Rockaway Update - Thurs Nov. 8 - Who Needs Light and Heat

Found out my regular home insurance covers locusts, frogs and muraine but not floods. Except if flood occurs during week of Passover and we can prove water came from the Red Sea.

I slept 12 hours last night for the first time in my life. Blame it on darkness, cold and a lot of wine.

Thurs, Nov. 8, 6pm: 10th day without power or heat. Or more importantly, internet or TV.

Lots to tell about look of war zone here but another time.

I intended to keep a daily diary but with only spotty phone internet access and having to save laptops for powering the phones and with all the stuff we have to do during the day and the depressing darkness at night - now starting at 5pm since Sunday.

"Look how little it takes now to make me happy." ----- My wife upon finding the new lantern/flashlight we just bought at Home Depot is better than anything.

Gee, almost makes me wish for regular floods.

One of best stories for us: finding phone mssge from alarm comp from around 7pm Monday, Sandy night, that our basement water alarm to detect floods went off. Gee, thanks. It goes off if we get 2 inch of water. How about 7 feet?

Let me point out so no one feels sorry for us, we are the top 1% in terms of how much better off we are than most and able to deal with all of this. The 80 year old woman who lives behind us comes knocking on our door at least once a day in a semi-state of confusion. We offer as much help as we can but not sure exactly what to tell her other than to calm down - she has an apt in the city - just go there and wait it out. Her response - the worst thing is seeing everyone else getting things done while she marks time.

And I get that. Our pals J&S had their contracter install a water heater and they can take showers. I'm adding that task to my loooong list.

Sorry I haven't compiling this info daily so I could remember things better. I'll try to backtrack. One day at a time.

So, the key to dealing with all this is to get something done every single day and celebrate whatever it is, no matter how trivial, as a major victory.

Today was a biggie.

-reached Ken the electrician who had asked me to send pics of our 2 power boxes that were under water. We don't intend to wait for boobs at LIPA (yes Rockaway is only area of nyc in their zone) to tell us we need to replace them. We're going for a pre-emtive strike so when they show - sometime in January - we are ready for them. Ken says maybe by end of next week. Maybe. That doesn't mean power from lipa which I hear can take 2 months but I've put this task as current top priority.

-Brian the tow truck guy who thankfully lives on my block sent guys to tow my 3 month old Honda CRV out of my neighbor's garage. He towed my wife's car out of our garage last Friday (nov. 2 which seems like a year ago) as a big favor so we could have space for the crew we hired (at an outrageous price) to clear our disaster of a basement. Well maybe not so outrageous. Now we just have to get that damn Geko out here to look at them.

-Called Geiko, Flood insur adjuster, Matt our fab contracter, Barry our alarm guy. Matt says he can send demolition crew week from Sat. That's nov 17. Jeez.

-The apartment we were offered by our friends in Trump Village (not Towers) in Coney Island - we went over to check it out, took showers and charged computer and phones. We may use it to sleep there - imagine being able to actually read in the evening - but right now we intend to live out here until it is too cold. Moving cats is a big issue - you know their comfort is more important than ours.

Timeout: wife curses that fuckn Cuomo and says she will never vote for him - blames him for gas and Iipa situation. How does he make Cristie look good?

I saw one LIPA truck on Monday - only one in all this time driven by a guy from Suffolk who drove 3 hours. "You won't have power for 2 months. They pulled me from areas where I could actually be getting people back up so I could drive around here doing nothing other than showing lipa has a presence. Political crap."

So yes we will need that apartment.
Admission: I miss TV. And the internet. I may have to do mi-fi.

Then off to check out a car, eat lunch and go to Home Depot.

Stop off at J&S with sandwiches and big push broom and back home to find first mail delivery in 11 days.

Do victory lap around pile of mail for small sign of normalcy. damn bat running down. Bi

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry