From Darkness Comes Enlightenment

Every experience in life is an opportunity to learn something new. Sometimes what you learn is interesting. Other times what you learn is that you never want to have that experience again. Following Hurricane Sandy, we lost our electricity for 8 nights. While widespread, the power loss seemed random. Luckily there were pockets of the area that still had electricity. I spent a week roaming the county as a nomad in search of an electrical outlet. Evenings were long, dark and cold. As I sat shivering in my home under piles of blankets, I contemplated the irony of being so cold as a result of a tropical storm and the lessons I had learned from this experience.

• Smartphones are the Swiss army knives of the 21^st century.
• Using a power strip when charging multiple devices at a public outlet is proper power outage etiquette.
• Thoroughly scrubbing the refrigerator and freezer is much easier to do when it’s empty because we’ve had to throw out all of our food.
• Thanks to the cold, I’ve had the opportunity to do a complete inventory of every blanket in our home.
• It takes approximately 4 days without power to stop trying to turn on light switches.
• Sleeping with a hat on gives me a wicked combination of bed-head and hat hair. Yikes!
• Darkness can be a blessing. There is no fashionable way to wear so many layers. I would have been horrified to catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror.
• I don’t need light to shower; I know where all the necessary body parts are.
• Toothpaste and toilet seats get very, very cold.
• Ziploc bags filled with hot water and laundry detergent are a great way to wash underwear, but  it will take days for them to dry since there is no heat in the house.
• I’ve memorized my car’s license plate because I needed to know if I could get gas on even or odd days while it was being rationed.
• Always, always, always get a full tank of gas before a storm.  (see above)
• If I owned the company that makes orange traffic cones, I’d be rich.
• Using a hand cranked radio is a great way to keep warm and burn calories.
  

  Using a hand cranked radio keeps Oregano warm and informed.

• A candlelight dinner is not nearly as romantic when I’ve actually had to cook that dinner by candlelight.
• When I go to bed when it gets dark at 6:30 p.m., I wake up at 2:00 a.m. and it is still dark.
• I don’t have what it takes to be Amish.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that I have caring, generous friends who opened their warm homes, refrigerators and washing machines for us.

Oregano and I were very fortunate that our home only sustained minor damage. Others were not so fortunate. If you want to help the people deeply affected by Hurricane Sandy, you can donate to the Red Cross.

10 Ways Hurricane Sandy Contributed to the Halloween Spirit

Hurricane Sandy was a violent storm that left so much destruction and devastation in her wake. Thankfully, all of my family, friends and pets are safe and their homes are intact. None of us have power and won’t for quite some time, but we are all feeling grateful. Finding humor in the aftermath is how I cope with the stress of the situation.

 The top 10 ways in which Hurricane Sandy contributed to the Halloween atmosphere:

10. Halloween candy is non-perishable and there is plenty of it in the house. With some creative thinking, you can rationalize that it helps meet your nutritional needs when the rest of the food in your refrigerator has spoiled: peanut m&ms are a source of protein; Skittles and Starburst help you meet your required daily servings of fruit.

9. When the power is out, jack o’ lanterns become a festive light source.

8. Bobbing for apples is a low tech game to play during those long, dark  nights.

7. No lights, television or internet access sets the mood for telling ghost stories in the dark.

6.  There’s no need to worry about choosing a Halloween costume. In a dark, cold house, with the hood of a sweatshirt pulled over your head for warmth, you look just like Kenny from South Park.

5. New Halloween decorations festoon your yard when you see it in the light of day.  Of course, these were probably the Halloween decorations of someone who lives 5 blocks away.

4. No power means no doorbell so you won’t hear trick-or-treaters which is a good thing since you already consumed all of your Halloween candy stash.

3. To amuse yourselves, you can make all sorts of ghoulish faces holding a flashlight under your chin.

Flashlights can be a source of light and entertainment.

2. Everyone leaves your house alone on Mischief Night since it looks like it’s already been attacked.

1. You save money on going to a haunted house to be frightened because you get to cower in an interior room of your own house listening to the whistling, whipping wind scream outside as it rips the vinyl siding from your house.

**Good luck to all those affected by Hurricane Sandy.**