Two Days Later

I was just watching Colbert, and one of his jokes was him saying in a serious tone: "It may be weeks before we are able to restore the urine smell to New York City subways" and then called on all NYC drunks to "release your strategic urine reserves in the subway."

And speaking of which, I read today that no one has seen a mass exodus of rats from the subway tunnels so the feeling is a whole lot of rats drowned so maybe that's one of the few silver linings of Sandy. Reduced the rat population.

As for me, life is good. My phone is still screwed up, but I can certainly live with that for now. My cable went out again for a time today.

My cleaning woman comes tomorrow and I had to pick up and make dinner and didn't want to do both so I thought I'm ordering from Gracie's (diner on corner). Certainly they'll be up and running -- and sure enough, 15 minutes later (in which time I quickly picked up) my cheeseburger and baked potato arrived, delivered by a very articulate man, as opposed to the usual delivery guy. I had some candy and after I paid I said to him, "I believe you are dressed for Halloween as a relative of the Gracie folks who has been pressed into service" and he laughed and said yes and I gave him some candy which he immediately started eating. I also tipped as if he were a normal delivery guy. I used to worry about that -- but no more.

The Day After



Thanks to a friend of Fran's for sending this photo along which she found on a news site.

  I'm getting a bit of cabin fever. Although I've been in my garden, I haven't been out on the street since Sunday so I need to get out. Today all was well with me except my telephone was screwed up and still is. I can get incoming calls, but I can't retrieve messages and people can't leave messages. During the day, I would do *69 to see who called, but (Ok, here I'm going to sound cheap) it's 75 cents each time I do that. It's not that I don't *have* the 75 cents -- I just resist paying it.

By the end of the day, my one client was emailing me -- "that was me that just called; save your 75 cents."

So this is the 86th St Subway station. The pillars, of course, are on the platform and the yellow line is the edge of the platform. To the left of the yellow line is where the train comes and I'd guess it's about four feet high so this is a lot of water to come this far uptown.

The devastation really is hard to imagine. Today at lunch, I put a load of laundry in, made a grilled cheese sandwich and then started the dishwasher. I was mindful of how lucky I am to be able to do these simple tasks and quite grateful.

What would be so difficult for, and what is so difficult for people, is that there aren't even estimates of when they'll get power back. Buses are running again, but not the subway. My helper was supposed to come today and she would have arrived via subway so we have rescheduled for next week.

Love This Shot

Monday Night at 9:30

It's been a wild day. Lost power for about two seconds this afternoon. Lost my cable for about 15 minutes but it came back on. I think now, high tide, highest winds, is the worst of it. It's odd to see Lower Manhattan in total darkness.

Went out into the garden around 8 and it is surreal. Just misty rain, not even umbrella worthy. Absolute ferocious winds, a bunch of sirens in the distance. Hopefully we'll get through tonight. I know how lucky I am to have TV, power and internet. Just heard on TV that there's no power below 34th Street.

to be continued...

Fear

I have to say I felt physical fear tonight and it's something I don't normally feel. I had been watching the news and really feel as if I am prepared. Well, I'd give myself a B. I don't have 3 days of drinking water (meaning if something went wrong), but I have heeded all warnings and stocked up.

So about 11:15, I started smelling lighter fluid, and I got it in my mind that some jerk in my building was lighting a fire or something and was going to start a fire that would cause me to leave the building. And I would be stranded with no transportation with an impending hurricane. I knew this fear was mostly groundless, and I was going to call Mary and tell her I was afraid, and then didn't want to wake her up if she were already sleeping, but I'll add that I would not hesitate to wake Mary up if I really needed to talk to her.

I was thinking how tenuous our homes are. They make us feel safe, but we can lose them so easily. I then went through the roster of people and resources I have. I reminded myself that I have tremendous financial resources -- I don't mean I'm a rich person -- but I have money and unlimited credit. There's spome very primal fear of being homeless -- of not having a clean dry bed and food and shelter from the storm (literally). I'll be glad when all this is passed. On the 7-day forecast, there were little smily face suns for Thursday and Friday and that's hard to imagine right now.  The NYC Marathon is Sunday and the news folks were saying as of right now it will go off without a hitch.

Halloween is coming



This is Izzy, the dog of a colleague I follow on Twitter. Izzy doesn't seem entirely convinced about Halloween.





Now THIS made me laugh...

I mentioned how Mayor Bloomberg tries to speak Spanish to show... uh... uh... how inclusive he is? Someone just retweeted (for non-Twitter people, that's like forwarding an email, but you forward a tweet) this from a Twitter account someone started to make fun of his Spanish. The person is Miguel Bloombito and his Twitter "handle" (to date myself back to CB days!) is El Bloombito. I swear this is pretty close to what he sounds like.

 

Yo soy will givero update de hurricaño at el 6pm. Por favor no que panicking until despues los announcemento.

Here are some others, and I am now following El Bloombito. I find these hilarious, and if you ever heard him trying to speak Spanish, you'd share my glee:

Sorryo yo soy late to mi conferencero prensa. Mi chauffeur esta stucko on el FDR

Don't worryando if su forgot to que buy comprar supplies para el hurricaño. Que sendo out tu butlero con un umbrella y un kayako

Get off el twittero! Packo su Vamos Bag! Andale!