Each time this happens, I freak out, get mad and then get some perspective. There are people in this world that don’t have any hope ever of having access to the modern utilities we easily take for granted everywhere in this country (some of those people even live in this country). I take opportunities like these to step back and be grateful. I took an Arctic shower this morning, my son filthy and I am cooking Methodist chicken as my stovetop is down and my grill outside is soaked.

But let me be clear, I am from the South. I was college-educated in the South and I have lived in three major cities in the South. Right out of college, I lived in the North and chose to move back after a few years. In my experience, I do not consider Atlanta backward.

My post was not offensive nor based on ignorance. When my power is out for three hours or more I classify that as the ‘power is out.’ And literally, I have had my water service interrupted four times and been told to boil for more than an overnight. So get let that giant chip on your shoulder fall off and be gone with the wind. My post was based on my personal facts of living here not on some passive aggressive way to malign ‘the South.’

Have to agree with the above. I was born and raised in the South in what is considered a much less enlightened place than Metro Atlanta and we’ve never had the utility problems that we have here. Remember being without any running water (hot or wet) last year?

Steve, the problem is not with the workers who do an extrodinary job with what they have to work with. It’s the outdated and overtaxed infrastructure that is the problem.

Speaking from first-hand experience, I can tell you: the hick burg I’m from doesn’t just have random multi-day utility outages. Water mains don’t break during average rain events and highways don’t spiral meaninglessly into vortices of critical mass.

All that being said, I really like it here. I’m just annoyed by the inconvenience of this gas outage.