Monday, December 18, 2006
Warm memories in the cold
I hope your electricity is up - we're still waiting on Tacoma Power. If you saw the nearby house on Meadow Road with the two trees leaning on it - and there are many such scenes throughout town - you see what they are up against. I really admire the crews out there, whether they work for power companies or for telecoms like my employer Comcast or for Qwest or anyone else. And they've been at this for days.
It's been a long time since the Neary family was without electricity for four nights. My son, 14, can't remember such a time. So Cindy and I did our best to make it a bit of an adventure. I hope you also have some nice blackout memories.
My favorite memory will be from Saturday night. After 25 or so years of trying, Cindy has persuaded me to try learning some classic dance steps. Saturday, after I cobbled together a gourmet dinner of spaghetti and pancakes, we practiced dancing. We've struggled to come up with music to practice to, given that my CD collection is based on rock n' roll. So Saturday night, I ransacked my daughter's CD colection. I grabbed one of her Sinatra albums. And then as Cindy and I danced in the candlelight, I finally understood Sinatra. Inches away from Cindy, looking into her eyes, I could understand what Sinatra's music was about. And the message and the meaning are powerful. What a guy. What music.
Meanwhile, our 14-year-old son, deprived of TV and video games, was reading a British sci fi comedy book, and frequently laughing out loud.
I hope you had moments like this - or do in the next blackout. Now that I've had a day to reflect, I also think it's funny how a guy raised on The Beatles found Sinatra by way of my teen-age daughter and a power outage. Sometimes we get unhappy because 'this or that' seems to be going out of fashion, but I suppose this experience is one bit of proof that quality will find a way to endure.
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It's been a long time since the Neary family was without electricity for four nights. My son, 14, can't remember such a time. So Cindy and I did our best to make it a bit of an adventure. I hope you also have some nice blackout memories.
My favorite memory will be from Saturday night. After 25 or so years of trying, Cindy has persuaded me to try learning some classic dance steps. Saturday, after I cobbled together a gourmet dinner of spaghetti and pancakes, we practiced dancing. We've struggled to come up with music to practice to, given that my CD collection is based on rock n' roll. So Saturday night, I ransacked my daughter's CD colection. I grabbed one of her Sinatra albums. And then as Cindy and I danced in the candlelight, I finally understood Sinatra. Inches away from Cindy, looking into her eyes, I could understand what Sinatra's music was about. And the message and the meaning are powerful. What a guy. What music.
Meanwhile, our 14-year-old son, deprived of TV and video games, was reading a British sci fi comedy book, and frequently laughing out loud.
I hope you had moments like this - or do in the next blackout. Now that I've had a day to reflect, I also think it's funny how a guy raised on The Beatles found Sinatra by way of my teen-age daughter and a power outage. Sometimes we get unhappy because 'this or that' seems to be going out of fashion, but I suppose this experience is one bit of proof that quality will find a way to endure.
