Hurricane Sandy

            This has been a crazy week.  Hurricane Sandy has razed my Tri-State area and beyond. Killing people, destroying homes and highlighting how precarious we all are.  I am starting my second week without electricity.  Okay, to be truthful, I took the kids and hit the road upstate to mooch off of my in laws for a few days!  Their actual flesh and blood son?  I left him behind to try and cobble out a workweek and a new life in darkness. 

            I returned Sunday to a freezing house, an iffy school schedule and a nomadic life.  (Drifting from one warm place to another...) But I am not complaining.  (Ok- I REALLY can’t complain because I had 4 days of warmth!)  There is a shy[sarcasm] blogger whose page is called “People I Want To Punch in the Throat”.  There have been a lot of people I’d like to punch in the throat this week--- all the me-me-me people out there.

            We are all missing our power and especially our heat. It is getting cold! And it’s okay to be whiny about how much of a drag it is.  But I take umbrage with all the assholes crowing to the world in public forums about how the power companies suck.  (And this includes Cuomo saying, “I demand accountability!”)  And people ranting on the news about other matters like traffic. I am going to make a list of the people who are allowed to go on the news and complain:

1. Dead people.  If Hurricane Sandy killed them, they can complain all they want.  The LI Medium can contact the news for them.

2. Families of above mentioned dead people. I’m so sorry for the hole in their lives, families and hearts.

3. People whose houses were destroyed but their families are ok. You can complain because this does suck too.  It is true that if you have your health and your family, everything else is gravy.  But it’s still really crappy to have lost everything and deal with all the upheaval and rebuilding.

4. People whose houses are damaged and are freezing and hungry and trying to protect what they have left and trying to figure out how to fix it all.

And we’ll throw in:

5. People who are sick and dying.  Both related and unrelated to the storm. You are free to complain in general!

            The rest of us can quietly whine to each other.  We are not allowed to rant to any news people. The phrase you should keep handy is, “Yes, this sucks but this too shall pass.  I am totally inconvenienced.  At some point I will be able to stop wearing a hat and gloves to bed.  I spent hours on a gas line but I was on the phone and reading the paper.  Not planning a funeral.  I am ok!  I didn’t drive days from Alabama to help up here only to sleep in my truck.  I didn’t have to leave my own LI family for days to try to try to fix a catastrophe to our power grid.  I will be fine!”

It sucks.  It really does. But the damage was soooooooooooo extensive and unprecedented is it really fair to complain about the power people?  There are so many snapped telephone poles in my neighborhood that I don’t know how long this is going to take.  And that’s nothing compared to the South Shore and Jersey and Connecticut and South Brooklyn and Queens.  There was no way to prepare for this.  It affected 9 states! So, no more complaining on the news you selfish people. Unless you’re dead.  (Or meet some of my other criteria…  Well, you first responders can complain too because you must be tired and sick of stupid people!)