It's Always An Adventure

Well, hurricane Irene has come and gone. Good riddance I say. After a weekend fraught with the anxiety of will she or won’t she land a direct hit on Manhattan and how bad would the devastation be, we were very fortunate to be in an area that had very little damage from the hurricane. In our neighborhood there are some trees down in the park and the river swelled, some areas are water logged but that really is the extent of the damage. I know that many are not so lucky, dealing with extensive flooding, blackouts and water and wind damage. There are areas that are still in the dark and power will not be restored for days.

Today in Manhattan, we woke up to a beautiful sunny, crisp morning. The subways and buses were up and running, almost to full capacity, the streets were once again filled with citizens and in true New York style it was business as usual. You would never even have known that only a mere 24 hrs earlier the city was in full lockdown waiting with bated breath to see what Irene would bring. The city that never sleeps was forced to hunker down and wait out the storm.

An empty Grand Central Station (photo: NYC MTA)

During the day we calmed nerves by playing board games and watching movies but as the day progressed the waiting and fear of the unknown was a bit un-nerving.

A rousing game of Sorry!

Dance party in our living room

The bedroom fort 🙂

I have to admit that I was quite freaked out. On Saturday night as daylight faded and the streets were eerily deserted and the weather deteriorated I began to feel anxious. We tucked the girls in to bed and of course they slept soundly all night while Ron and I tossed and turned listening to the rain fall outside. The next morning we took the dogs out bright and early fearing that it was only going to get worse so we should get them out for a quick pee break while we could. The wind was picking up and the rain seemed to be coming down sideways. It was a pretty bad storm.

Stormy, deserted streets

Luckily for us, it never really seemed to get any worse. In Manhattan especially in our elevated area we experienced a pretty nasty storm but the brunt of the hurricane did not reach us. My heart goes out to those who were not as fortunate. And to those people who are complaining that Mayor Bloomberg and the city over prepared for a hurricane that never showed its’ full force, shame on you! If we had not been prepared and the worst had happened the end result would have been tragic.

I guess the positive of Irene for us and many people I have talked to is that it forced us all to slow down our lives a bit. We hung out with family and friends, reached out to check in with others and maybe even reflected a bit on what is truly important. As wonderful as it was to see all of the people out and about on the streets again, I have to admit I wouldn’t have minded another day of snuggling on the couch 😉

Not that I would have had any room:

Do and Bo

P.S. Thank you to all of our friends and family that sent well wishes our way and contacted us to make sure we were “weathering” the storm. Your love and support were/are greatly appreciated xo