In Which The User of The Magical Power Grid Meets the Gnomes

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke

…except when it isn’t. Me

This morning a tree fell on the power lines down the road from my house. It was raining, and dark, and generally unpleasant outside. But within an hour of my awaking, power was restored, and all was good. Flicker, flicker. Beep, beep. Whirrrrr…

My daughter and I had to run to town for exciting errands (dentist and banking. Whee!) And while we were there, we stopped at Tim Horton’s (like ye would.)

It seemed like all the guys (and they were mostly guys) who keep our roads clear, and our power working, and our trees off our highways were there getting coffee… She isn’t normally in Tim Horton’s at that time on a weekday, and she said, “Who are all these people in the workvests?”

I said, “These are the people who make your world run magically, so that the water in your house works, and the roads get fixed when they get holes in them, and the traffic lights are still standing after a big storm and we almost never have to worry about any of those things.” And then I said to one of the NS Power guys, “Hey, did you guys fix my power last night?” And he said, “oh, it should be on by now…” And I said, “Oh, it was on when I left home. I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the fact that you guys go out in the middle of the night in the rain to fix it.” And he smiled. And said, “Thanks. I don’t hear that very often… no, really. Thanks.” And I smiled, too.

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