If a Tree Falls in the Forest????

Preparing for my Winter Wonderland

I have figured out, un-scientifically of course, the age old question as to whether there is a sound in the forest if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it.  The answer is yes.  And the sound is the sound of hundreds of gas powered generators cranking up in the subdivision in which I live. And a tree falls every week. And usually right on top of a power line.  I can not answer why Amicalola Power Company would not have run the lines underground since the technology was available and the trees were in abundance. To me that that seems to be more in question than the sounds that are not being heard in the forest from falling trees and certainly more relevant to my life.  As you know,  I live in "the woods".  Surrounded by trees as old as the mountain I live on.  The trees have been stressed out, almost as much as me, by the continued drought that has plagued much of the South. This has left many of the tall pines and hardwoods in a weakened state and  ready to topple.  Let a thunder storm brew up or a tornado get in our area and down goes a tree or a branch large enough to crush a car. Or ten such branches.  Last week I sat in the dark for 5 hours.  I arrived home from work tired, hungry and eager to sit down with a nice dinner and watch TV only to find my neighborhood streets very dark.  Most of the houses I passed had limited lights on, open garage doors and the very familiar hum of the generators. In the winter everyone on my street either has one of those contraptions or leaves for the Florida.   Some of the houses even have the fancy kind that come on automatically and are tied into the electrical system of the entire house.  I don't have a generator.  Or at least didn't have one.  This was going to be the third winter that I had suffered through without the benefit of a generator but all that changed for me on Friday.  I put a call into my own personal ATM machine.  My ex husband.  I am at a loss to explain why he does these things for me.  Guilt.  Left over feelings of love.  Terrible remorse.  Who knows?  But now when the winds blow and the trees fall, I will go outside, pull up my garage door, get out my generator and join in the chorus of a steady if not deafening hum of the many generators on my street.  I am a little concerned that I will not be able to afford the gas to run the generator should things continue as they are, nor that I will be strong enough to crank the generator, nor even smart enough to figure out how to get it out of the huge box and set it up but I have a generator.  I am now officially a mountain woman.  Self sufficient and prepared for any weather disaster.  I wish they would make a generator for my dating life.  Now that would be worth the price of the gas.