Saturday morning, pre-Irene, a friend was telling me about a lecture she's organizing on Civil War surgery, complete with a demonstration. From there we started talking about how risky childbirth was back then, and how common it was for both the baby and the mother to die.
At that point I realized that in comparison to what our ancestors went through on a daily basis, the lengthy power outage that was almost certain to start that evening would be a painless and very minor hassle. And I vowed to remain cheerful throughout.
I think I did -- but only thanks to some awesome friends and neighbors who let me use their showers, e-mail access and electrical outlets and kept me wonderfully amused.
Herewith, some anecdotes.
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