Breakfast with Irma

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my computer's uninterruptible power supply beeping. Its plaintive cry told me that I had just lost power. The winds from Irma had peaked the previous afternoon. Perhaps the rain-soaked ground had finally given way under some tree. In any case, there was nothing I could do, so I turned off the UPS and went back to sleep.

When I finally woke up, I was hungry and a little down. Breakfast at home was out of the question. Matthews Cafeteria seemed like the perfect solution. My first attempt at driving there led me to a downed tree; a little backtracking brought me to Matthews.

The line for the steam table snaked through the restaurant. But the Matthews folks are pros and it moved swiftly and smoothly. The crowd was a cross-section ranging from a young family with infants to the DeKalb County Bomb Squad. Everyone was happy to be there.

Tables were easy to come by. I sat down and ate my traditional Southern breakfast: eggs, sausage, and grits. A little warm food in my stomach helped me feel better. I then took my time to enjoy my excellent strawberry shortcake, sipping my coffee along the way. It made a huge difference to my outlook.

As I walked back to my car, I chatted with a gentleman from the DeKalb watershed maintenance department. He said with a little disappointment that he didn't have time for the line. He climbed back into his truck and went back to work helping people.

I then drove to Gwinnett to run an errand. With no reason to go home, I decided to spend a few minutes at the local Krispy Kreme. As I watched the donuts come off the line, I declared this my personal comfort food day.

A nice warm donut certainly makes the day seem a little brighter, doesn't it?

Despite widespread power outages and one death, Irma could have been worse for Atlanta. We can be grateful for our condition while remaining concerned for the millions of people in Florida and elsewhere who fared much worse.

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