Locker neighbor: "Our power has been out since the storm Tuesday. I threw out $40 worth of meat Wednesday morning. I'm sick of candlelight. It's not romantic. It's depressing."

Locker neighbor's friend: "Get over it. Your house is standing and your kids are alive."

Locker neighbor: "True enough."

I've heard this conversation everywhere in the past few days, gentle readers. We did have a hellacious storm here Tuesday night, and many of us lost power--Chez Cheese was in the dark for about 8 hours. There were about 30,000 local "customers" without power still this morning.

But the whiners get a quick lesson on perspective.