Power

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I blogged back on September 15, 2008 about having to sit through a power loss of 27 hours. (Click here to read.) But I can honestly say what I have experienced in the last 7 days - is very difficult to put into words. However, I will do my best.

For starters, I have been without power at my residence for one week. Fortunately we have gas logs, gas water heater and a gas stove - so we have not had to abandon our home. There was a period of about 2 days where the cell service was completely down and we had no communication with the outside world, other than a neighbor who had a working land line. (It would only call local numbers.) We are still unsure when power will be restored at our residence, and there are many friends in KY who could be without for another 2-4 weeks. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

As for work: we were able to restore all services to the Marshall County School District this morning thanks to some help from generators. A 400KW generator is powering our high school which houses critical servers and our Internet pipe. A 250KW generator is powering our central office which houses a majority of our data. The hope is full power will be restored to our main campus (the only buildings without power in the district at this point) by the end of this week.

My friend John McMillen over at Techucation blogged earlier in the week about his experiences during the Ice Storm of 2009 (click here to read his thoughts). John made a great point towards the end of his blog about how during a time like this you really reflect on the things that are truly important. You are forced to lay down your gadgets and spend time with the ones closest to you. Perhaps this ice storm was a blessing in disguise for some, I know many families were able to spend time, share, laugh, read book, play board games and probably spend more time together than our hectic lives typically allow.

I truly am thankful and blessed that everyone I know and love survived this storm and is safe and sound. While some of us are still waiting on power, we know that we have great friends and family who will always be there for us. I am also thankful to get to spend quality time with the ones I love most - you know who you are.

So while I am finally catching up on some long awaited items at the office, I am also thankful for my health, happiness and my great friends and family.

JDS | CIO