Thursday, December 13, 2007 | by nathan

An Update on the Power, With Special Thanks To the Citizens and Officials of Austin, TX.

I went home at lunch today to check on the power, and there still was none. The good news is that I’m getting caught up on my reading, on which I was far behind, and also that the cleanup effort around the neighborhood seems to be progressing rapidly, with a lot of debris moving out of the streets.

Last night Brian and I went to the mall to remind ourselves what electric light looks like - so we’re prepared when it returns to our home - and to get some shopping done. On our way home we drove around the neighborhood to see who had power and who didn’t. We live on 29th, and apparently there is power north of 31st and south of 28th. This means, of course, that we’re in a teeny, tiny little box that has no electricity. I felt very defeated by this, as OG&E has made it clear that they’re going to work on the biggest blackout spots first, and ours is fairly small.

Then today, I went home at lunch to find two power trucks from the City of Austin, TX. on our street, apparently working on the lines, and two more from local companies that were there to clear away the fallen trees. I’m hoping that when I get home tonight the lights will be on, the heat will be running, and all will be right with the world.

Also, I got a very kind comment and a follow-up e-mail from my friend Jon, who also is in Austin, lamenting the loss of the trees on Venice, the main street in our neighborhood. The loss of these trees is hitting me harder than the loss of power, as they truly are gorgeous, but the good news is that our neighborhood association is finicky and informed, and I have little doubt that they’ll work as hard as possible to get things back to normal. The landscape architect who does a lot of that is my across-the-street neighbor, and the guy’s a genius. Get this: so far he’s killed and revived the grass in his front yard no fewer than 8 times, because apparently, like God, he can speak a word to plants and they’ll do whatever the hell he says. "LIVE!" he says, and the grass turns so green one has to cover one’s eyes. "DIE!" he says again, and it wilts like week-old lettuce.

So, our ‘hood will be back shortly. I just hope that I have lights back by then. Thanks to Austin, I just might.