60 Hours

In case you haven't noticed I haven't blogged for a while. One night I got lazy. However, for the last 60 hours we were without power thanks to the October snowstorm that slogged the Northeast. So no blogging. Too busy trying to keep warm and worrying about the water rising steadily in the basement.

(Before you start telling me that if I had a Smart Phone with satellite service I could bore you minute- by-minute with the details of our plight. Stop. Not interested. Neither would you be.)

Now we have some idea of how folks feel when hit by tornadoes and floods and hurricanes. At least we still have our house, the heat is back on and the water, which reached a depth of eight inches, has receded from the basement, leaving a minor mess.

I say minor because Hurricane Irene taught us a lesson. After Irene we emptied our basement of important papers (that was the shredding blog) and a lot of stuff we thought we should get rid of anyway. The water damaged some paneling and maybe the water heater, washer and dryer. We'll know more after the plumber checks things out tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, driving around town we were amazed at the number of streets closed by fallen trees. In fact, we were lucky to get home Saturday night while the storm was raging.

With our friends, Rosanne and Ira, we had tickets to a show Saturday in New Brunswick which is about an hour from Verona. Ignoring all the warnings about the weather, we went. Rosanne is an excellent driver and got us there in time to have a cup of coffee before curtain time.

After the theater, Rosanne drove us to a nice restaurant in nearby Caldwell where the four of us had a leisurely dinner and then headed home. That's when the adventure began. Driving from Caldwell to Verona, we noticed the lights were out along Bloomfield Ave. As we approached Verona, we saw street lights and our spirits rose.

However, once we got off the main road and into our side streets, darkness prevailed. Not only that, but several routes to our street (we live on the same street) were blocked. We got one house away from Rosanne's driveway and had to stop there. She saw wires in front of her house and the police told her not to go into her house. So we all we walked up to our house and couldn't believe we had lights.

That didn't last long. Within 10 minutes our power also went out. So we brought out the flashlights, lit some candles and all went to bed in our house.

End of day one.

(To be continued)