Librarian's Rant

So you may have heard that the Midwest got SMACKED by a major storm this weekend. I was supposed to go to Chicago to see off a friend who is moving to Florida, so I was already bummed when the weekend began and I realized I couldn't go. But I figured I'd make the best of it. Hunker down, get some tasty provisions and some bottled water, watch some of the backload on my TiFaux (what I call my TiVo-like DVR from my satellite company) and play some Sims2 (what? I can't be useful all the time!).

Friday night I had an engagement, but Saturday morning I wake and turn on The Weather Channel to see if this thing was real (I still held out hope of going to the windy city). TWC is going nutty with some "Two Sided Storm" nonsense, trying to hype up this winter ickiness coming our way. Whatever sells, I guess. I decide to head out to the store to get the tasty provisions et al, which I do. It's sloppy, but mostly just rain mixed with a touch of ice. I can tell it's going to get nasty, though--I've lived in the Midwest most of my life, I know what a gray/purple/brown sky means in any season. So. Begin the hunker down.

I get home and put away my groceries, tell my house guest to pack a bag if she's going to see her friend south of here, cuz there's no way she's going to get home safely tonight. She does, and informs me that while I was out shopping, our power went out for a bit. Hmmm. Once she leaves, I throw in a load of laundry and head to my PC for some personal relaxation. Of which I get maybe an hour before, yes, our power goes out again. Okay. I wait a bit, it goes back on. I took advantage of one quite chilly interlude in the afternoon to take a nap under my eiderdown. Really, what else was I going to do? It was rather dark for daytime, and the first floor was too cold. The cats and I snuggled down and waited for enlightenment.

To shorten an already too long story, this goes on much of the day, with each successive outage getting longer and longer. I get a break in the evening, during which I catch up on some Battlestar Galactica (best show on TV!) and cook some hot food until, yes, the power goes out again at 10:30. Okay. But here's a new problem:

The power doesn't just go out. It goes out, flickers on, then goes out again. Which, as it turns out, causes my Littermaid (electronic self-cleaning cat box and gods' gift to cat owners) to run its track once, and then stop in the middle of the box. NOT acceptable. My eldest cat is both finicky and neurotic. But I had neglected to put the battery backup in (d'oh!). It required 8 "D" batteries. I had 6, if you counted the ones in my flashlights (one for each floor plus 2 spares--I wasn't completely unprepared, you see). Not good. Luckily my cats managed to weather the storm (pun not entirely intended) and hold it in for a bit.

My basic realization this weekend: I am entirely too dependent on electricity.

For my amusement, my heat (gas furnace, but electric blower), my cats poo needs and so much more. Did I read by candlelight? Well, yes. Or rather I tried out my new battery-powered booklight after a bit, cuz it turns out graphic novels are hard to read by candle light! You can't see the colors properly. Again, Too Dependent!!

Saturday night to Sunday had more power, but also much, much more snow. This was another annoyance, as I'm on my homeowners board and I had to wake twice in the night (each time the power went on or off, basically) to call and bug our snowplow company about coming to dig us out. They finally arrived at 10:30 on Sunday morning. NOT acceptable. They were already on our list, but this clinched it.

Clearly I was one of the lucky ones, however. I went over to my church Sunday night for an Oscar night bash and there was a power line and a TON of branches down over there. Very woody area. They clearly had no power for several blocks - it was very spooky coming out at 11:30 to dark streets and dark houses. Our church was fine, thankfully. Hard to watch the Oscars with no juice!

At least now I know I need to buy some more D batteries (for my flashlights AND the cat box!) and some better matches (I bought a bargain brand, and they're crap. Back to Ohio Blue Tip for me!).

And perhaps I need to think about how dependent I am on power generation to get through my day. I'll think about it soon. After I go home and watch some BSG on my TiFaux!

Seems an Egyptian blogger is facing a four-year sentence for insulting Islam and the Egyptian president.

Judge Ayman al-Akazi sentenced Nabil, 22, to three years in prison for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and inciting sectarian strife and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.

Nabil, who has called himself a secular Muslim, did not react as the verdict was read. His religious family didn't attend any of the trial sessions.

Egypt, a top U.S. ally in the Mideast, arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to the pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was put on trial while other bloggers were freed — a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, was an unusually scathing critic of conservative Muslims. His frequent attacks on Al-Azhar, where he was a law student, led the university to expel him in March, then push prosecutors to bring him to trial.

It's odd, I guess I've always thought of Egypt as fairly progressive, but I suspect my impressions are both dated and based in comparisons to more hard line regimes.

In the back of my mind I find myself imagining our country as a Christian fundamentalist regime, and me being arrested for insulting Shrub (who is, as far as I'm concerned, an insult to me). Can't happen here? Well, it would certainly be harder, but not impossible. Ask anyone who lived through McCarthy. We may be one nutjob (and, one hopes, an intelligent electorate) away from just such a scenario.

Thanks to my new buddy Joel for the heads up!