Hurricane Sandy Part 13

This whole experience is just so strange. Tuesday I was glued to the news and have seen so many images of floods, smashed houses, and people in distress. Here at home, except for the branches on the road and the one downed power line, there's not much to see.

Then there are all the friends in Teaneck without power... and the best volunteer contribution I can seem to find is to let them charge their electronics at my house.

Today there was still no power at school. We took it easy at home, making a puppet show (see the last post) and we went to a playdate at a friend's house. Then U. came home and I decided to go out on my own. I took the car to Tenafly to see what the situation was at Stop & Shop. On the way I passed a gas station that had signs on several of the pumps that said "no gas" and another sign that said "$20 max." There was a line of cars stretched out of the station, up the street and around the corner for about two blocks. There couldn't have been fewer than 30 cars. I don't know whether they needed gas mainly for cars or for generators, but I made a promise to myself not to take the car out again without a clear destination.

Stop & Shop looked post-apocalyptic. The automatic door was propped open because there was no power to open and close it. Most of the lights were off. All perishable goods were missing or covered with paper saying they couldn't be for sale. The greens section of produce was completely stripped. I bought a few squash, a bag of grapefruit and one small bundle of asparagus, realizing these might be our last greens for at least a few days. Then I went down the darkened aisles looking for things that might come in handy... soup mix, ketchup. A sad ice cream freezer was dripping chocolate into a bucket.

When I checked out I made a point of thanking the worker for coming in on this tough day. She seemed to appreciate the recognition.

I can't imagine what NY is like right now. I suppose it's mixed. I know of people who went to work there today. For some people this feels disastrous. For others, it's just boring as we wait for school again tomorrow. I guess I count myself in the latter group because practically speaking we've been so fortunate. But there's more to all of this than meets the eye.

Now how are we going to get this climate change fixed?