Sandy!

Two weeks after hurricane Sandy hit, I'm finally ready to talk about it. On that crazy windy Monday, October 29th, I was enjoying the warmth of my living room, watching Harry Potter 5 in blue ray, gift received for my birthday by my roommate (Keith). Midway through the movie, around 7.30PM, the power went out.
Darkness, filled the house and after lighting a few candles, Keith and I sat on the sun room.
Outside, the last rays of sunlight, quickly disappeared behind the horizon, to leave nothing but a black canvas. After chit and chatting for a while, I decided to go out and explore a bit.
Dressed in an orange raincoat, covering my body all the way to my knees, I was finally ready to face Sandy. As I walked in my street, I realized that, though the wind was extremely violent, very little rain was falling. Already branches and leaves were covering the streets and sidewalks. Around the corner, a few houses down the street, a large tree had fallen and destroyed the power line and blocked the access of the street.

Once home, we noticed blue lights coming from all around the neighborhood. At least five power lines exploded, in a beautiful blue light. It reminded me of "War of the Wolrds...." This called for an early night, as I was tired anyway.
Waking up around 6.30AM, did my meditation and yoga in the sun room. The sun light began to show around 7AM and allowed me to go out. The rain had stopped, still no power and I realized no heat.
In the street, I began to gather sticks and such to burn in our fireplace. The day went on, like gatherer. We ate the food from the fridge first and got ready for bed.
Until Friday night when the power returned, my mornings were outside, gathering wood, then inside reading a little and minding the fire.
I even painted a a canvas I had for a while, and will be a great gift for one of my friend's upcoming birthday.
During the whole week, no news, no music, no phone, no facebook, no transportation, and no access to fresh food. We had water, but had to be boiled. Hot water was available, but potentially soiled.
As I think about that week,  what I missed the most was LIGHT. All that time, and not able to read more then a couple hours, because the flashlight ended up being hurtful for my eyes.
No light to paint, write, clean, fix, cook....Darkness.
All this time I thought of Shakespeare and Molière, and many more who wrote by candlelight. What kind of candles did they have? I want those...Because mine were not strong enough.
As power was restored, I returned to TV and Facebook, and apart from personal stories, I read on my friends feeds, I did not know anything about what had happened. If you were home that week, with power and heat, you probably watched the news, and saw the devastation of Sandy, over and over, replaying the most sensational images available. Like the New York FDR totally flooded, or the floating houses near the Jersey shores, or the drowning cars, broken trees, burning houses....
Well, I haven't seen anything of it, and still today, I randomly find clips on youtube of the damage Sandy left us with.
One thing for sure, I'm getting a solar panel iphone charger, and a powerful battery operated lantern, for next hurricane.
Hope you were all safe and healthy.
Love.