That right! I'm back. We got our power back last night! Heat, hot water, tv (thank you DirectTV), landlines (yep they went out too), cell phones, computers and wifi! Life is better!
We are very lucky and know it. We only lost power (since Monday at 6:30 pm) and the comfort that comes with it (our neighbors behind us are still without power so I ran them an extension cord). We were able to keep one room at about 62 degrees thanks to a mostly decorative gas fireplace. Less than 10 houses away they only lost power for 16 hours but about a quarter of a mile away, they had their basements and 1st floor flooded and will be without power for weeks.
For us, this was very surreal. Walking the blocks around our house things looked normal or even better than normal when the sun was out, when dark came it was VERY dark and then you could see who had power or generators. I wanted to break their doors down, throw them out and commandeer their house and power source. It didn't look like we had just had this horrific storm, we got our mail every day, our garbage was picked up on schedule and we had trick or treaters. It was when we ventured out for supplies that we could see how things were. We had a radio but it wasn't local enough and a tv or computer screen image is worth a thousand words. It was sort of a mind fuck to be the story and not be able to see or really experience it.
The town next to us? Never lost power (they have their own power system/grid). Going there I felt like a refuge invading the next village and pillaging (well paying cash - no credit cards taken) their stores and scrounging around for a place to recharge cell phones (although with so many towers down, ours only worked from 1 am to 6 am for calls, data or texts). Lines were everywhere for everything and scoring warmth, food and wifi at McDonald's caused much more celebration, normalcy and gratitude then you'd expect. The staff there were absolutely amazing and I will be giving them a big thank you card.
We are a long way from being normal - gas lines are everywhere, traffic lights are out, many of our local stores have no power and some were also damaged by salt water. We're nervous the power will go out again and another Nor'Easter is headed our way for Wednesday.
Mom did well but it was very stressful for her - the cold and fear of getting sick and the not knowing.
Thanks for all the kind thoughts and positive energy but many others still need it. I'll post photos later.
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