All indications are that we have a decent snow storm heading our way. I'm listening to the scanner and road crews are gearing up to try to keep up with it. It has been snowing pretty steadily, but lightly, since around 9 a.m. This is a preview of what is in store for us and will taper off this evening. In the wee hours tomorrow, the snow will pick up again and we can expect from 11 to 17 inches into tomorrow (Wednesday). One of the features of this storm has been wind in the western states, but it doesn't seem to be a factor for us. The wind prediction for tomorrow is in the 4-6 m.p.h. range, which shouldn't be too bothersome, but could create some whiteout conditions, especially on interstates.

The good news in our immediate area of Joe's Pond is the activation of the cell tower at the Sousa farm on Cabot Plain. It's surprising how many people have been anxiously awaiting this service. We've been hearing from many of our neighbors that they are getting a signal and all are excited. As I understand it, because the tower is AT&T, it works only with AT&T phones/service and one report was that 3G service wouldn't be available until sometime in April, however, Henretta, just up the road from us says she can now use the Kindle she got for Christmas.

Some others have reported the signal seems to be weak, and someone said that might be because the signal is weaker if you are very close to the tower; and someone else said it depends greatly on what's between the tower and your phone. We'll be working through the newness of it all and within a few weeks all the excitement will be over and cell service here will be taken for granted.

At our house, we're still not convinced we need even one cell phone, but that could change, of course. What lots of people don't think about is that in a power outage, the only dependable service is an old-fashioned hard-wired phone. Cell phones may work for a while if they are fully charged, and cell towers have storage batteries that will take care of service for a while, but they are only mandated to provide backup power for four hours, and beyond that, service will depend on how many calls there are. There are some service providers that have generators that will kick in if there is a power failure, but those are generally only in certain critical areas. So if you want to be sure you have phone service in an emergency, keep your old land line phone. This link will explain better than I can: Phones and Power Outages

I expect we'll see a lot more people walking on W. Shore Road with a cell phone positioned to the side of their head. I'm always amazed when I see people shopping or walking and talking on their cell. I wonder how many items they forget to get or buy when they don't need it; but maybe they are getting instructions from someone on the phone. I guess young folks, especially, think "multi-tasking" is good, keeping in touch with friends is crucial - well, in kidspeak, "cool" or "awesome" - but I often think of what they are missing, like the sounds and activity around them, especially when there's a phone at one ear and an iPod in the other. There could be a bus bearing down on them and they'd never know. Here are some things that parents and cell phone users should probably consider: Are Cell Phones Harmful to Health?
Even cordless phones may be a threat we should be aware of: Dangers of Cordless Phones FYI, we recently discarded all of our cordless phones so although we have several stationary phones in strategic spots, we are more or less confined to wherever the phone is during the call. No more taking it out on the deck or into the garden if we're working outside. It is a little confining sometimes, but way better than standing at a big box wall phone knowing nine other people could be listening to your conversation on the party line, and we feel we may have cut down on at least some of the potentially harmful stuff flying around inside our home.

When you think about all the gadgets we have around us, our TV, microwave, cordless phones and such that we live with and use every single day and that are probably giving off weird emissions of some kind, we are likely being bombarded constantly with more junk than our bodies should have to tolerate.

I don't mean to rain on the joy of cell service here at Joe's Pond, but I do want to remind folks there is a down side to almost everything, and we need to use common sense and caution.