August 28th, 2011 - After Irene

It’s Sunday evening and boy am I tired! Irene has come and gone and though it wasn’t nearly as bad as all the hype, it was bad enough. The wind gusts are still strong out there, much stronger than I would have thought, and hopefully all that has fallen off my trees to this point will be all that falls.

Irene

Irene wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d anticipated it to be. As I said this morning, I slept right through the dark hours of its ferocity, and though there were harrowing moments, the sunlight made it that much easier to bear. The winds and rain lasted until about noon and when it was done I went for a walk to assess the damage before starting my own clean-up. It wasn’t bad at all: trees down here and there, lots of branches everywhere and a couple of damaged signs and whatnot, but I’d say we really escaped this one pretty much unscathed.

The Cleanup

One thing I can say for sure this evening is that although I love my house, I really don’t know how much longer I can stay here. Owning a home is a big responsibility, financially, emotionally and physically. I got to experience the physical part to the hilt today as I began cleaning up the mess that Irene left behind.

I think that out of all my neighbors, I got hit the worst. I felt like I was the only one out there clearing brush all freaking day long. The first order of business was that giant limb that was blocking my car in the driveway. I have a chainsaw, but it broke just last week when I was cutting down another tree, so I had to use a good old-fashioned hacksaw to break that thing into a million little pieces before I could move it out of the way.

I labored for hours, eventually calling my friend and neighbor Blanche for some assistance. Who knew that a PLU like Blanche would have not one, but two brand-spanking-new sharpened hacksaws and an ax! He and I finished chopping that sucker up until it could be moved totally out of the way, but it took a third person, my brother Dave, to help get that still heavy last piece moved. To the two of them, I say thanks!

After they left there was still plenty to do. I had to pull about 30 plants from the garage that I had placed in there for safety. I swept all of the debris out of my driveway and I about four hours after I started I was done for the day. After a quick visit from my friend Dita, I crashed and slept for a long while. It was frustrating having to do all of that work by myself, not to mention the physical demand it placed on my aching back (which is still sore after the spill I took in the city two weeks ago!), but at least I can get out and there'll be that much less to do in the coming days.

Through it all I kept thinking that when Joe and I first bought this house, it was for the two of us. I don’t think I was ever meant to own a home by myself. It's just too much work for one person. I’ve got to keep patient, keep my mind on my goal of losing the house for my own well-being, as well as other reasons. We shall see!

Electricity

I admit it; I definitely lucked out with not having lost power from the storm. Well, not totally lucky. Strangely, the electricity in my living room and my kitchen are still out and I can’t for the life of me figure out what happened. My brother, who knows a little about electric, checked out my fuse box and all the wires going to and from it and even he was baffled. Blanchie thinks it might have been a lightning strike. In any case it’s weird, and it’s causing me to miss the MTV VMA’s, which I had hoped to cover in some fashion. Now I have to call an electrician in the morning…can anyone say “mo money, mo money, mo money?”

So now it’s almost 11 and I’m wide awake. I’m supposed to go to school in the morning one last time before heading back for the year next week, but their email system is shut down and I don’t know if there will be anyone there. It’s an hour’s drive from here so I’m not going to chance it unless I’m sure. We’ll have to wait and see…in the meantime, I write…

Here are some pictures I took today:


The infamous limb where it broke off from the tree


A clearer shot of the limb behind my car


What greeted me on my deck right after the storm


My driveway


What I had to chop up



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Song of the Day - Powerless - Nelly Furtado

Photo Source: Photobucket: NellyFurtadoArgentina

I can't think of a more appropriate song to feature today, the day that Hurricane Irene slammed into New York and beyond. Aside from the obvious loss of electrical power, a hurricane such as this makes you realize how truly powerless we all are when it comes to Mother Nature. I only hope and pray that no one gets injured or worse and that damage across the area is minimal.

"Powerless" is off of Nelly Furtado's stellar sophmore album, "Folklore," and it's one of my favorite songs of hers. It's beautiful and melodic and the lyrics are pretty "powerful"... Enjoy!






Powerless

Paint my face in your magazines
Make it look whiter than it seems
Paint me over with your dreams
Shove away my ethnicity
Burn every notion that I may have a flame inside to fight
And say just what is on my mind
Without offending your might

Cuz this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless what are you gonna do
So say what you want
Say what you want

I saw her face outside today
Weatherworn, looking all the rage
They took her passion and her gaze and made a poster
Now it’s moccasins we sport
We take the culture and contort
Perhaps only to distort what we are hiding

Cuz this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless what are you gonna do
But say what you want
Say what you want

Hey you, the one, the one outside, are you ever gonna get in, get in
Hey you, the one that don’t fit in, how ya, how ya gonna get in
Hey you, the one outside, are you ever gonna get in with your
Broken teeth, broken jaw, broken mojo
Yeah, this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do

Cuz this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do
Cuz this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do
Say what you want, say what you want, say, say, say

Cuz this life is too short,
just for you

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August 28th, 2011: 8:21 AM - Irene Update

8:21 AM

Irene is officially here! I woke up about an hour ago in a sweat because the power was out and my air conditioner had gone off. Luckily there hadn’t been too much noise during the night, or if there was I didn’t hear it. After checking a few light switches and confirming there was no power, I headed to each window to check out what was going on outside.

Oh, there’s a lot of wind out there, alright, but the winds luckily are not sustained. Every once in awhile the gusts are pretty strong…I have no idea how strong, but my trees are all dancing to the wind. So far, so good, except the power of course, but from what I’ve heard, Irene’s just about halfway done with us so we’ve still got a few hours left of her.

Upon further investigation I discovered that there is a loose wire hanging from one of my trees and across the front yard. That must be why I have no power, at least on the main floor. You see, I went to check the basement about a half an hour ago and out of habit I flicked the light switch on and to my surprise the lights went on. I’ve also got power upstairs, too, strangely enough, so at least I got to make a pot of coffee, thankfully.

I am now in my front office, with the ac on keeping cool and my eyes are separated, one on my computer screen and the other on the swaying trees right outside my window. I don’t know how long I will stay up here because it feels like I shouldn’t be up here at all. I will keep that eye out…

The only other thing so far happened just before I discovered there was electricity upstairs. I tried lying back down on the sofa for a few z’s and within minutes I was awakened suddenly by a large crash. A 20-foot limb came clean off a tree in the backyard, crashing down right between my car and my deck. Phew! Big crisis averted, for now. It’s not going to be an easy clean-up, but it’ll all be worth it as long as that’s all there is.

I hope whatever power I do have stays on…I’m typing extra fast just in case…stay safe everyone and hopefully I’ll catch you later…






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August 28th, 2011 : 12:41 AM Irene Update

12:41 AM
I know it's dark, but here's one of the trees at the end of my driveway, with a streetlamp shining behind.

Well I’m all cozy in my living room downstairs now, with my pillow and blankie on the couch and the AC on full blast. I figured it’s safer to sleep on the ground floor in case a tree should fall on my house. I heard an 11 year-old kid somewhere down south was killed today when a tree fell on to his apartment building, and so I made the decision to spend the night downstairs. Before heading to bed, I decided to take a look at the weather update so I know what to expect.

Of course, there’s wall to wall coverage on virtually every channel, which I don’t mind at this point, but finding the actual forecast took a lot of patience. Here’s what they’re saying for the NY Metropolitan Area:

The northernmost part of the storm is already here, which is evident outside. The winds have picked up and it’s pouring at the moment. They’re saying we’re getting the strongest winds so far here on LI, with gusts already over 40mph. The weather’s going to steadily worsen until about 3 AM, when the hurricane force winds and rain will officially start arriving. The bad stuff is supposed to last for nine hours, until about noon, and then things will dissipate to calm by afternoon.

Though I’m not scared at the moment, I am afraid of what’s to come during the night. I stepped outside before for a cigarette and the trees were swaying back and forth as if they were blades of grass. It made me realize just hopw small we really are. Well, I’m going to TRY and get some sleep before I’m woken up again by what I know will be horrible noises. I just hope the power stays on! Be safe!

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August 27th, 2011 - Nervous Anticipation

Photo Source: NY Times

I just finished writing a piece on Y!CN about the here and now, waiting for the Hurricane Irene to arrive. (You can check it out here.) It’s taken me all day to get into the writing mode and at the moment I feel as if I could go on for hours and hours, piece after piece, but who knows how long the power will last?

Nervous Anticipation

Truth be told, I’m starting to get a little scared. Everything’s eerily quiet outside and I’m here all alone. For the past couple of days I’ve been making fun of some of the people who’ve been proclaiming doomsday with Irene, and now that it’s close I feel a little foolish for not taking them too seriously before.

I’ve experienced two hurricanes in my life, Belle in 1977 and Gloria in 1985. That was a long time ago and back then I lived at home with my parents and my five siblings. I guess you kind of forget what it’s like after so long. Now I’m alone, and I’ve got a lot at stake. Out of all my friends who also sit at home alone right now, I’ve got the most potential for disaster. I have so many trees on my property and at least three or four of them hover over my house. I think I’ll be speaking with the Man Upstairs tonight!


Photo Source: Facebook

Don’t Believe the Hype

I need to make a little rant, just a little one…it’s about “Hype”…I can’t stand it!!!! Every time there’s a weather story to report, they’ve got coverage of every angle, wall to wall, 24/7. It happens everytime we get a snowstorm and now that Irene’s a coming, it’s all over the place, scaring people to death.

Yes, I realize that a hurricane is a serious weather and coverage is warranted, but I’ve seen the craziness all this hype does to people. They use words like “ferocious” and “menacing,” terrorizing” and “vicious.” How do they expect people to react? Especially old people! I mean, c’mon!

I know it will never change, but I just needed to get that off my chest.


Photo Source: Huffington PostIt’s Definitely Approaching

Well, since the time I started writing this the rains have gotten heavier and the wind is starting to pick up. I’m not going to lie….my stomach has lots of butterflies a fluttering and I’m scared. I’ll never forget Belle, that hurricane in 77’. It was a Category 1, I believe, but it came in during the dead of night. Those howling winds and the sounds of things blowing around and the lights going off send chills up my spine just thinking about it. Gloria came in the middle of the day, and although it was a bad one, it wasn’t nearly as frightening because of its arrival time.

They say that Irene will be here around 8 in the morning. If that’s the eye, or the center of the storm, that means some howling and such will come during the dark hours. I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep tonight and neither are many of my fellow Long Islanders and New Yorkers…

Oh, and my friend Nancy Lou just informed me that there’s also a tornado watch in effect for Suffolk County, my county, until 5AM. Great! Just great!!!

To any of you in the path of Irene, please stay safe!
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