There are definitely times when we, your friendly AtAT staff, wish that our operations were based in sunny California instead of here in the frozen tundra of New England. For one thing, we'd be lots closer to all that Apple action, and stalking Steve could make for a relaxing hobby. For another, we wouldn't have to shovel snow, or wonder whether the two inches of glass-smooth, wet ice covering the front steps might just pose a minor hazard to the life and limbs of our FedEx guy. (Our new FedEx guy, we mean-- our old one is in traction or something.) And then there's the time difference; when it's 9 AM out there, it's a nice, languid "noonish" here in Boston. Sure, they say you adjust to the shift after a while, but those first few weeks of getting up in the morning would be sweet!

Other times, however, we're glad to be right where we are. Take this whole energy crisis thing; while Californians are so strapped for electricity they've taken to toasting their bread with BIC lighters (mmmmm-- butaney!), we New Englanders are burning through kilowatt after kilowatt with reckless abandon. Heck, sometimes we toast a whole loaf of bread just to watch the heating coils get orange. Efficiency, shmefficiency; no matter what anyone says, there's no more satisfying way to heat a three-bedroom home than by running the electric oven at 475° with the door open. Right about now, we bet Apple's considering packing up shop and heading out this way to brave the snow and ice, because a little frozen precipitation is nothing compared to the horrors of scarce power.

See, as faithful viewer Bobby Warren noticed, CNN is reporting that things are evidently so bad out there that the power companies actually induced blackouts that "cut off electricity to homes, schools, businesses, factories, and even street lights and traffic signals" in neighborhoods "on the Pacific Gas and Electric system." And how do our friends in Cupertino fit into this nightmare? Well, "Apple Computer in the San Francisco Bay area" was "among the first to be hit" by emergency rolling blackouts yesterday. But fear not, because the lights came back on when "power officials found a 'small parcel of additional electricity.'" (You know the situation is dire when the power officials are scrounging for loose wattage under the sofa cushions.) Hopefully someone will figure out a happy resolution to this whole power shortage soon, because we're betting that Apple's engineers don't do their best work by candlelight-- at least, not their best engineering work...