Sitting in my kitchen teaching a sweet nine year old the open B string, in northern New Jersey. We finished the lesson in ambient light. I thought it was my house only at first because I had three room air-conditioners humming and some work being done with the use of power tools. I had been warned by a contractor that my circuit breaker box needed to be replaced as the Feds band the further installation of it's kind. Naturally, I thought the problem began there and regretted not replaceing it.

My son called just about then from Manhattan to inquire if we had power. He did not. He lives in New York state north and west of the city but drove three co-workers home to Connecticut who otherwise would have had a difficult commute to their homes. He later remarked that there were so many cars with only one passanger leaving the city and that surely there must have been someone these drivers could have helped out.

Anyway, we do need a national response to the bigger issues that this has exposed. First rate nation; 21st century trying to run on antiquated technology....got to wonder why a crisis is the only way things get addressed.

Ellen