From My Seat in Panera

It is now 8 PM, Wednesday, August 2, 2006. Baird and I are at Panera, eating and exercising our fingers. At home, the power is out. Not sure why. The big lightening storm had already passed....and then...suddenly....there was no power. That is really bad news right now. It is over 100 degrees. Yesterday was also over 100 degrees. The day before was not much better. In fact, it has been pretty darn hot for as long as I can recall. Ok, admittedly my memory is rather short. It was cold here once, probably not all that long ago, but truthfully, I am just too hot to recall when that was. They say the "real feel" temp yeterday and today was 111. No, that is not a typo. One-hundred and eleven degrees farenheit is what they said. It felt at least it to me. Now, please recall I am writing from rural western Massachusetts, New England, the North East of the United States of Amercia ---- not from Texas or Mississippi or anywhere remotely close to the Equator. Our part of the world is not prepared for this. So far we have only been utilizing small fans to make our home bearable. Today we decided enough was enough -- time to get the central air in our new house up and running. We spent most of the day dripping sweat, cleaning out the clogged air vents so we could fire up the system. Then, just as Baird was ready to flip the switch the power in our part of town went out. We waited around almost an hour. Still no power. Some of the restaurants near us were also out. Chefs and pizza makers could be seen pacing in the streets. The entire Lord Jeffrey Inn was in a black out -- ugh! imagine the heat in those rooms. Enough! We fled to Hadley, to the strip mall and here we sit, full bellies, drinking our iced tea, tapping on our keyboards, enjoying Panera.... not knowing when it will be "safe" to return home. Only the kitties know for sure and we have not yet equipped them with cell phones.