The neighborhood did ok

The main problem was a couple of trees that went down.

This one was an "Old Growth" tree that was a couple of hundred years old. It was top heavy and had a lot of rot in it so it was ripped out by the roots. It blocked off Carroll St. Yuppies were all over it taking photos.

The wife went to Long Island on Saturday to try and convince her Mom and Dad to come to our house. They refused to budge. She went with her cousin who went to see her Mom who is Lisa's Aunt (her Mom's sister). Three of the sisters live within two blocks of each other along with one of the cousins. This cousin had a generator and had power so they were able to go and get a hot meal and be in a warm spot. But they insisted on going home to sleep. They couldn't convince them to come back to the city.

A funny thing happened. Just as they were about to drive away the power came back in Lisa's parent's house. But her Aunt is another story. The power line for her block is still on the ground. The big backlog is not the power company by the tree removal guys who have to get the ground cleared so the lines can be re-strung. So she is looking at another couple of days to a week.

I ran around and put together a "Care" package for them. Bottled Water. Soups. Cheeses. Bread. Milk. Sauce. Macaroni. All the essentials. At least they have plenty to eat and drink.

But damn are they stubborn.

This is America not Dresden in WW2

This is a photo of what Breezy Point in Brooklyn looks like after the hurricane. It is just as bad as New Orleans after Katrina. Lisa has a cousin-in-law who has a lot of family in Breezy. It is a big Irish community and is full of cops and especially fireman. So it is especially ironic that most of it burned down because of the combination of salt water and electricity. Hundreds of houses burned.

Also Staten Island got hit very hard. A lot of the house that were built were sub-standard units made by fly by night rip off artists. You see when thousands upon thousands left Brooklyn over the Guinea Gangplank they wanted to buy any house they could get. Staten Island was affordable. But many of them were developed by crooks tied into the Mob. So when this big wind came a bunch of roofs just flew off or house collapsed like a cheap suitcase.

Most of the businesses in Carroll Gardens are doing something for the people who lost so much in the hurricane. It is direct relief. Collecting and giving it right to the people who need it without the middlemen. We are planning an event in the store on Saturday. We just have to figure out how to get it directly to the people who need it.

More as it develops.

Clean up!

Before the storm we batten down the hatches in the store. We moved everything to the middle of the store and covered everything with drop cloths of plastic. Our worry was if the window blew out and the water came in from the rain and the wind it would damage the clothing. But nothing happened so we are fine.

Of course that means I now have to mop and wash and clean everything in the spaces that we moved stuff. The wife is a clean freak and she had me cleaning our apartment all the time we spent at home because of the storm. So now we have to do the store. We moved all the stuff away from the walls and now she wants to scrub everything. And the best part is that most of our employees can't or won't get to work. The subway is not working and they are closing off the roads so the only one who can come in is the hipster chick who rides her bike to the store.

So I am going to bust my balls cleaning today.

Did you see Christie and Obama on TV

That fat fuck Christie looks like he has a new asshole buddy in his friend Barry. They are all together talking about the response to the storm. The speculation is that it is going to help Obama. I don't know if that is the case. The storm might keep the turnout down which does not help Obama. People like me who are motivated to vote against him will make sure that they will vote. His voters will just assume that he will win because he is all Presidential and stuff. So we shall see.

But I have a really low opinion of Chris Christie. He is one big fucking blowhard.

And it takes one to know one.

A mere bag of shells!

We are perfectly fine and thank all you for your best wishes.

The problem with this storm was the high winds and the flooding because of the combination of a full moon and rising tides. Most of the coastal areas were hit hard. Red Hook which is pretty close got some flooding. What is funny is that the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel got most of the run off from Red Hook.

Carroll Gardens is much higher ground than most of the rest of Brooklyn. In fact during the Battle of Brooklyn, General Washington set  up his army here on the higher ground as he prepared to meet the British. So when they told people to go to higher ground they mean to come to where we are.

We spent the day cleaning the house. Mopping. Dusting. Vacuuming. It was hell.

Just as I had finished making dinner and we sat in front of the TV.....the cable went out. As did the Internet which just came on this morning. So I am able to get back on the net.

Most of the family did just great. The mother in law lost power on Long Island but that is because most of the Island has the power lines above ground so that happens all the time. Lisa's sister on Staten Island lost power too for the same reason. Her brother has a big estate in Jersey and all of his trees blew down but he only lost power and he is fine. One of her cousins lost their house on Breezy Point but nobody was there thank God.

And the Seatuck House is just fine. I was worried about it as it is right on the water and when we were there a couple of weeks ago the winds were crazy. But that house is a tank. They had some flooding in the basement just a few inches. But they did fine.

So now we have to dig out and repair the damages. We were going to be closed on Halloween anyway so we weren't going to be making any money this week anyway. No subways will mean that business will be really, really slow. Or you never know. Sometimes when you least expect it is when people come in. There is still the on-line store which I hope does some business. Of course I don't know when UPS will start up again. So we are taking a couple of days off.

Oh shit. She is waving the mop at me again.