So it's November 25th. Last year at this time I was rounding out my last ten thousand words before finishing my first successful NaNoWriMo challenge. This year there isn't the same amount of excitement, and alas, for this month I have only written three thousand words and counting. I'd like to say it's because my Nano challenge for this year isn't the same, since I'm just continuing an old story (because it's like an old shoe now; comfortable but not shiny and new and flashy) and besides, I had a rocky start with no power for the first two weeks of this month. But that's not why.
However, it is a good segue into talking about Hurricane Sandy, as if you haven't surely heard enough about it already. (If you live in the US, anyway. Blogger has informed me I have international viewers, so thanks and holler to y'all) I live in central New Jersey, which was literally smack in the middle of the storm. It was scary as heck, but I don't live right on the coast, and I'm also on high ground so flooding wasn't a problem. I did lose power for almost ten days straight, however; seven days from Sandy and then two days later, another three day outage from that badass snow storm we got. The snowstorm was really the scariest, though it wasn't as violent. We got about five to seven inches of really wet and heavy snow-- heavier than I've ever seen before in my seventeen years, but the scary part was that I live in a heavily wooded area and we literally had trees bowing under the weight. There were trees taller than the telephone poles that had their higher branches tugged down so far that I could jump on my driveway and touch them, assuming that I wanted a potentially painful faceful of snow. The night of the storm we realized that there were trees (that we could hear very loudly groaning and cracking under the weight) bending and swaying directly over our roof and specifically my room. Between the audible stress on the tall oak trees and the neon blue explosions of the transformers up and down the road we were pretty terrified. At some point we got our coats and shoes and were ready to walk out for fear of trees crushing the house. (I live kind of in the middle of a small forest with a bunch of heavy trees)
The reality of all this though, is that I really got out scott-free. I know people whose cars were flooded out, who lost their homes either to the storm on the coast or flooding farther inland, or for other reasons have had them condemned. People are equating this with the damage Katrina wrecked on New Orleans, which I think is a bit excessive, but it's a valid point, seeing the damage on certain areas. There's a really (dare I say cool?) interesting collection of before-and-after satellite photos of the worst of it, which I'll link to. The Jersey Shore and boardwalk is seriously an icon for everyone who lives in the area and to see some of the rides, like the huge ferris wheel making their way towards Europe in the ocean is really startling. Most of the damage is due to us Northerners not being prepared for hurricane or tropical storm-force winds, which is our fault, but that's really because we never expected to deal with it. That's historically Florida's cross to bear. (and ironically where we send most of our old people) So basically this isn't related to my writing much but it really sucks for a lot of people, and here's my high five to everyone dealing with it like bosses. It's kind of funny that this happened right before Thanksgiving, because it's given me and a lot of other people cause to think of how really lucky we are and how thankful I am for everything I have and everything that hasn't been taken from me. It's more than just 'thank you for not smiting me with a branch to the head, God'. I am sincerely thankful for everything I have, all the opportunities I've been given (yes, even those I didn't take) and everyone I know, whether I like them or not.
So stay safe everyone, and brace yourselves for the holidays, where everyone is going mushy. The Lifetime movies have already begun.
Sandy Before and Afters: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/hurricane-sandy-before-after-photos/
Current Word Count: 130,966
No comments:
Post a Comment