Hurricane Sandy

Ah, the end of Daylight Saving's Time. An "extra hour of sleep?" For early risers like me, it just means that the clock says "5:00" instead of 6 when I awaken. So I spent some time this early am looking at news photos of the damage from Hurricane Sandy. The poor bastards! I empathize, having lived through one major storm and 2 annoying ones. Andrew was 20 years ago, and was life changing. Wifey and I were in our 30s, and had the energy for 3 major moves within 15 months, along with raising the Ds in an apartment on Brickell, Wifey's parents' house as D1 began kindergarten, and then a move back to our rebuilt house thereafter. Wifey and I were never that much enamored of things. We both remember my sister and brother in law insisting that we HAD to collect stuff. I mentioned that I sort of liked miniature carosels, and they generously bought us several. I haven't seen any in years -- I think they're packed away somewhere, or maybe lost in Andrew. The point is, as we saw all form of tchotchke wind broken or waterlogged, we ultimately laughed. Even now, we retain these thoughts. Yesterday we walked through the lovely South Miami Art Festival. A man selling hand painted corkscrews stopped us, and explained the craftsmanship involved. We walked away, both saying "Just more crap to end up in a drawer." So when I look at the photos of Queens, Brooklyn, and Jersy Shore, with the piles of stuff waiting to be carted away as trash, it brings back memories and lessons. The other two storms, Katrina and Wilma, were more annoying than anything. No major damage, but loss of power for a few weeks each time. Katrina went on to destroy New Orleans, and we decamped to Mayfair House in the Grove for a week. Fir Wilma, Wifey and the Ds left for Atlanta while school was closed, and I roughed it at home in blissfully cool October temperatures -- cooking eggs on our fortunately gas powered cooktop (no pilot -- I used matches to start her up). Wifey's cousin emailed her over the weekend. She lives in Brooklyn, next to the area, Breezy Point, that was destroyed in a huge fire. But she and her family are all fine -- cleaning up flooded basements, but ready to rebuild. The problem is the cold weather, and winter's coming on. The only folks close to us and the Ds live in Manhattan, where things returned to normal pretty quickly. Some old high school friends are out on Long Island, but judging from Facebook posts, are doing just fine. So I wish them well, and will redouble my efforts to de clutter, and get rid of stuff. My mother teaches the same lesson -- in a nursing home with virtually no possessions. Her condo still has some stuff -- and it will be a minor pain to get rid of when the time comes. So good luck to the Sandy victims. Friday night, Wifey, our houseguest Diane and I watched the telethon with Springsten and Billy Joel and made a donation. They'll recover and rebuild, as we did.