I recently made a trip to St. Louis where I spent several days. I had resolved to do more posting here upon my return, as I had been back in Missouri for a while and my life was starting to return to normal, with caving every other weekend or so. Unfortunately, something happened that caused that resolve to melt away - a giant pile of ice fell on my house. I guess all my years of saying that winters in MO were a thing of the past finally caught up with me, because last Friday night a good portion of a tree fell on the house. Luckily some power lines broke its fall.

The limb completely ripped the meter from the wall, took down the lines going into the house, and tore the wiring right out of our weatherhead. After getting the runaround from the power company we were forced to hire a private electrician, and $1200 worth of repairs later we're still waiting for Southwest Electric to come and do their part. Of course, there are still thousands of people in Springfield without power, but it's hard not to be bitter when you live in the only home in your town without electricity - including at least one abandoned house, which inexplicably had power restored before us. Seriously. Way to prioritize, guys.