With the extreme weather about to hit, I want to take a moment to tip my hat to the people who genuinely risk their safety to keep the rest of us safe and warm.
I grew up in a small town called Phenix in rural Virginia. Phenix is part of Charlotte County in the Commonwealth’s Southside region. It wasn’t uncommon for us to lose power for a week or more during my childhood. Homemade pizza on a kerosene heater was a seasonal delicacy. It was a routine part of being born and raised in rural America where power lines are largely above ground, not buried.
I had family (my uncle Rodney) and neighbors (Billy Mann) who worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The worse the weather, the more they worked. When Dominion Power built a plant in Clover in the late 90s, I had friends and relatives who got a job there (Gary, others).
I even worked there one summer myself. Not in the same capacity as anyone I knew. I cut grass for eight hours a day on a tractor. If you’ve never seen a rat the size of your calf muscle jump five feet in the air, it’s a sight to see. Even more interesting: the snakes chasing after the rats as a tractor runs alongside them. I thought the rats were going to jump in the cab with me.
But my point in writing this isn’t about my experience cutting grass one summer in 2000 at a power plant. It’s something we take for granted during bad weather. The ones who have to go out when the rest of us stay in.
When the power goes out, it doesn’t magically turn back on. It’s someone doing extremely dangerous work to make it happen for me, you, and anyone you love.
When the roads are covered in snow and ice or obstructed by downed trees, it’s someone’s job to help clear them for safer travel. That way if there’s an emergency, the fire department, rescue squad, and police can get to where they need to go to help someone.
No one likes having their power out in the coldest of cold. We all want it back sooner rather than later. No one wants to be stuck inside for days at a time and not able to move around freely on the roads.
But for any of that to happen, there has to be someone, many people, who signed up to do the work that many of us take for granted day in and day out.
Tip your hat to those people during the winter storm and after: the linemen, the fire department, rescue squad, the police. Report power outages and blocked roadways, yes. But take it easy complaining about any of it online. Someone’s parent or spouse, most likely their dad, is out there doing the dangerous work at midnight or even later.
It may be cold and dark inside your home, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what they are experiencing in the freezing cold outside.
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