fall back

What a week it's been! Monday afternoon Taiyo and I spent quiet afternoon at SOY. With Hurricane Sandy approaching, wind was getting stronger, and rain was not hard but continuous. Matthew next door came down to have a bowl of ramen. The day before hardware stores and grocery stores were having busy day. At Essex Market the shelves were being emptied which I've never seen. I thought I was going to be blessed with a day or two off. Maybe I'll fix the tiles in the bathroom. Or do some readying for a change. We were watching "The Right Stuff" in the evening when lights blinked. The strong wind was bending all the trees outside. Sandy was here. So far it was still ok, but I decided to lay candles on the table, and located flashlights. Sometime later, darkness arrived. Taiyo shrieked, of course. I was glad I had candles ready. I lit many many candles, even birthday candles, so we won't be scared. Later I realized there's no hot water for bath. I tried to boil some water with portable burner (I don't have gas stove in my apartment) but the tub won't hold water very well. We went to sleep and I dreamed that power was back in the morning.

Tuesday. It was gloomy but rather mild day. I listened to radio on a alarm clock. Mayor said that the power may take 3, 4 days to be restored, so as subway system. I really wasn't prepared for a lenthy power outage. I may lose everything in fridge and freezer. There was nothing I really could do, so we got on the bike and went explore uptown. Lights were out all the way to around 40th street on the east side. There were so many people walking uptown. Then lights were on but most of the business were still closed. All the restaurants open had people waiting. We cut across Times Square, which was ironically just as bright as any other day. We stopped at B&H and got a USB cable so I can power up my cell phone with lapatop, which was rather useless without internet. Back home we were hanging out in the restaurant, and some neighbors stopped by. Elliot and Ray never got out- they had a planned trip out to the west coast with the flight that never left on Monday. Michelle and Jaime were around and they even had hot water! So Taiyo and I were able to take a bath, which was a blessing. Later we went to visit Elliot and Ray for some chocolate cake, then hang out with Kathy and the second night seemed a lot more social than usual although it was dark and cold.

Wednesday morning, we crossed the bridge with Michelle and Jaime in search of power and snack. Every cafe was packed and most outlets were occupied with similar refugee from Manhattan. I felt a bit bitter that while I was losing business they were profiting from disaster across the river. It was Halloween and kids were out along Bedford trick-or-treating just like any other Halloween. Taiyo put on his costume for a while to get into the spirit.

We met with Susan in front of her building on Ridge Street later afternoon as two Spidermen. She had bagful of candies but couldn't find any other kids. We walked around found a few other neighborhood kids in the playground. Nobody seemed to be in the Halloween mood in the Lower East Side. I was glad I didn't make too many decoration for the garden for the Halloween party which was obviously not happening. Early evening Krzystof came to pick us up to spend the night in his place in Greenpoint. We made a plan to visit him for dinner that night anyway before the storm since another good old friend Tarja was visiting from Finland and staying with him. He had plenty of couch space to accommodate us also. We totally appreciated no darkness and hot water. Gas stations by him has already run out of gas, and supermarkets had bare produce shelves.

Krzystof left at 6am to go to work, but came back in a couple of hours because he had no gas. He is a cab driver. I ran back over Williamsburg Bridge with Taiyo on jogging stroller. It took us only a bit over 30 minutes, but I wished I were in better shape. Quiet afternoon, and I only kept the door open at SOY to keep the place cool. We were supposed to get power back by Saturday 11pm. Two more nights. We went back on bike to Greenpoint. There were so many bikes crossing over the dark bridge and nobody was kind to give way to this one with a kid in the back. Tarja was frantic making phone calls to car service companies. Many of them didn't answer or wouldn't accept reservation and told her to call back next day. The subway was still hardly working and she's been walking over the Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan.

Tarja safely left Friday morning to fly back to Finland. Another commute over the bridge, and Paul stopped by after big warm breakfast across the bridge. Taiyo had been in good spirit; kids are fragile but also adaptable, I thought. He didn't ask me to turn the lights on after the first day. He didn't ask me to put the TV on any more. It still has been an effort to get him to use the bathroom, finally getting toilet trained only two weeks go. Now the toilet seats were so cold. I had to sit and warm up the toilet seat for him before having him sit. But he had no accidents day or night whole week. I was really glad not have to worry about diaper supply.

I tried to convince Taiyo to stay at home even if it was dark, since I was getting tired of this commute. The trip over the bridge with so many bikes and insensitive walkers in bike lanes has been difficult and dangerous. But he wanted to go back to Brooklyn. We were ready to leave at 4pm, this time early enough so we can make it back before dark. I was about to mount on the bike when someone came out of my building and said, "We got the light!" I turned around and saw lights in my window. I still had to make the trip to get my computer. Taiyo fell asleep on the bike and woke up when I was turning around with another big load to come home. He wanted to stay there and sobbed all the way home. My butt hurt after so much biking with weights in the back and front. He is getting so big and the bike was getting small. Back in the restaurant I was glad to see much of things in the fridge and freezer were still good. Elliot came down with 3 pounds of pork chops that came out of his freezer, and we cooked them up to celebrate the end of black-out. It was truly a long week and I was so happy to have an extra hour this morning. New words that were added to Taiyo's vocabulary this week: Hurricane Sandy and Greenpoint.