Back from my Sandy Silence!

Sandy tried to silence me (and did a damn good job), but I'm back!

Truth be told, I'm INCREDIBLY fortunate given the circumstances.  I only lost power a handful of times during the worst part of the storm -- for about a minute each time -- but other than that I always had power. I did, however, lose cable late Monday/early Tuesday, and was without TV and Internet until very late Saturday night.  My office was closed all week, and I didn't want to drive much due to the gas shortage, so I was basically at home for nearly an entire week with absolutely nothing to do.  It was pretty torturous (in my ivory tower).

But like I said, I was extraordinarily lucky.  I don't think anybody anticipated that this storm would be as bad as it was.  I always joke that I'm like the villain in all the natural disaster movies, telling people they're panicking and that it won't be that bad.  Well, this time it was much, much worse.  There are at least five people I know that went without power from Monday all the way to this weekend (and some still don't have power even now).  And in New Jersey at least, it's been pretty damn cold.  Some of those people spent much of the day in bed just so they could stay warm.  And businesses in my town have been closed all week.  The entire downtown area is still out of power.  Only a select few that have generators have been open.

I also know more than a couple of people that lost pretty much everything.  Areas within the shore and Hoboken got hit extremely bad, with many homes and lower level apartments getting completely flooded, destroying everything from clothing to furniture to luggage.  There are a lot of people that won't be able to go home for the foreseeable future.  And my family vacations in Long Beach Island -- and we're not even sure if the house we rent is even standing any more.  Things got that bad.

And then there's the gas situation.  Never in my life did I ever think I would experience something like this.  Praise the Lord, I haven't had to fill up my tank yet (I have about half a tank left), but in my town alone about half of the gas stations don't have power, and then about half of the ones that do have power are completely out of gas.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that there have been lines for the gas station that have exceeded one mile.  People spend upwards of three hours on line for gas.  That is absolutely crazy.  I'm hoping to hold out until next week, when hopefully things calm down a bit.

I know many of my readers come from the tri-state area, and I genuinely hope all of you are safe and that you haven't suffered any losses (materialistic or otherwise) during this ordeal.  Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you're safe, or to share your own story.