Amazing it has been too cold to have school, but not too cold that a student can go to the slopes to ski. It seems that school is either closed or delayed with just the slightest inclement weather. Yes, safety is important and sometimes the district must consider this when closing or delaying school.

But the problem is that this time is never made up as actual class time. These days are added at the end of the year when schedules are already set. They make the time up by just sitting watching movies.  Their books have already been turned in. I can see why the United States is 41st in the world in overall education and 25th in math, when it comes to educating our children.

Heaven forbid we start out with 185 days to allow for time lost. The school year should run till the end of June. Naturally the biggest crybabies will be the teachers. I have yet to start work 2 hours late and the boss says no problem and still get paid. We must start now to correct this, the United States should be number 1.  

Sincerely,

Pete Moxen

New Milford, PA

The cold woke me up. I glanced at the alarm clock; its light was extinguished. So that’s why it was so cold. It was a power outage and this in a mid-winter’s cold snap.

I got out of bed, put on a heavy sweater, and made my way into the kitchen. Reflexively, I flicked on the coffee maker and light switch. There would be no java or light this morning. I tried the tap. No water either, or TV, or computer. The phone was out, too. And the house was getting colder.

A few hours after first light I called on my neighbors. They were in the same plight; no electricity, no heat, no light, no anything, and no explanation. Maybe in town I could find out the cause of the power loss and get that morning cup of joe.

The ride into town was eerie, no lights in any of the houses I passed. Streetlights and traffic lights were dark as well. The stores were closed, every one of them including gas stations and food stores and I was low on both.

Back home I checked the frig for something to eat: some bread, half a jar of peanut butter, a quart of milk, and eggs. It would be a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast; eating raw eggs were out of the question.

Day two dawned. The inside temperature was little better than the outside. The peanut butter and milk were long gone. It would be raw eggs for breakfast. Then into town again to forage for food and information. The supermarket was still closed.

The third day began with my usual cruise to the supermarket. That’s when concern morphed into fear. People were streaming out of the store with unpackaged food. The store had been broken into and was being looted. The police were nowhere to be seen.

Hunger forced me to join the ravaging mob. But we were too late. The shelves were stripped bare. Every thing edible or drinkable were gone. And I was hungry, very hungry.

Back home and in bed fully dressed I clicked off the possible causes for the power failure.

A small atomic bomb detonated 25 miles above the U.S. would knock out power from coast-to-coast. But that would be the beginning of WW III in which case I would have been turned into radioactive vapor three days ago.

Maybe a cyber attack on the electrical grid? Could a few well-placed keystrokes be responsible for plunging us into darkness? Unlikely. The grid is far from defenseless against hacking.

An ice storm? Ten years ago an ice storm brought down transmission towers in Canada. Almost five million Canadians were without power. But there was no ice storm here.

Last on my list was a massive solar discharge headed straight for Earth.

In 1859, a blast from the sun caused skies over the entire planet to shimmer with a rainbow of aurora colors. Telegraph systems went haywire and shocked operators. Barbwire fences crackled with electricity. Newspapers could be read at midnight. Birds chirped reacting to what they perceived to be daylight.

Today, a similar ejection of solar particles would cause planetary havoc in electrical grids. Major garage-sized transformers would be fried to a crispy-brown in seconds and they take 18 months to make. And they’re only manufactured in China. China!

That woke me up. It had all been a terrible dream. The lights could be flicked on, the frig hummed, water flowed from the tap, the house was warm, and the coffee maker began its morning chore.

Yet the nightly vision had overtones of reality. It could not be easily dismissed.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Nepolitano issued an open letter to her successor. She warned of a massive cyber attack on the U.S. and a natural disaster the likes of which this nation has never seen.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is considering stockpiling 140 million packaged meals, blankets, and body bags, in preparation for a New Madrid earthquake.

And the Department of Health and Human Services has ordered an emergency delivery of 14 million doses of potassium iodide to protect the thyroid from radiation released by a nuclear accident (Fukushima?).

I thought about my dream and these news reports as I sipped my morning coffee.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA