Much of the country is dealing with severe cold and snow as I write this. In Virginia, we were hit with close to a foot or so of snow, but the sleet and freezing rain that fell for hours, and coated the top of it, really made things precarious. It's like walking on a frozen pond, only every few steps your boot caves through to the ground.

For the first thirty years or more of my life, I never worried much about the weather. As a kid, you hope for snow so you can miss school, and sled down hills. I hated it when my games were rained out, but otherwise the weather was something you talked about when you couldn't think of anything else. Then came a blizzard in 1993, where we lost power for five days. I have lived in the same county since I was three years old. I've only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights. But we never lost power in all those years, from snow or ice. The electricity might go off for a few hours in a thunderstorm, but that was the extent of it. Days, or incomprehensibly weeks without power was something no one even considered. Then, about 15 years ago, a thunderstorm they called a "Derecho" took out power here for a week. I had never heard of a Derecho before, and there hasn't been one since. I don't believe there is such a thing as a Derecho. But the public just nodded and lit more candles.

Before this new "historic" storm, we received an email from Dominion, our trusty power company. The email read, in part: "With freezing rain, sleet, and snow expected later tonight and continuing into Sunday, Virginia is bracing for a significant winter storm. Being prepared for the potential of power outages during extreme cold is critically important for your safety. Heavy ice accumulation, severe damage to trees and power lines, and difficult travel conditions could prolong power restoration over multiple days. We encourage you to continue preparing for the possibility of multi-day service disruptions." As my friend John Barbour likes to say, FANtastic! This is the stage we've reached in the twilight years of our formerly First World country. The power companies now tell you, ahead of time, to expect power outages, perhaps for days. I guess they have little confidence in their staff. Well, to be fair, they're dealing with power grids that haven't been updated in over 60 years. With Chinese sensors.

I sent back this snappy reply to Dominion: "As someone who has lived in Fairfax County for well over 60 years, I'd like to know why any of us should 'expect' power outages in a snowstorm. Until the 1990s, we NEVER experienced any power outages due to blizzards, ice storms, etc. Only occasional power outages for a few hours at most during thunderstorms. Why are you unable to guarantee the power will stay on in potentially deadly cold weather? Many of us now have underground lines, which we didn't have in the 1960s and 1970s, when the power NEVER went off due to snow or ice. And when it does go down, why does it take you so long to restore it? Why do we see trucks still in your parking lot, as was the case in 2016? Older people are especially vulnerable in this kind of cold weather. They didn't have to worry about that 50 years ago. Please explain." Shocking as it may seem, no one replied to my blistering complaint. They never respond to my blistering complaints.