In the dark and offline...sort of

Last week a powerful storm ripped through the Chicagoland area, leaving over 850,000 people without power -- including me. Short-term power outages are not uncommon, but power is usually restored in a matter of hours. This time, it took days. Years ago, I would have been sitting in my house, in the dark, wishing I had one of those hand-crank emergency radios so that I could find out what was going on in the community and world, and hopefully hear when the power would be restored. This time, however, I had devices at my disposal that were valuable in helping me stay connected to the "outside world," so I didn't feel as isolated as I once might have. My smartphone and my iPad (with 3G service) were well-charged, and even if they weren't, I have car chargers for both. I was able to access Facebook and find out how the rest of my family fared during the storm, share pictures of the damage the storm caused, and visit the ComEd website to find out an estimated time for restoration of power in my area. Yes, it was a major inconvenience to not have power for several days -- especially when I have 3 online classes that I needed to work on, we lost a bunch of food in the fridge and freezer, and no air conditioning -- but it was not as awful as it could have been, if I had not been able to connect with friends, family, news sources, and the utility company so easily. Isn't technology great?? :-)

Okay, back to work on the online classes now... ;-)