Hurricane Sandy Boos and Yays

F*&k you, Sandy, we have wine.

 Boo:Four feet of water in the lobby at the height of Sandy

Yay: No one was hurt when the door and garage blew open under the force of the water.

Yay: My neighbors managed to grab our umbrella stroller and everyday stroller as they evacuated their apartment and waded through the water to higher ground in the building.

Yay: The neighbors who evacuated really didn't have to because the water never got high enough to reach their apartment.

Yay: My almost three-year old slept through the loosing of power and all the car horns/car alarms on the block going off because of the water.

Our street looking South

Boo: The next morning I spent 30 minutes explaining to said almost 3-year-old she can't watch Cinderella and having to endure the tantrum when she thinks Mommy's just being mean.

Yay: The quickness with which Miss N understood that it wasn't Mommy being mean and that "when the big water went away I can watch Cinderella again."

Boo: Trapped inside with an almost 3-year-old because of said "big water."

Yay: Our neighbors letting Miss N run wild in their apartments and doing their damnedest to keep her entertained.

Yay: Himself has an inflatable kayak!

Boo: It was in the closet that is in the flooded lobby.

Yay: Himself wadded through the water and dragged said kayak out.

Boo: He usually inflates it with a electricity powered pump.

Yay: I have a manual pump in the house that goes to my stability ball!!

Boo: It doesn't fit the kayak. 

Yay: We rigged it with duct tape and Himself got the kayak inflated as an emergency out.

Boo: We had no idea if anyone even knew the situation back on Monroe, Madison and Jackson Streets. Even a dude on a rowboat with a bullhorn would have sufficed.

Yay: After the fact, hearing that the Mayor was on TV begging for National Guard support.

Yay: The outpouring of understanding and assistance to Hoboken.

North on our street.

Boo: Trapped in a building with neighbors I don't know very well.

Yay: I know my neighbors much better and despite the situation, genuinely enjoyed their company.

Yay: Our combined skill set included a West Pointer with two Iraq tours under his belt, a nurse, a jack-of-all trades who helped with Katrina clean-up, in-house entertainment and natural moral booster, an amateur fisherman with insulated waders, two people familiar with insurance policies so we could get a head-start on claims and two techies capable of rigging any number of things, some legal and some not. 

Yay: Nothing really that important was in the storage area.

Boo: I lost 3 boxes of baby clothes I was storing for a friend until her boys grew into them and 3 larger baby toys I was going to give to a friend.

Yay: I can finally get Himself to throw out all those empty LOTR boxes (2 bins worth!), that were in the storage area.

Boo: Loosing the best car I ever owned.

Yay:  Insurance covering and cutting a check for the blue book value of the car before we even had power back. 

Yay: Realizing that the best car I ever owned was in actuality 12-years old with a lot of mileage on it.

Boo: Realizing that a Prius' natural state when its flooded is Park and not being able to get it into Neutral AND blocking two other cars into the garage so no one could move until we could move.

Boo: Someone telling me to pour rice in the engine to dry it out since its mostly computer driven and rice works on iPhones...and meaning it as a solution to my problem. ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME!!!!!!!

Yay: Coming close but not completely having my head explode due to the rice suggestion. 

Boo: Loosing it on Himself on a totally unrelated topic because of the rice suggestion.

Boo: Having to climb around in the trunk of the flooded car trying to get the trunk popped to get to the battery.

Boo: AAA telling me they couldn't get it out of the garage when we couldn't get it into Neutral and then leaving.

Yay: USAA authorizing "any mean necessary" to get the car out of the garage once they realized the Prius needed to be moved before the other cars could move and cleanup begin.

Boo: The "personal property" coverage barely covers the car seat, and doesn't cover the GPS and iPod that were also in the car.

Yay: Screw the GPS, I was raised by a USAR (retired) Field Artillery officer who emphasized map-reading skills in his daughters.

Boo: Loosing all our maps - some of which were marked with radio stations, restaurants and other notes on routes we take semi-regularly.

Boo: Because we can't lock the car our GPS was stolen and the contents of the car has been tossed several times since.

Yay: The GPS and iPod and even the car and car seat are just things.

Boo: No power for a week.

Yay: Miss N was shipped off to my parents to a warm house with power on Thursday.

Boo: No power means no hot water.

Yay: My downstairs neighbor had hot water and let us shower in her place.

Yay: No power does not mean no oven and unlike newer models, ours does not have an electric ignition.

Yay: I was able to rig my coffee pot so I could still have coffee in the morning AND I bought non-dairy creamer so I could have "milk."

Boo: Having to empty the contents of my fridge.

Yay: The fridge got a good cleanout, USAA gave me money to replace the food and in a weird way I'm glad to start from scratch with menu planning instead of planning around what I already have on hand.

Boo: Some food will be hard to come by for a little while.

Yay: Miss N is not a picky eater and eventually the store shelves will be restocked.

Boo: Seeing the lives of my surrounding neighbors on the curb because they lost the contents of their houses.

Yay: At the end of the day its just things and no lives were lost in Hoboken.