half. I remember life without FaceBook, computers, and texting, and it’s nice to head back there for a time and not be at the beacon call of technology. It is nice to, for a moment, not have everything at our finger tips.

There is always something lost and something gained as we advance and create, and I really miss the simplicity of life pre-PC. It’s not just the technology, but Sunday and Monday the whole state was pretty much shut down, so there was a degree (if you weren’t a medical worker or a CLP staff) that you knew there was no way to connect with most people and everyone knew it. There was very little that I felt obligated to do—a refreshing feeling.

There are so many things I like to do and I often feel like I don’t have time for it all. I like to exercise, I like to write, read, watch movies, cook, play games on my phone, check out Facebook. My list could go on and on. When half the choices were taken away, I actually felt less pressure to try and do them all. For two days I finally made a big dent in the 1,000-page book I’ve been working on for a month.

Plus all the neighbors were outside. Some with power invited us to dinner and we got to meet more people on our street. No one had anywhere to be or anything pressing so we all got to be a bit more neighborly. My neighbors are nice anyway, but we had more time.

I’m so glad we live in this day in age and have all that we have, but sometimes it’s nice to step back and remember why we like it so much, but also remember some of the benefits of life without it.

(The picture above is a photograph of the tree top that fell in front of our house taking out the power to most of Hartford Ave.)