Wednesday night saw quite a
mini-blizzard here in Manhattan, but it was merely annoying here because very
little stuck. Most of it hit the warm pavement and melted. But Central Park
recorded 4 inches of snow, which would have been a nonevent in Pittsburgh,
unless of course a hurricane had just blown through. North and west of the city
it was a major mess.
For the poor folks in low-lying areas, it just made a horrible situation even worse. And another 150,000 people who had power suddenly lost it. Speaking of losing it, that's exactly what much of the affected population is doing. I feel sorry for those who are still without power, and those who lost their homes, but this was a massive storm that had massive effects, and from what I see on the news everybody is at least trying to get things back to normal, power restored, and debris cleared. I'd be frustrated too, but getting on the news and bitching about how "nobody cares about us" is just not helpful. I find myself losing sympathy - as Walter Neff says in Double Indemnity - but quick.
We're doing okay, but both of us are unusually tired. I attribute it to mild post-traumatic stress. No, it wasn't like being tortured in a Viet Cong cage. But it was downright creepy to have a hurricane come up this far to begin with, and then when we saw that 3 blocks away the facade of a building had been peeled off leaving a doll house effect, I think I kind of panicked. Three hours later the power went off, so I couldn't see any more disasters on TV. But that only left the wind howling and everything outside dark and weirdly quiet - how often is there no traffic in Manhattan, except for the screams of fire engines and police cars and ambulances?
The one really good thing about it is that we have the cleanest refrigerator ever. Everything is guaranteed fresh.
For the poor folks in low-lying areas, it just made a horrible situation even worse. And another 150,000 people who had power suddenly lost it. Speaking of losing it, that's exactly what much of the affected population is doing. I feel sorry for those who are still without power, and those who lost their homes, but this was a massive storm that had massive effects, and from what I see on the news everybody is at least trying to get things back to normal, power restored, and debris cleared. I'd be frustrated too, but getting on the news and bitching about how "nobody cares about us" is just not helpful. I find myself losing sympathy - as Walter Neff says in Double Indemnity - but quick.
We're doing okay, but both of us are unusually tired. I attribute it to mild post-traumatic stress. No, it wasn't like being tortured in a Viet Cong cage. But it was downright creepy to have a hurricane come up this far to begin with, and then when we saw that 3 blocks away the facade of a building had been peeled off leaving a doll house effect, I think I kind of panicked. Three hours later the power went off, so I couldn't see any more disasters on TV. But that only left the wind howling and everything outside dark and weirdly quiet - how often is there no traffic in Manhattan, except for the screams of fire engines and police cars and ambulances?
The one really good thing about it is that we have the cleanest refrigerator ever. Everything is guaranteed fresh.
