The Oppenheimer Report - 12/28/15

This time last year ...

Wednesday was a special day for Shauna and me. We headed in to the Hunters Bay Radio station at noon to see Bet Smith and the Currie Brothers put on a surprise, live on-air concert for the unsuspecting and ailing James Carroll. The performance was grand – I’d never seen the band play live, although I am a fan of Bet’s songs and her new EP Loose Ends – and the whole thing left me and Shauna with good vibes about the holidays. While not a fan of Christmas, last Wednesday, I had a chance to see the good side of the holiday. Andrew and Rob Currie closed down their thriving music store in Gravenhurst for a few hours, on one of the busiest days of the season, in order to do the gig. They simply wanted to thank James for all his radio support, and it meant the world to him. Shauna and I were buzzing after the concert, so much so that afterwards, we broke into spontaneous dance in the dairy aisle of Robinson’s supermarket, singing in terrible harmony Torme’s The Christmas Song (“Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire”). Some lady standing not far away from us, who previously had a holiday scowl on her face, saw us making fools of ourselves and began to sing along. Lunacy can be contagious.

 

I woke up the morning of Christmas Eve to the sound of high winds, looked out the window, and don’t think I’ve ever seen the lake so churned up and angry. These were freight train winds, rattling the doors and bending the trees. There were tree limbs scattered about the yard when I took Jasper out for her morning walk, but other than that, there were no trees down across the drive. I was relieved that there was no need to use the chain saw for some emergency cleanup. Not so fast! The winds continued to howl throughout the morning, as a cold front marched in to collide with the unseasonably warm air we’d been enjoying. By 2pm, the power went out, which I’d half-expected, but what I did not expect was that our generator would fail. Propane-fired, our generator is set up to turn on automatically when the power goes out, and it has done so faithfully, at least fifty times over the past eight years of power outages. Upon inspecting it, I noticed that the little indicator lights were not on. I stared blankly at it for about fifteen seconds, opened the one panel that was not locked, and came to the abrupt conclusion that we were screwed. Cold weather was blowing in, and now the power was out, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, when every electrician within a hundred miles of Huntsville had buggered off for the weekend. No water, no lights, no heat. Thankfully, the weather was mild and the outage only lasted about 9.5 hours. It could have been much worse. I’m expecting the electrician will get here today (he’s had several frantic messages from me), before the big storm rolling in from Texas knocks out our power again. Fingers crossed.

 

While I took a row in my little boat Christmas day, El Nino proved to be a kick in the butt for the southern and mid-western regions of the U.S. Yesterday, the Dallas area experienced F3 and F4 tornadoes that caused widespread destruction and multiple casualties. Our unseasonably warm weather seems to be over and we are bracing for the first winter storm of the season. It should start to roll in this evening.

 

It’s that time of year when I reflect on the year that has passed and make resolutions for the New Year. My aspirations are as lofty as they have always been: peace on earth, good will towards men. On a more personal note, I aspire to continue to do things that challenge me. Along those lines, I begin to host "Talent on the Bay" a week from Wednesday, an hour long radio show wherein I'll interview local artists and have them perform live. I’m nervous, but looking forward to it. Happy New Year everyone, hope it is a good one for all of us!  

- Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED