The storm hit Friday and got worse through the night. By midday Saturday the electricity waved goodbye. That's when we decided to take the big SUV and tour the neighborhood. The first thing we noticed is the 100+ year old tree that had always stood near the NW corner of our house was now a lot closer to our neighbor's home. As a matter of fact, it had come to a stop about two inches from their roof. (Six gardeners spent all day today chopping it up but they will have to come back tomorrow to finish the job).
The rest of the neighborhood was a lot worse and for almost two days we were literally trapped in our immediate area by streets closed by downed trees and arcing power lines. Incidentally, the sight of arcing electrons lighting up a storm at night is pretty awe-inspiring. The rest of the story: the power was restored after about 55 hours (remarkable really) but the cable didn't return full-time until Thursday afternoon. And keep in mind Cablevision also supplies our hard-wired telephone service as well as our broadband.
I turned 62 in the midst of all this and, wonder of wonders, never got so many birthday greetings in my life. Thank you all who took the time to send your kind notes via e-mail, facebook and even USPS. Your messages really moved me and I will try to answer all individually.
It's too early to know yet the final grade of the proposed health reform bill. But, despite some personal reservations like research funding and what it's going to cost my family, it looks like an overall winner. It's not perfect, that's for sure, but it's better than what we got now. More poor Americans will get better care than they would have and I fail to see how that's bad, But it doesn't yet address the real problem - caring for the elderly. We will see. But it will be fun to watch the Republicans break new records of hypocrisy and stupidity while the Democrats desperately look for a way to fuck it up. They always do. My prediction: both sides will prove how hopelessly hopeless they are. By the looks of it, I don't think Curly is happy with the fine print (or is it the flamingo?).
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