It’s 12:01pm on Tuesday, March 2nd, and we still don’t have power restored. We’re doing OK, we’re on a generator, and thankfully the temperatures have been above freezing so there hasn’t been much concern for us. The problem is, we’re used to this — we know that, on average, we’ll have a multi-day outage each year. It was explained to us before we moved here, but we didn’t believe it. After 5 years, not only do we believe it but we’re pros at dealing with it.

This leads me to ask the question: what would it take to recoup the cost of burying all these power lines underground in this and other high-impact neighborhoods?

I’m sure from PSNH’s standpoint the answer is, “oh, it’s cheaper to repair downed lines 100 times than it is to bury them once.” And I’m sure that’s true. But that’s not even the beginning of the total cost here.

Let’s list some of the costs in addition to those incurred by PSNH’s repair crews:

Town infrastructure costs, including temporary shelters for residents, management time coordinating with utilities, additional emergency workers, and overtime work for local crews and staff.

Personal costs, including fuel for generators, lost groceries, frozen/burst heat pipes, hotel rooms, meals out, and lost productivity at work.

Health risks, including loose (and potentially live) wires on the street, toxic leakage from downed transformers, and carbon monoxide poisoning from generators (the fire department brought a neighborhood woman to the hospital just yesterday).

I, for one, would love to see a cost analysis here, and if it means adding a surcharge to the local residents, please propose that and let’s make the decision together. Until we do, I *know* that each year we’ll be without power for several days and yet again incurring all of these expenses and exposing ourselves and the town to all these risks.

It seems silly not to at least consider doing this.

You can read (and, if you choose, follow) me on Twitter at @davehamilton

But I’m not getting any younger, and my body occasionally reminds me of this. I’m no dumb-dumb, and I’m at least aware that regular exercise will be good for me as I age. It may not guarantee that I live any longer than I otherwise would, but there’s good evidence to point to regular exercise maintaining my quality of life quite a bit longer, so I’ve been endeavoring to do it more… regularly.

The problem is that standing on a treadmill watching my iPod bores me to death. Inevitable as it is, death’s not really the goal we’re racing towards here, is it?

I have another issue: I’m a homeowner with a house that’s nestled nicely amongst the trees, so there’s a lot of crap to get done in the yard. Constantly. Occasionally we’ll do marathon sessions on the weekends that kill us all, and then we spend the next few weeks feeling guilty about neglecting this, that or the other until we do it again. I guess this would happen even if we had a home with no trees in sight. Homeownership is a laborious joy for all of us, isn’t it?

Thankfully, I stumbled onto a solution. I’ve recently traded in my not-quite-as-regular-as-I’d-like morning exercise routine (i.e. twice annually!) for a much more productive, kill-two-birds-with-one-stone concept of just working in the yard for 30-45 minutes a few mornings a week. It’s amazing, really, how much different yardwork feels when I’m doing it to kill time as opposed to doing it to actually accomplish something. The results are the same, but I don’t have that feeling of “oh crap I’ll never finish all of this,” because the reality is, I’m not doing it with the intention of finishing anything at all during any particular session. There’s more to do than I’ll *ever* complete, and the work regenerates, so really I think I’ve found the perfect solution. After 30-45 minutes, my heart rate’s up, I feel like I’ve used my body for more than just sitting in a chair, and I’ve actually accomplished *something* tangible around the house/yard.

We’ll see how it lasts but… so far, so good.

One thing struck me, though. To vote, all I did was give my name and address, chose my party affiliation on the spot and was handed the appropriate ballot (a benefit of going in “undeclared”). No ID check, no nothing. With all the election fraud we’ve seen in this country, I’m surprised by this. Would be real easy to go back in and claim I was someone else (which I didn’t!). Gives a whole new meaning to “vote early, vote often!”

And then, as soon as I was done, I went and removed my party affiliation once again and am squarely back in the undeclared camp.

It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Well, this morning, I got this e-mail from our town of Durham, New Hampshire:

Because of the high heat index today, we have made arrangements to
utilize the air conditioned meeting room at the Durham Town Office as a
cooling off location for individuals who perhaps do not have air
conditioning at home or are in need of a break from the heat. We will
officially open the room at 1:00 p.m. today, Wednesday, August 2nd. If
you or someone you know is in need of a cool location in order to find
respite from the heat, please stop by the Durham Town Office located at
15 Newmarket Road, Durham, NH. Members of the Durham Chapter of the
American Red Cross will staff the room.

It’s 94 degrees outside at the moment, and we’re pretty much at peak heat for the day here. I’m *sure* the Texans are getting their own laughs in now.

Technorati Tags: new hampshire, heat, weather, texas

The article was written by someone at Harvard and clearly represented their spin on it, one which contained many concepts that resonated within me, too. Though I already agreed with the article, as I put it down I thought, “and plus, it’s from Harvard, and they’re local boys.” Being in New Hampshire, Harvard is just a hop, skip, and… not even a jump away.

And then it hit me — how much does location factor into our decisions in today’s world? With this new-fangled Internet thingy, not to mention cable and satellite television, we can get our news, entertainment, and heck, even tangible goods from just about anywhere on the planet. Unless you’re going to leave the confines of your comfy chair and go to the *store* to buy something, it doesn’t really matter where it comes from, yet I still certainly find myself preferring to get all this stuff as local as possible. Some of this may have to do with the fact that we recently moved to New Hampshire, though I think I’ve always felt this way. Some of it has to do with time, of course… if I buy something online from a Vermont-based vendor, it gets here a lot faster than something from Nevada would. But I think it goes beyond that… I think it has to do with mindset and trust. Being that I live here, I can relate better to the people here — we have that additional “something in common”. I also understand the people from other areas of this country in which I’ve lived for significant chunks of time, and I believe that truly does factor into my decision-making process. I can only assume that I’m not the only one who — on some level — reacts this way. Do you?

Technorati Tags: health, new hampshire, location

Well, today, about 2 weeks after the onset, I noticed my right cheek twitching, which it has done on occasion basically since this all started. I tried to control it, as I have in the past (and failed), and this time it worked. Now I can twitch my right cheek (a little bit, anyway) on command! A small step, but HUGE in that it’s a step in the right direction.

Maybe this thing won’t last too long after all…

Technorati Tags: bell’s palsy

This morning, the Little Milk Man (which is a company run by and employing mostly women, funnily enough) arrived, complete with the old-fashioned truck, delivering those same tasty treats I remember. Nothing like fresh smoked cheese delivered to your home. It’s nice to see when technology can actually bring back something so good and wholesome into your life.

Technorati Tags: convergence, dairy, durham, family, milkman, new hampshire

Now don’t get me wrong, I realize that the beauty of the Internet is in its kinda-sorta anarchy (at least in its roots), and the fact that this stuff isn’t policed means that everything else is free to move at its own paces (for the most part), but I’d *really* rather not have this stuff dumped off at my home or office anymore.

Anyone want some extra spam? I’ve got plenty I can send your way.

Trust me… you’ll thank me in the morning.