At Balmy Ten Below


Ten below zero this morning as I write this -- and I am thankful to be warm. I'm grateful for the two strangers who came knocking on our door last night.

The Hayward area experienced a major crisis yesterday: the loss of natural gas for 1700 homes. A major valve malfunction left a lot of us stranded without heat yesterday in frigid, arctic temperatures.

I was really pleased to see how the community rallied together. Pete Sanders, director of Health and Human Services, is to be commended for an outstanding job managing this crisis -- setting up a temporary shelter at the high school, where refugees from the bitter cold could find warm relief, and providing transportation.

Crews, from all over the region, spent all day locating the problem, fixing it, and then helping to restore heat to each home. Two overalled workers from Eau Claire knocked on our door towards evening -- and got us going again. Bless those crusty angels in hard-hats.

I thought about the cold reception most strangers receive when going door to door. This was certainly a different situation. These guys received the WARMEST reception -- because:

1. They came to bring warmth.
2. They came without expectation.
3. They didn't lecture, scold or debate.
4. They didn't charge any money.
5. They didn't try to get me to buy into a new heating system.
6. They didn't tell me how wrong I was to rely natural gas.

Nope, they just came to help. They brought what we needed, came in, lit our pilots, and left us with warm, thankful feelings in our hearts.

We were happy to receive strangers like that.





Comments

  1. Great post.

    Thanks for the reminder of how we should be treating others all the time.

    BTW - - - it was 4 below here in Indiana this morning!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:41 PM

    you were describing a true friend not a stranger

    ReplyDelete

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