Big news of the week involved so many of us – including this commentator – losing power last week.  Lost ours around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday.  I reported to Con Edison via text message. Interestingly the text “process” never yield an approximate power up time.  News stories Wednesday suggested today.  Ouch! I worked with my local NY City Council Member Barry Grodenchik to help get my community up and running (I am “acting President” of my North Bellerose Civic Assocation; another story).  Got to credit Barry for his advocacy and frequent check-ins. Indeed, as soon as I heard my landline chirp Thursday just before 10:00 a.m. signaling power’s restoration, I heard a knock at my door; it was my Councilman making sure the power got back on as promised.  With power came the return of phone, cable and Internet service.

I texted my daughter she could return home from her granddad’s who had power and ‘net (and where she was powering up our laptops. We had used our cars to power our iPhones and iPads the night before. I tweeted my thank you to my council member.

One casualty of the outage: A zoom talk scheduled last Wednesday before the “Queens Business Morning Mixer,” now re-rescheduled for Wednesday, August 19.  The topic (think the relatively quick return of power in my community): “the benefits to your business of knowing your politicians” (RSVP Alex Coroneous, Queens Centers for Progress, at acoroneos@queenscp.org.

The intermittent Internet left me at one point having to “process” over 200 emails Wednesday eve and we powered my phone sitting in our White Car (Marisa used the blue car.) listening to baseball on the radio.

So many friends and colleagues reported power being out. Some relied on generators.  Times like this frustrate this former public servant.  I discussed with friends and colleagues better strategies going into this summer and (severe) storm season.  From the statements and news report I expect some accountability.

So not quite relating to the loss of energy per se, enjoy former U.S. Congressman John Hall’s song that titled today’s commentary (and this version from the 1979 rally at Battery Park sandwiched between some Garden concerts that I served as part of the day’s legal team, and the studio original).

Wishing those still without get empowered again promptly!

Stay safe!