Saturday, 08/16/2003 Entry: "LOL I had to ask"

I checked the circuit breakers, and everything was set to "ON." I turned off the PC, monitor, AC. Voices in the hallway confirmed it was at least the building. I fished for a small multiband radio and took the batteries out of my cable TV remote.

Apparently it was the city.

I considered going to get batteries, then concluded that 5 flights up plus fractured foot plus nonfunctioning elevator equaled stay put.

Meat I had left out on the counter to defrost was ready for cooking, so I started a soup. It was left under a low flame to work its way gradually up to a boil. Meanwhile I cleared some surfaces around the apartment for safe candle deployment. If there's one thing you can count on with practitioners of magick, it's usually an abundance of candles and assorted holders. I even had tea light lanterns. The flashlight was bought recently along with new batteries and barely used.

I was low on water. Normally I have at least a couple of reserve gallons around. But this time I thought I'd hold out until Saturday to go shopping, and bought a mere 1.5 liter bottle for the day. That and a roll of moonfloss. Also (finally) a special thing to put my foot with the soft cast into during showers or rain.

Back to the kitchen. The flame must have gone out about 20 min earlier. I opened the kitchen and bathroom windows. The soup was only 30 minutes into its 90+ minute journey.

I decided to call dad. Never own JUST a cordless phone. You'll regret it if you hit a power shortage like this.

Started to wash the dishes when I suddenly became very very nauseus, gagging and retching. I grabbed my keys and visited my neighbor Pat. By then I knew the eastern states and Canada were affected. Whoah.

Anyway, Pat's husband was in lower Manhattan and was assigned to work in his job's capacity towards maintaining a hospital while it ran on emergency power. He had been heading towards the 59th street bridge on foot when called to return. Imagine the luck I was home and not at work when it occurred.

I told Pat about Cybertown and of my nutty mother. She had me continue the soup at her place and gave me water to drink. There was precooked shrimp defrosting in a bag and we shared it with some lettuce for supper while listening to the news on her radio in her living room. I gave her some tea lights for her holders and thanked her for letting me finish cooking my soup. I think she liked the company as much as I did. No one wants to be alone during a crisis. I also got to call dad from there.

After midnight. They said it takes 6-8 hours after power has been restored to bring the subway system to usable status. Guess who won't be commuting in the morning? Looking out the window across the way, occasional windows have flickering candles in the window. Some people were outside chatting or hung around double parked cars which ran the news on their car radios. This wasn't so bad.

The heat of course was worse. They say don't put the AC on tomorrow and instead go to the beach and lie under the 90F sunshine. Yeah right.

I can cut the mat board tomorrow and perhaps a place will sell photo paper if Staples is open and the buses run. Hmmm 12:30am and one third of the state is back with power. Naturally not our part of the state... by 1am the soup I had made cooled off enough for me to chuck it quickly into the freezer.

It was a rotisserie night. Maybe 3 to 4 hours' sleep. At some point some idiot shot off screamer type fireworks. Pat's husband stayed overnight at NYU medical center in an office with his boss. It looked as though NYC would be the last to get power back. Apparently some of the other boroughs and most of Staten Island were back on the grid when I woke up.

The fruit pops on my freezer door appeared to have melted. As soon as electricity would come back, I would empty the freezer of anything unsalvageable.Pat gave me a bottle of spring water and a chance to call my dad. At 9:30am dad's horn was outside. Apparently he'd had a change of heart and decided to rescue me from sweltering boredom to visit mom (the lucky cuss had his power restored at 8:30am). After about 5 min negotiating 5 flights in a dark stairwell with a cane, I recuperated somewhat in his air conditioned car. the visit was uneventful but obligatory; since I was hosting something in Cybertown on Saturday and limping to Midtown on Sunday to see Picardo and rushedly toss some cherished work of art at him, it was good to get the family stuff out of the way. Naturally mom ran the gamut to being happy to see us to tantrums. After an hour, we found a newspaper store with some yucky Poland Spring. I grabbed two litres and two 20 oz seltzers.

Dad and I thought it would be nice to go to a Chinese Buffet we knew in Nassau County, chancing that they were powered. As it was, the mental facility was on emergency power.

As we drove, it became apparent that for a mile or so there'd be power, open shops, and working traffic lights. Then we'd hit a stretch of no lights, closed shops, and congested traffic. As luck would have it, the buffet place was in an area without power. On the plus side, an Office Max wasn't, and there I picked up a 4-pack of AA batteries and a pack of photo printout paper.

We ended up going back to Flushing and eating in a new Chinese restaurant on dad's block. Food was fresh and delicious. Dad went for the cartoon food (in this case, it's a dish which was probably invented in San Francisco, like chop suey or something) Moo Goo Gai Pan. He'll do that and say Chinese food isn't his favorite. D'OH!

Driving home, once past the Grand Central Parkway, Van Wyck, and Shea Stadium, we arrived in my area of Queens where there was still no lights (it was about 2pn). Cops were directing traffic at the busier intersections along Northern Blvd. Dad, who's healthier than me at a spry 78, helped me lug some more TP and the bottles up 5 flights (he contributed another 2 liters of seltzer).

At 5:30pm and I was still among the remaining 30% of New Yorkers without power. Weakened by heat and humidity, using most of my water for the salvage foods soup I had begun (basically a roast chicken and a bag of frozen veggies which were still frozen, plus my last summer squash), there was nothing much else to do except prepare for a possible second night without power, read, and write in my journal.

The flashlight no longer worked, and not because of the batteries. At 3am the previous night, my reading was curtailed by its sudden demise. The stupid little bulb needs changing.

I had in fact knocked on Pat's door at 5:45pm to return some D batteries when the lights in the hallway went on. Throughout the building, people cheered, howls, yelped, whistled, etc. It was some experience out there and very infectious. I went back inside and promptly cleaned out the freezer door of the dreaded melted pops. Two Jenni-O turkey tubes were defrosted but cold, so they went into the soup with the chicken plus a large onion. Fridge perisables were dumped (not an overwhelming collection but it included an unopened tofu cream cheese and tofu sour cream). Cable Internet worked! But cable TV was running only about 5 UHF channels and displaying the wrong time on the cablebox. I left a message with dad to let him know I was back.

I guess once the AC was on, I got to regain my strength. Another attempt with some variation on technique allowed me to take a 1 minute shower and keep the cast dry. It would be the first of such things for the next 6 weeks. My biggest problem now is itching. I tend to break out in a rash from my own sweat, and the night before was a sweatfest.

After some superficial duties and a visit with some friends in Cybertown (who all decided to be children), I went to park in iCity and in real life sleep in my new undersea design sheets. Ahhhhh

Sending Auntie to the corner while two others look on.