Aside from continually checking the charge on Charlie's iPad and my phone lest we lose electricity, and iterating and reiterating what a great boy he was and how we were spending a very challenging day together, here's what we did the day Cyclone Sandy hit.
Charlie and I went for a morning walk after I'd done a morning run that enabled me to realize, storm or not, our town was picking up the leaf piles so I moved the black car into the driveway just in time. (You can still see a pile of leaves in the photo because some people had put their leaves on the sidewalk to keep them away from storm drains and those leaves were not picked up.)
We were the first customers at the burrito place (they weren't really surprised, haha) and then went on another walk.
Then the tropical stormesque aspects of Sandy became apparent (high and blustery strong winds, rain though not as much as from Hurricane Irene, flickering lights, a fire engine and police showing up for a possible power line fire up the street) and we had to stay inside. Charlie was something less than thrilled about this with his non-thrilledness peaking around 5pm, but he got over the hump, with some intervention. In as non-alarmist a way as possible, we mentioned that there was a curfew imposed by the police till 7am. And then we all had to agree, we were having a great day and a fun one. Together.
It was like being in a storm at the beach with the house rattling and creaking, the winds roaring and the rain splatting down. Charlie went to sleep.
The subway isn't supposed to open till Wednesday at the earliest and City Hall in Jersey City is surrounded by water so who knows what will happen the rest of this week -- well, maybe not as much trick or treating as planned.
(No worry there to us: Charlie said "done" long ago to Halloween and he is probably the one or two children in the cosmos who does not eat any candy and I mean any.)
I'm glad everyone did fine at your house! I remember nights without power at my home as a kid and I actually loved them, just great family time. My son last year got freaked out about losing power and he still asks me if we're going to lose power every time it rains or gets windy... I haven't been able to show him how fun it can be!
Posted by: Leila | 30 October 2012 at 10:55
So glad to hear things went well for Charlie...was thinking about you guys last night. Great to hear that Charlie got his burrito fix before Sandy struck. Has the school indicated when kids can come back?
Posted by: Michelle | 30 October 2012 at 12:14
Glad to hear you weathered everything. Charlie is quite a guy. Always proud of him.
Posted by: gretchen | 30 October 2012 at 14:19
Really glad that your 'tight family of 3' are safe and warm.
Posted by: Linda | 30 October 2012 at 19:14