Bits & Pieces - Post-Irene Edition

The Stonewall Inn - Monday, 8/29/2011, 10:30 am

Some random thoughts/observations/facts about the hurricane.

• My restaurant was forced to close on Saturday and Sunday because of the transit shutdown. Only a couple of the employees live in Manhattan - and no one could make it into work. We are reopening today. This cost everyone (the owner and the employees) a ton of money because Sat/Sun are our busiest days.
• Speaking of the transit shutdown - in hindsight they probably could have shut down on Saturday at 6 pm (instead of noon), but I understand the MTA/city were in "better safe than sorry" mode.
• There was only a little drama during the storm at my apartment. One of my roommates lacks storm windows and she sprung a leak during the heavy rains. The landlord's son-in-law (who lives downstairs), came up and did a temporary fix. FYI: plywood, trash bags and duct tape will pretty much fix anything.
• This leak (above) might just end up getting us new windows at the apartment (fingers crossed).
• I think everyone in the city gained 15 lbs this weekend. First of all, New Yorkers ransacked the grocery stores and emptied them of food - food that most of us normally wouldn't buy/eat. So the only thing to do before/during/after the storm was to eat all the crap we had purchased. At least that's what happened at MY apartment.
• Speaking of eating crap ... do you know that SpaghettiOs with Meatballs AND Franks is the most delicious thing EVAH?!?
• At no point did the storm ever get frightening (for me, anyway). However, I DID prepare a "Go Bag" before I went to sleep - just in case we had to get out quickly. My bag contained water, cat food, a change of clothing and all my prescriptions. They also tell you to bring extra cash - but the only "extra" money I had was the container of quarters I keep for doing laundry. Between the water and the quarters, my Go Bag was HEAVY - thank goodness I didn't need to use it.
• My phone didn't stop ringing all weekend. Don't get me wrong - I'm extremely lucky to have such a large number of people who care about me - but after a while the volume of calls became overwhelming. In fact I still have a dozen voicemails to listen to.
• Finally, the power in my building never went down - although a block or so away they lost power for a while. Our downstairs neighbor explained that our building is on the same electric grid at the nearby hospital, so our power rarely goes down. In fact, during the blackout a few years ago, our block never lost power. As Martha Stewart would say: It's a Good Thing.

How did YOU fare over the weekend?? Even if you don't live on the East Coast, please share your thoughts and experiences in the Comments section.

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