Welcome to Storm Life Incorporated
I DON'T have the poweeeeeer!!! He-Man
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I DON'T have the poweeeeeer!!! He-Man 👎🏾
Tropical Storm Beryl is trans. Please respect their decision.
It's Mike Dynamo writing to you from Houston, Texas. Once again, a hurricane rolled through Houston and surrounding areas taking everything apart. There were floods, downed trees, and power outages nearly everywhere. Currently, there are 2 million people without power. These people have been forced to charge their phones in their cars, provided they have phones or cars.
My people have been without power for about 36 hours. My old man pulled out the "apocalypse radio" to check the news for updates before turning it to sports talk. My 25-year-old brother says this is the second worst thing he's ever seen. He has never lived a life without his digital personal assistant before so not having power is the same as not having love. My mother has to light our gas stove with matches and paper like our forefathers. My cousin sees this as an opportunity to make lots of money with Lyft because everybody has somewhere to go. I decided to sit in the house and burn myself to sleep because not only does no power mean no love, but it also means no air conditioning.
I played games with this situation in the early hours of the storm. I just announced funny happenings on Instagram. I thought I’d be fine, but it wasn't long before I started suffering too. My Apple watch quit first. My phone was down to 20%, but I kept using it like some sort of addict. There wasn't any television to watch or wifi to use. I'd ask myself, “What could I do around the house,” but I didn't do any of it. I didn't organize my oppressively large comics collection. I didn't even clean my room. I just took a string of naps to get through the day then drugged myself to fall asleep at 8 p.m.
It was the heat that got me.
I couldn't sleep. I opened windows on different sides of the house looking for a breeze, but it never came. I hustled downstairs covered in sweat. I tried to sleep on the couch with a single sheet and two pillows, but it was too hot to cover my half-naked body. Once that didn't work I was left with my last choice... meditatation. I lay down, focused on the word coolness, and controlled my breath. This may have been how I finally fell asleep. It could also have been that I was too tired and passed out. I'm sure the monks in the east will let me know one day.
Is This How It Is?
I've read that climate change has already begun and is the source of the terrible hurricanes, forest fires, and mudslides we've lived through for the past 10 years. Everyone may not like to believe studies, but I tend to trust the science in hurricane matters. Unfortunately, if climate change is the culprit, there is nothing I can do about it. If climate change is NOT the reason, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Ideas like these make life seem more like a Chinese finger trap. You put your fingers together but they won't come apart. Life is an odd piece of heavenly suffering. What else can we do?
Praying about it doesn't seem to work.
Making wishes about it won't help.
Acting on it will only send cops over to your house.
Boycotting things without a series of other angry people doesn't change anything either.
It feels like all we can do in a capitalist society is get rich enough to hope none of these bad things will bother us. Sometimes I think that's our only option. I could be wrong though. Search your heart and look at your situation. I hope you have better ideas than me. Please tell me if you do.
The Aftermath
I've managed to drive around a little bit after this rather aggressive hurricane. The weather has changed to something pleasant. Men are on the street clearing the trees that the storm ravaged. Everybody is looking for more ways to fix what's broken. The fences were knocked down, but we’ll put them back up. Some cars were abandoned but we’ll just get new ones. I'm proud of that. I like to think of humans as problem solvers. I know we're problem-makers most of the time, but life isn't going to live itself so we keep doing our best.
Living through a hurricane is hard, and I hope our power comes back on soon (it didn’t), but it's been nice getting together and spending time as a family for a change. My father said he wished the power and internet would go out at least once a month. The whole family got to sit outside, eating the food we had to make to avoid spoilage. This lack of power and wifi made us feel like a family again. As a person who grew up before the internet, it was nice to get back to that. On the flip side, it also made me feel like I stopped existing for a second. That was nice in thought, but not great in practice. I like existing. Even in this climate-changing world, I like being here.
In any case, hug the people you love and wish them the best. You never know when something like this will knock your house down around your ears. Don't be sad though. We'll always find a way to get by, before and after the storm.
