What Matters…

by billhilf on January 09, 2007 12:00pm

You may have heard of the wild wind storms we had in the greater Puget Sound area in the weeks before Christmas. It was intense. I lost power for eight days and was without cable (and Internet connectivity) for five on top of that. The surrounding area was a disaster in the days after the storm -here are a couple photos from the main road to my neighborhood:

It was easily the worst storm I’ve been in and we were fortunate not to have any significant loss or damage to our or our neighbors’ and friends’ homes. Many were not as fortunate.

It certainly brought a lot of people close together, to have meals together, to get together at friends’ homes with generators and heat, and to let out our frustrations and to celebrate.

To say many people in the area are now out buying generators is an understatement. The local Home Depot’s are cleared out. I have a plan myself, but this experience did certainly get me thinking about the critical dependency I (we) have on electricity. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Certainly disaster can always strike, and preparedness is important, but the most valuable lesson for me in all of this was the importance of family, friends and a community that comes together in times of need.

Happy New Year. And I promise my next blog will have something more related to technology!

-Bill