Baa Baa Knit Stitch

I am constantly amazed by how important social media has become in my life.  From a quick glance at Twitter (or a snarky Tweet at how long it’s taking me to get through the grocery line at Kroger because a speshul snoflake isn’t getting corn flakes at the price she thinks she should… really… I was about to just buy her the corn flakes)… to keeping up with Facebook, where I have connected and re-connected with people from so many parts and phases of my life… to Ravelry, which I consider my “safe place” and my online home among fellow craftspeople and my NASCAR board in particular.

This power has never been so well illustrated as this morning.  I awoke to a call from one of my mom’s caregivers who told me that the lights at her house had been out since the night before when the bad storms moved through. Now, at my house, we had had a brief rumble of thunder (enough to rouse Weatherdog Penny), but we had some rain and that was it.

Evidently in Rome, things were much, much worse.  And once again, the eye of the storm was around my mom’s neighborhood.  Keep in mind that I live an hour away.

I posted on Facebook asking for information, and within a couple of minutes a friend of mine posted that he’d driven by my mom’s house and everything was ok.  Some trees were down in the road near her house, but this time her house was unscathed. While I know the caregivers would have called me if anything bad had happened, it was really comforting to have that reassurance.  Unfortunately, my friend’s mom who lives a couple of blocks away wasn’t so fortunate and had some damage to her house.  As it turns out, an EF1 tornado touched down nearby, and I’m laying odds it flew over Mom’s house on its way to wreak havoc at the next touchdown.

I’ve asked for recommendations through Facebook messages for electricians from folks who live up there and whose opinions I trust, and they all return the same name.  Guess who I’ll be calling? I’m looking to get a generator installed since everytime someone in Rome sneezes, my mother’s power goes out.

Mr. Zuckerberg, I know you’re making a crapton of money from Facebook going public (and I really wish I were your accountant).  I know that some folks (myself included) have a few problems with how you mine data off your site.  But you know what?  Today, I’m thankful it’s there.

A Ravelry friend of mine contacted me for some tax help.  She recently lost her husband after a lengthy illness, and she and I were discussing the fact that Casey and Jess really probably had no idea when they concocted the idea for Ravelry that they were building more than a convenient place for knitters to swap ideas. She found a lot of support there during her husband’s last year.  I have a lot of great friends I chat with every week on the computer who I’ve never met in real life (you may insert any commentary about me needing to get out more here).

When I was little, I couldn’t imagine any of this happening. I can’t tell you how incredibly kewl it is to me.  As for the kids at church, who see it as an everyday occurrence — I can’t help but wonder what they’ll be marveling at when they’re my age??