We still have power. It’s 8:45 in the evening, and the wind is howling again. It has been howling as though we were at the seaside in a storm. There was a lull at about six. It lasted for forty-five minutes. Then the howling resumed. In any ordinary place, the power lines would have come down long ago. But in any ordinary place, we wouldn’t be on the eighteenth floor, listening to mountaintop winds.

The rain, when we could see it, was horizontal: very fine, but very horizontal. That happens with snow, yes. With rain, not so much.

I baked bread this afternoon. I wondered if the power would hold — a problem because, although we have gas, the ignition is electric (and gas ovens cycle on and off, their two states; they don’t “do,” say, 375º), and I have no idea how to do what the sparkplug does. There was no “reason” to think that the power would go out: no one has lost power in Manhattan so far except for the people whose grids have been cut off by Con Edison, proactively, to protect equipment. A few minutes ago, Megan called to say that she still had power. She had power even though the storm surge was lapping at the doorstep of her building. She and Ryan have been cooking for two days; assuming that the cold and the wet don’t make their lives impossible, they’re set, although I hope that they’ll be able to come up here if they’re without power for more than a day. I also hope that our apartment will be a place worth trekking to.

Ordinarily, the second loaf goes to Megan and Ryan, but that wasn’t going to happen, so I took it across the hall to neighbors who have lived here even longer than we have done. We remember when their children were in grade school. Now they’re both parents. The daughter, who lives in Astoria, is here with her husband and her son, who’s a doll. He’s almost a year older than Will, although Will towers over him. Will, whom I spoke to as well, is fascinated by the water at the doorstep. His mother thinks that he won’t be so fascinated by the power outage when it comes. No comment.

Now I am going to shut the computer down, just in case. The dishwasher, half full, is running. Kathleen’s bathtub is filling. But I wouldn’t dream of saying that we’re ready for anything. For now, we’re okay. Thanks for all your good thoughts.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 8:56 pm.