Our snow “storm” in Black & White
Narragansett Bay on a winter afternoon.
Taken from Beavertail Rd, Jamestown, RI
This is a little bit off my usual theme but I was watching the late news the other night and the weatherman (yes, it was a man) was commenting on the activity in the tropics and then mentioned that it is snowing in northern parts of Canada. He then went on to say that the most recent copy of the Farmer’s Almanac was out with the predictions for another hard winter.
His comments got me thinking of how “Mother Nature” had been in the news a lot this year or maybe I’ve just noticed it more. There are reality programs about tornadoes and tornado chasing (I wonder if I’d have the nerve to go on one of those trips for vacation?) that have become very popular over the past few years. The debate on Global warming continues while volcanos shut down air traffic with their ash clouds.
Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman even wants us to think that at least some of the recent natural disasters are a message from God. In late August while speaking at a political rally in Florida she said: “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane…” Yes she was joking but maybe she has a point.
Have you heard of the Gaia hypothesis? I’ve always liked this theory. It appeals the primitive part of me that has a deep respect and affection for nature…not that I’d want to give up all of my modern conveniences…just make them more energy-efficient. But anyway the Gaia hypothesis proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. ( This is the definition listed on Wikipedia)
The Gaia Theory first showed up in the 1970’s and received a great deal of ridicule by the scientific community. How things have changed. Scientific investigation of the biosphere, the salinity of the oceans, global surface temperature, Ozone, oxygen levels and so on have developed into a number of earth sciences. There are even some religious offshoots connected with the theory.
Some of those treat the earth as a living organism and liken hurricanes and tornadoes and other natural disruptions as the mother earth trying to cleanse itself. Well, far be it from me to offer any opinion on that theory but the Jesus Blog has listed the natural disasters so far this year:
Whew! I’m glad they are tracking these and not me. But If the Gaia theory has any validity, and some mainstream scientists are starting to take note, I’d say we have a sick planet and we’d better start helping out. Break out the antibiotics for the earth or something! My sister and I need to get to Alaska before the glaciers melt!
Taunton MA had it easy. A few down trees and some short-lived power outages. My lights, cable, phone, and internet were all up and running most of Sunday even during the height of the storm. No food spoiling in the fridge or defrosting in the freezer.
My gas and hot and cold running water were uninterrupted. I am very, very lucky.
Parts of Massachusetts are still without electricity 3 days after the storm. Some people are even being told that service won’t be restored until possibly the weekend. None of the other utility services (cable, internet and VOIP phones) can come back online until the electricity is back on. National Grid says they have crews helping from as far away as Colorado. Funny thing, nobody has seen them. I saw 1 National grid truck today ( Wednesday) and I drove from Taunton to Plymouth then explored the Plymouth waterfront before driving to Hingham. That drive took me through multiple communities.
But I’m sure all the football fans will be relieved that Foxboro Stadium, Home of The New England Patriots has their power back so the game can go on, even if you can’t watch it because your power is off so your TV won’t work.
I drove around a little on Monday too just to see what I could see. I traveled through Easton, Brockton and Raynham., areas that I know were hard hit and without power. No National Grid trucks in sight on Monday.
Work was testament to the areas hit hardest. Over and over the technicians went to calls of down wires and out of service customers only to find live electrical lines lying on the ground. There was nothing they could do. We have to wait for the electric company.
Remember the old TV show “Car 54 where are you?” I think the title of this show is “National Grid , Where are you?” I can’t help wondering what it would be like if the storm had blown in with the power that was originally predicted.
There’s still a few more days for voting in the NH dream Vacation Photo Contest. Remember you can vote once per day. Thank you! 🙂 http://www.nhdreamvacation.com/browse-and-vote/
It was supposed to be a Hurricane and Miss Irene certainly did enough damage as she rolled up the East Coast. Here in Taunton we fully expected to get slammed. My office in Plymouth actually closed and shifted the work to other locations so I got an unexpected day off with pay.
By the time Irene reached us on Sunday it had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Even so she left her mark. I was lucky. One neighbor had a tree come down on their car. 
Another had a huge tree come down in their yard. 
That tree was so big is covered the yard and blocked the street.
Give credit where credit is due…the police and fire department responded in the storm and cleared the road.
The rain came first.
Torrential downpours that came in bands, almost like an ebb and flow. Once the rain moved on the winds started. Highland St was first flooded then the tree came down and blocked it.
I saw the tree limb come down on my neighbor’s car.
It was surreal. It looked like it was slow motion even though it wasn’t. I would have thought it was my imagination but another neighbor asked me if I’d seen it come down. His comment was “I saw it and it looked just like it was in slow motion.”
But even with the downed trees and power outages that we have it could have been worse. Vermont’s rivers are flooding and washing out roads and bridges. A ski lodge has collapsed and the guests are stranded because the roads off the mountain are washed out.
Lake George in New York, the area where I grew up, has overflowed into the Village of Lake George. I don’t think I can ever remember that happening.
When I thought I was going to have to go to work I’d planned to try to get down to the ocean, one of the beaches or some such vantage point to get some pictures but when they called and told me to stay home I took their advice. So no award winning photos to share from this storm. Just a few local shots.
P. S. Still time to vote in the NH dream vacation photo contest! http://www.nhdreamvacation.com/browse-and-vote/