(Dana Perino is one of the few media people we enjoy these days. She grew up in Wyoming, after all. Recently celebrating her 50th birthday, she also got a neat update to her on-screen look. The Writer’s Section at Socotra House wishes they could afford something that effective. But we share a feeling she expressed on-air even after the new haircut).

We looked around the circle this morning. There were a couple long faces, no smiles. The sun rose as scheduled, which was a modest relief. We agreed they are trying to get us worked up about storms and loss of power in a state not so far away to distract us from other things. To our surprise, it is working. Sort of.

We were without power at The Farm for only about eight hours yesterday- nothing, really, while we participated in Chairman Socotra’s project to get us ready for whatever is coming next. He is apparently spending the equivalent of a nice used car to provide a backup to the local electric cooperative for a couple weeks. If necessary. We were not sure why until early afternoon, when the morning charge on our devices ran out. We looked up when the screens went blank, briefly surprised at the physical presence of other humans across the stone circle by the Loading Dock.

The other stuff going on? It was a busy Farm Day. Had a working crew over to your house lately? A country one? These guys were good. Good craft guys, country noisy but very respectful (like the company told them to be) when talking directly to people who might be responsible for payment. Cursing away when not. The job was a fairly intense one that lurched across normally separate lines of commerce, government and utilities.

Times being what they are, we made a representation to Mr. Socotra a couple weeks ago about getting a back-up power source for The Farm, with the understanding that without power there would be no content to disseminate and the whole enterprise would collapse.

Actually, the truth is that there has been a fairly recent concentration on getting prepared. Can’t say exactly for what, but everyone has a feeling that is not good. A familiar feeling for some, the gnawing thought in the background that something really stupid could happen, and be as mismanaged as the debacle in Kabul. Increase the limited stock of food, but the useful stuff for a while, carefully under food management standards. But power. When you live in an electric house you gotta have juice.

There was the “customer facing” guy on the crew to deal with us. His team included a former Marine machine-gunner and a couple journeyman electricians. The Company had promised a quality crew and so far that is accurate. 2200x Generac unit looks good. County was here twice to certify inspection. Passed. Local coop power turned things “off” and then “on” after day complete. Much more coming and going to the electrical distribution box for today, crew is on-sight. Left to do? Install the 500-gallon propane tank.

It was a useful deprivation. We got a quick refresher on the simple stuff- where was that battery powered radio? Clocks all need to be re-set. No problems so far. Another day to complete. But busy, hot and not convenient, the avoidance of which is why we are doing the project.

Loma talked to management, disregarding the normal chain of command. He wanted to know why people seemed to be walking around in a state of shock. Management told them it was Dana Perino’s fault. She does the morning news show on Fox, and hangs around all day to do the close-out at five in the afternoon. Management claims to trust her judgement, and described it the way she apparently did. She described a heaviness that had settled on her petite shoulders. A feeling that something was going to happen, and she wasn’t quite sure what.

When Loma reported back to the Writer’s Section, he found no disagreement. That immediately led to a discussion of how long a 500-gallon tank might provide some sort of limited power in the event the co-op could not provide it. Then about the supply chains that support some of the stuff the enterprise requires to keep stumbling along. There are several, and you may have thought about them the way we did. We have plenty of rice, and enough cooking oil to get along for a while.

So, there is a redundancy to the several crises in progress, many of them seeming to have a human connection. Storms are at the top this morning, and that bleeds over to the intentional folly of dismantling a reliable electrical grid for the express purpose of saving the planet, which they assure us may be happening any day now.

Attention must be drawn in every direction to try to divert attention from the worst of the disasters. The Writer’s Section is onboard with that, and will put the other stuff aside and contemplate the supply chain issue for propane and food. If those guys outside actually get the new generator to work, of course, but that is the only thing that spurs a certain optimism. Backup power will get us through the first few weeks of the collapse of the West pretty nicely. After that, we may find a new crisis to worry about.

We are in agreement that there will be one, whether it is true or not. It appears to be the way we roll these days.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com