Old Man Winter hates us.

Ever see that Y2K episode of King of the Hill, wherein Hank stops at Mega-lo-mart to pick up a fuel filter and gets overwhelmed by hordes of hoarders stocking up for the impending apocalypse? That's pretty much what it was like when I braved the ice and falling trees yesterday to venture out to Wal-Mart to buy a flashlight and some extra batteries. Both of which, by the way, were completely sold out by the time I got there. After weaving my way through crowds of shoppers whose baskets were brimming over with bottled water, canned foods and the aforementioned flashlights and batteries--and just how many flashlights does a single household really need, anyway?--I managed to get out of the store and, about a half-hour later, out of the parking lot, after which I had to hit three other stores before I finally found some D-cells for our Maglite.

So, winter decided to puke up its icy innards all over our part of the state over the weekend, destroying a small rain forest's worth of trees and causing the biggest power outage in state history in the process. Our house has been without power since late Sunday night, and estimates are that we'll be without it for another week, at least. Of course, my workplace still has power, and thankfully so does my gym, so I was able to take a hot shower and get dressed in a well-lit locker room this morning. My husband and the rest of my family aren't as fortunate. But they don't have to go to work, either, so it's a fair trade.

We actually made out pretty good in this storm. Most of the trees in our yard are either broken or completely knocked over, but all of the falling trees and limbs missed the house and our vehicles. Most of our neighbors weren't so lucky, and are dealing with everything from dented car roofs and broken windows to caved in garages and trees of the non-Christmas variety taking up valuable space in the living room.

'Tis the season to count our blessings, for sure. I guess I could whine that I'll miss the season finale of Top Model and a new episode of Supernatural this week, but I'd probably be better off shutting it and just being grateful that we have an intact roof over our heads and a working fireplace and plenty of canned soup on our shelves. You only really appreciate the basics in life when you're forced to go without the luxuries. Moreso when you realize how many folks out there can't even count on the basics. It's both sad and cliche, but also true.