Not Gone, Not Forgotten

But I did have my power knocked out for the better part of a week thanks to Irene. So my carbon footprint was considerably smaller. No electricity to make toast or coffee with. It was like camping at home.

There were a few things I learned from Irene however:

• Cowboy Coffee can remove chrome off of a trailer hitch. 
• Going green sucked. 
• The only McDonald's that was open experienced an economic boom to the detriment of the closed Burger King, Starbucks, Panera and a few other breakfast places.

But there wasn't any real economic growth in my area from Irene. Just activity.

One area mom told me that she has overblown her budget for food by eating out because it's (a:) easier to do for dinner rather than the hassell of cooking without electricity and the clean up after and (b:) she had to throw out a bunch of food in the fridge because it got too warm and became unsafe to eat.

One more example for the Broken Window Fallacy.

[Had this in the queue but never published it after Hurricane Irene. Apologies for it being a bit dated.]