Make no mistake. Our lives are more pleasant and everything is a bit easier when the lights are on, the water is running, and the refrigerator is keeping our food cold.

Power is good in itself, especially when it is giving us more power over our time and lives.

We learn that with a renewed appreciation every time the power goes off for more than a few minutes at a stretch.

What to do with the meat in the freezer? The milk in the fridge? The toilets that are backing up? The body that needs a wash before going to work?

This region’s modern great awakening about power may have occurred during the surprising Christmas Eve ice storm of 1998. Some residents went two weeks without electricity. It’s a fair bet that a large proportion of residents went out to purchase generators as soon as they were able.

Hurricane Isabel in 2003 again hit us on the head with long, long days and nights without electricity.

Then the tropical remnants of once-powerful Hurricane Michael came thro...