We live right in the heart of the area decimated by last week’s ice storm - Saratoga County, about half an hour west of Bennington, Vermont. The two towns adjacent to our own declared states of emergency the first night and only recently lifted them. Clifton Park was like a part of the “I Am Legend” set for several days: empty shopping malls, empty roads, empty everything.

Except for the power crews and the utility company trucks. The day after the ice storm - which could nearly be capitalized, like The Ice Storm that struck far northern New York and Canada a decade ago - the temperatures fell into the teens and the wind started to really go, something not unknown around here. The power crews were out in that weather, out in the woods hunting for and dealing with all kinds of truly dangerous situations, for 18 hour shifts.

The news said there were some 900 power crews out in our region, and of course a lot of them came from outside the area under the mutual assistance agreements the power companies have forged to deal with these kinds of situations. The other day I saw several Great Lakes Power Company trucks out on Grooms Road, and there are others from all over the place.

So this morning I was at a gas station filling up for today’s big snow event - over a foot is forecast - and got talking with a couple of guys who were gassing their trucks and talking about when they might get home. They’re both power company linemen: one from Michigan, the other from West Virginia. They’ve been in Saratoga County for a week today, and they were leaving immediately for Massachussets, trying to get out through the Berkshires before the snow really gets rolling.

I asked if they had any hope of getting home for Christmas, and they both just shook their heads and laughed. They are looking at maybe a up to a week in Massachussets, after which they have already been told they’ll be going direct to Iowa, which is having its own problems with the big midwest storm. After that, one guy said, who knows? Maybe a quick stop around New Year’s Day for the Michigan guy at least.

We live in this culture of immediacy, of no pleasure or privilege deferred, where the US Congress is trying to outlaw failure, apparently. The local radio call in shows were pretty calm for about two days before people started bitching, demanding investigations, railing at “these lazy utilty people” and much worse. This after a storm which left over a quarter of a million people without power. Doesn’t matter, everyone should be back in front of their TVs within a day or two regardless, and if not, then it has to be somebody’s fault!

And so when I ran across these guys filling their own trucks at Stewarts and grabbing a cup of coffee before heading off into a new storm to fix the damage from the last, in a state even further from both their homes, days before Christmas, and who miraculously were in good moods despite four or five hours sleep a night, it was kind of an epiphany. Much like the cops, these guys do what most people are not willing to, in circumstances that most people would not be able to deal with, and to them it’s just part of the job. Are they getting paid? Sure, and hopefully quite well. Does it make up for having to leave home at literally a moment’s notice to drive halfway across the country and give up the whole holiday season with their families, often for people who only complain about them when they stop in Stewart’s to warm up and catch a break for awhile? I don’t know, but I was happy to meet, talk to and thank these two particular people.

The photo is from the Albany Times Union, part of a great collection from this storm, at http://www.timesunion.com