Pest Management Professional, March 2011

Finding Light in Darkness I was in the dark last month but thats not unusual What is unusual is it wasnt my fault A storm whipped through Ohio and the ensuing rain sleet and snow took a heavy toll on trees and electrical lines Just a few hours into Presidents Day my family along with tens of thousands of other Ohioans awoke without light power or heat The local utility company restored our electricity just 36 hours later but each of those hours seemed like a day Funny how time slows to a standstill especially when your alarm clock is plugged in and Old Man Winter has frozen your power Im well accustomed to living out of a suitcase Waking up shivering scrambling to wake up and pack up the family in 15 minutes before we transformed into five more pieces of furniture in our then 30 F home was a drill I had never before experienced From sharing a double bed at the Holiday Inn with my lovely bride of 20 years Ive been lobbying to upgrade to a king bed from our queen ever since I ate my college freshman self to listening to our three children wage war over our youngest sons dire need for a nightlight in our 10 by 10 ft guestroom to worrying our homes water pipes were bursting to trying to make the hotel our new base for all work and home operations Well lets just say the storm had me at hello But theres more to this story This temporary darkness was rather enlightening on both professional and personal fronts Most of us take electricity for granted Thanks to Mother Nature now Im taking one less thing for granted actually a lot more than one thing From the electrically run key card security system and elevators at work to my offices lights MacBook and phone to the kitchenettes coffeemaker and cold water dispenser even work seems a bit like the Ritz Carlton these days Heck its just nice to have heat when its 16 F outside In the summer of 2008 we endured a power outage for several days My wife Bridgid held down the fort while I was at work Our three little natives were understandably restless with no hot meals TV PC or AC Yet Bridgid awoke each day with a positive attitude without use of her trusty hair dryer A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW Marty Whitford Editor in Chief At the time I had been married 18 years and very much wanted to keep the streak alive one day at a time of course To that end I left work close to on time each day during the outage Equally important I learned to leave work at work Dont applaud Its easy to not work when youre a journalist your home phone and computer arent working and your editing lights are on strike Ive regressed a bit on this front since then In both electrical outages we learned and relearned key life lessons that made all of the temporary inconveniences well worth it For starters we should be grateful for all weve been given and realize every day that these gifts can come and go or altogether disappear Our work and home worlds can and should conflict less but we also must recognize they are married too tethered in good times and in bad Work pays for our homes electricity and our TVs PCs ACs hair dryers and many other amenities along with most living essentials Home in turn gives most of us several very good reasons to work hard every day For me those reasons are named Bridgid Mickey Jamie and Meg Home also gives us something to strive for at work a true sense of family And last but not least when things are stormy in either world or in both worlds some days we must look to our home and work families to find light in darkness The light is always there We just need to stick with family people who can help us and others find and transition to the light pmp You can reach Whitford at mwhitford@ questex com or call 216 706 3766 whits world Our work and home worlds can and should conflict less but we must recognize they are married too tethered in good times and in bad 96 March 2011 Pest Management Professional mypmp net