Hurricane Irene (She told me that she likes to be referred to as a hurricane and NOT a Tropical Storm…whatever) was actually very kind to Old Field. There were a lot of trees down but the beach shoreline didn’t take such a bad hit, at least not along my little piece of paradise. Last December 26th’s Nor’easter caused much worse damage. BTW, why don’t they name Nor’easters? It just doesn’t seem fair. I think they need to get a union or something.
There are always two sides to a story and so I will tell them now. The worse part? The makeshift stair case I had made after the Nor’easter, which served me well all this time, was washed away. I now have a six foot jump down to the sand from my staircase. The shoreline did lose some more acreage. The trees along the shore look a bit sickly, as if autumn has come early for just them. Then there are those wagon wheels! The little plastic wagon wheels that washed up last MARCH are BACK AGAIN! Grrrrrrrr. If you read my past blog about this environmental mess, then you know how I consider the wagon wheels my nemesis. The storm must have churned up the sea bed (Stay with me. These are very technical nautical terms.) and the wagon wheels are all over the shore once again. I picked up dozens of them and something tells me that the Plant Manager over in Mamaroneck is going to be getting another package filled to the brim with plastic wagon wheels very soon.
Last, but not least, the power outage here in Old Field went on way too long. We lost power on my block on Sunday morning and did not get it back until the following Sunday. Can a person sue LIPA for bad hair and poorly applied eye makeup for an entire week? What about the cost of ice? (I gave up trying to save my mayonnaise on day three) I cruised the streets looking for a LIPA man who I could flirt shamelessly with. Tree guys with chain saws started to all look like George Clooney. Loss of lights does strange things to a person.
I schlepped my two cell phones, IPod and laptop into work every day, along with a tangled mess of power cords and chargers. I threw out a lot of food. On Sunday the power finally returned. I brought my cooler and trusty Coleman lantern back to the garage. I went to Trader Joe’s to spend LOTS of money on food and condiments. On Monday I went out to dinner for two hours. Upon my return I found that a giant tree had fallen, snapped the power wire…AGAIN… and we were in the dark. Back to the garage for the cooler and lantern. Back to 7-11 for ice.
Good points about the storm? I bonded with my Coleman lantern. We did everything together for the whole entire week! Took cold showers; read books; went to sleep at 9:30 p.m.; and picked out my clothes for work! It was the first thing I said “hello” to when I came home at night and it slept next to me like a trusty guard dog. I LOVE my Coleman lantern and I won’t forget it, even though now I have that cool thing called “electricity.” I even gave the lantern fresh batteries at the end of the week as a reward.
In conclusion, people on LI should let up on the whining about no power. Sure it really stinks, but I have several friends in South Carolina who lived though Hurricane Hugo. We ain’t seen nothing!
