This morning: A tree down on every other street blocking the roads I traveled. This evening: A tree down on every other street blocking the roads I traveled.
Last week a trip into Manhattan, a distance of 12 miles, took 35 minutes.
Today that same trip took 2.5 hours. Happily it was not my personal journey, but a friend's. Tomorrow one will not be permitted to drive into Manhattan across City bridges unless the car has three passengers. I will work from home.
Sunday night I filled the gas tank on my way home from the beach. Monday morning on my emergency run to get water and batteries, I filled up again. I was told that the weekend found many people queuing up for long periods of time at local gas stations. Having a full tank permitted me to drive 2 hours today to check on my weekend home. Just how lucky can I get?
Pretty lucky. House is safe: two trees are down, one near the house did no harm. The other required the town's bucket crew to cut as it fell into the street. I have a pretty good mess of fairly large branches, but I am a happy person tonight. I did arrive to find a section of fence removed (probably by the Town to position their bucket); the breach encouraged one of the local deer who startled me and I in turn sent her into a frantic run sliding across the pool cover and circling the house. It was a miracle that she found the only exit, leaping over the 4' hedge in front of the breach. I am sure she will take with her memories of the buffet she had feasted on while a house guest. The Montauk daisies were clearly her favorite, but she nibbled at all of the garden's last blooms.
I jerry-rigged the 8' fence section back in place (I should have taken a picture of my ingenuity): I shimmied and nailed in top right section, and forced top left section into the existing opening against the 4x4 post. I then placed two 20 lb. bags of plant food along the bottom, in addition to firewood and a 25 lb inverted birdbath. I felt like MacGyver!
I cleaned up some of the debris in the driveway as I was not able to drive in and I headed home. I left for the house at 12:30 and returned at 7:00 p.m. Time well spent for peace of mind.
"Normal" has been absent from my life the past week. I prepped for the storm in two locations, I am now working from home, I've had family staying with me because they are without power. I was worried about my East End home.
Today is Halloween and in this region people are being encouraged not to go out with the children citing safety concerns. So imagine my surprise when I arrived in East Hampton at 2:30 this afternoon to see costumed kids walking along Main Street, obviously filling their pumpkins and delighting shopkeepers who clearly had power and booty. On my way through town at 4:30 there were even more princesses and super heroes toting their candy filled pumpkins in one hand; the other closely clutched by a grownup. I could not help but notice while reading easthampton.patch.com this morning the disconnect in the photo of little red riding hood with the background of pickup truck, plywood, sand bags and
a ladder!
For a moment as I watched them cross in front of me at the pedestrian
crosswalk, I felt the presence of normal. In that moment normal
became magical.
