From November 5, 2011
From November 5, 2011
There are no flowers in my world at the moment, so I've had to go down memory lane to find a few images for today. Ironically, I happened upon these photos I took in Connecticut shortly after that nightmare, the freak snowstorm that left us in the cold and dark for almost two weeks at the end of last October. 

During that time, our governor and the president of the electric company had told us to suck it up because they had the power to tell us to suck it up. It was a horrible week that reminded me that, as the Irish saying goes, it's easy to rest on another man's wounds. Our leaders were fine with our dilemma because they were warm and clean and well-fed while we were running around looking for places to shower and cook. (One of my strongest memories of that time was the Chinese lady who popped out of the public library with a rice steamer in her hand bragging to me that she had just cooked her family's supper in the stacks.) 

I emerged from that week cold and tired and grateful for my parents' support but deeply angry at the way the state and the power company treated tax payers, rate payers, human beings. I emerged from that week totally screwed up, hating control freaks, dreading the cold, anticipating the next outage, loathing snow for its power to reduce me to Wilma Flintstone. 

I have been in North Carolina for almost a month, and I have to say that I do not miss Connecticut. Connecticut--the home I have always adored--broke my heart,and I did what the broken-hearted do: I got the hell away. There are warmer places, and you can go there to thaw out the heart. I am wondering if the time will come when my heart will crave the hard cold of Connecticut and the do-it-your-own-damned-self-if-you-really-care-to-live that is the true meaning of being there. I don't know. All I know is I loved it once.