The night of the storm as we did have power we had our usual noise machines going (to help with sleep we have a noise machine in the hall, ocean waves soundtrack and two fans in the girls' room) so they really didn't hear the wind. We did and were somewhat nervous, especially as a neighbor posted in the late evening that she had lost power and that a large tree across the street from her had come down. We weren't so worried about the tree in our back yard, but went to bed not knowing how it all would be in the morning. The next morning the wind had gone, everything was quiet, I went out for a run, and when I came back 2 neighbors who had lost power (another tree had gone down in one yard and taken out the power for 4 houses further down our block) were in our kitchen trying to sort out how to get their frozen food into our freezer. All that worked out and for the next week and a half we were on deck and engaged with entertaining kids, charging phones and electronics, having overnight guests as needed with people having lost power, enjoying and helping to put on several large dinner parties as people tried to eat up what had been in their freezers and also host friends with no heat. We were so lucky to have such a community feel on our block as the girls really enjoyed lots of time back and forth between several houses with a big group of kids, and those of us with power were able to help out nieghbors without by having them and their kids over at our houses.
One casualty of the storm was Halloween (which I hate anyway, if I can be honest, so it was no loss to me and with all the excitement and topsy-turvy nature of the 2 weeks, the girls didn't really seem to notice either). A family down the street from us did put on an outdoor costume shindig on the 31st, so Wendy got to wear her costume (Fer had kind of lost interest). The night we went out to vote, they had some candy out for the kids, so each girl took one piece, and Fer even asked, "Can we have it now, or should we wait until after dinner?" Oh, go ahead, kids, eat it now and happy Halloween! :)
A few pictures of the costume party:
Fer and Wendy missed 7 days of school, and the 8th day they went back, but to a different building as their building still didn't have power. The following day they did go back to their regular school. Chris and I were home from work for a week with the city schools closed. He did as much as he could from home -- I was totally involved with caring for kids, having guests, cooking, etc., so I did nothing work-related. The following week we both started trying to get into the city for work -- he ended up staying over one night, going in with a friend who drives in at 5:30 a.m., just trying different things as the trains weren't running and the commuting times were insane, 3-4 hours each way. I ended up having some crazy days spending more time commuting than working, though things were more normalized the second week back.
We don't have a TV and cable in the area was knocked out by the storm, so we barely saw any coverage in the few days following. But since then we have been so struck by and concerned about all the damage and trauma in Staten Island, the Rockaways, the Jersey Shore. We've heard lots of stories from people around here of flooding and loss that their friends and family who live on the shore have experienced, and it's just awful. We hope for rebuilding and relief as soon as possible.
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