Sandy updates

Oops in the previous post I was also planning to update about Sandy’s impact on us but totally missed it.  Thanks to all who checked on us.  We started feeling the impact on Monday (10/29) morning. It was windy outside, very windy that the traffic lights were swaying crazily and lamp post did their part too.  The direct impact was on Monday night when we lost power. Luckily, we lost power late night so slept through the rest of the night as the weather was cool and manageable without heat.  The next 3 days were spent with no power, no heat again thanked our stars as we had gas and hot water. Managed chillness by wearing fleece inside home.

First day was spent with reading books, chatting, cooking and with a long siesta. Adi spent half of her day with the kids living in our apartment at their home.

Second day, M left to work promising to return in couple of hours but returned home after 10pm so it was just Adi and myself all day staring at each other not knowing what to do. Still we managed to do a lot. We woke up late, had late breakfast, cooked elaborately, took a stroll around neighborhood, spent time at neighbor’s (H patti) home, played board games, solved sudoku (did I say Adi can now solve the Easy ones within 10 minutes), read books, had candle light dinner and went to snoozeland (RM’s copyright word).

Third day, M’s workplace restored power so he resumed work as usual. I was not prepared to handle the girl all day by myself so spent the day at our friend’s place who got power the day before. Adi was happy to play with her schoolmates all day, I was happy chatting with the friend/hooked on to my laptop and our gadgets were happy as they were fed 100%.  I took all the food we prepared the previous day and we shared lunch. We came back home before it was getting dark as curfew was in place at our area from 7pm to 7am.  Just to let you know, these days it gets dark by 5pm. Winter is here and we are all set to cover ourselves with those extra layer of clothes before stepping out. Sighh. Its just starting and I am already cursing it. We still have so many more winter months to go.

Came back home, had evening snacks and started with cooking preparations. what else can we do? I took my own time to cut the veggies in candle light and Adi was glued to me as she was scared of the darkness around.  And then the miracle happened to be precise at 7:46pm. The moment that will stay in my memory forever and ever. That moment, we all were standing close to each other at Kitchen. Adi glued to me, myself sauteing something in the stove, M next to me looking for some snacks from the cupboard and suddenly it happened, the miracle. Power came back on and we were all teeth. Adi was jumping in joy non stop for more than 5 minutes. We felt like as if we got our life back. Our neighbors knocked on the door after some time and all we did was just laughing. None of us could stop smiling. Flashlights and candles were bid adieu and we were so thrilled for the rest of the day night. I returned the calls to all our friends who had called to check on us and invited us to their home. Then, went to bed for a warm sleep with heat on.

On Friday, everything returned to normal at least for us. Our adjacent street got power only last night, some people around neighborhood still don’t have power/gas/water, some of our friend’s house were flooded, public commutes (especially the tunnel train) are yet to operate fully, tunnel connecting NY/NJ is yet to be opened and shops doesn’t have the needed goods yet.  Adi’s school was reopened today after more than a week of closing.

Guess what tops the girl’s priority list now? Its electricity. We are getting ear full from her if we leave the light on at a room with nobody or leave the charger plugged to the plug point. “Don’t waste electricity” is her mantra now.

The city is still struggling to restore back to normal and here we are again hit by another Nor’easter. Hope this is not as bad as Sandy. Right now the weather is very bad outside.. snow/rain/wind all at the same time.  M is on his way to pick us up early. Hope tomorrow will dawn better for us.

ETA: A view from my office lobby. Took this pic as I was waiting for M at 4:45pm. The weather outside is terrible.

On a different note, last weekend we made these Diwali Diya’s at home. I have posted the instructions at IMC.

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