update from brooklyn

Korrina here making this post via smartphone at a friends apartment in bushwick brooklyn. my mom asked me to just give an update on things.

they are without internet, power or landlines i have been in contact via cellphone they are all safe.

in manhattan it is likely that the powr may take a few days to go back up.

hope everyone else affected is safe and sound.

hurricane sandy monday evening

 at 4 pm greg was tracking sandy on the national hurricane center's website. 

 it was just starting to make landfall, and the projected range of the storm was overwhelming to me.

so i instituted a game of racko . . which is not one of my favorite games. chanda picked it because she knew her dad liked to play it. morgana likes to read the interesting bits of information on the cards, which greg always like to remind us were not around when he was their age (he used to play this game with his grandma).

 at 6:50 greg came up from one of his many cognizance rounds to report that the river was starting to come up the street. he also got the car keys to move the car since it had just been in front of the one you see here.

the owner of the second car never came to move it. it ended up getting completely submerged. we observed this situation for awhile! and then i went back upstairs to report to my friend who was a block away (inland) and to finish cooking the food in the frig before the power went out (i had heard from neighbors that it might be switched off to protect the substation). i knew that high tide was still an hour away and i felt quite nervous!

i managed to finish the chicken soup and the turnips, and then the lights flickered, flickered again, and went out (we later found out that it had exploded due to the east river storm surge). it was 7:50 pm. high tide. our neighbor knocked on the door and greg came upstairs to say the river was now at the first step to the stairs of our building and we all went down to investigate.

i think i finally managed to get into bed at 10:50. greg and i fell asleep listening to the radio until our radio station went down. then we finally turned it off and i just listened to the wind. nothing else. in the midst of the storm i totally enjoyed the stillness of the city. no hum of lights, cars, trucks, appliances, central air fans or cell phones.

sandy . . the aurora is rising behind us . .

 morgana, greg and i walked over to the river while chanda stayed curled up in bed.

 it was like being at the beach!

these three sisters were having a lot of fun!

gotta get your coffee before checking out the overflowing river . . 

 

the courtyard . . i'm getting used to the bare space without the mulberry trees. there's a small southern magnolia growing there. it's in the center. it looks like a big oversized bush! we're supposed to be getting two white swamp oaks for either side of it.

 peeking out at the weather.

morgana made cottage cheese apple pancakes from the moosewood cooks at home cookbook. they are always so good!

 

then we sat and read a few chapters in the second harry potter book while they sewed on their robes.

working on the robes.

 i think the costumes look really nice.

 chanda and i walked jack together. he was unfazed by it all, as he always is.

right now at 6:30 pm the wind has really picked up and builds to a howl. chanda says it sounds like an air raid siren. it scoops up the leaves in the courtyard and blows them up to our windows on the fourth floor. the lights flicker intermittantly, but so far we haven't heard that they will shut our power. they'll probably shut the steam below 14th, but we have all electric. we don't have the heat on right now anyway. it hasn't been that cold. high tide at battery park is at 8:53 pm.

----

oh! there are moments the wind picks up and it sounds awful!! and there was something rattling around like a garbage can or metal sign . . we have no idea what it is.

fevers . . storms . . why is the nighttime always the worst?

i'm going to check on the soup!

waiting for sandy

it was just too busy of a day . . my first excursion was with morgana to dance theatre workshop for a family matters rehearsal. we passed a filming and were very amused to see our local flower man (in blue jeans and blue sweat shirt) showing an actor (in the green apron) how to wrap the flowers. morgana noticed the guy with the puffy hair-do on the left . . is he a famous actor? has anyone seen him in anything on screen? i didn't recognize him, but morgana thought his "do" signified "star."

 we passed the chocolate bar on the way to rehearsal . . we just had to stop in!

 chocolate bar was ready for halloween with marshmallow ghosts and pumpkins . . 

 and marshmallow eyeballs!!

 we were in the "white" studio today, and there was too much feedback in the speaker to please morgana (!)

it was a good rehearsal time . . ellen came in halfway through and made some helpful suggestions.

----

we didn't go right home after rehearsing. we stopped to shop at whole foods. of course it was crowded with people stocking up before sandy arrives. after wandering around the store for awhile, we decided morgana should stand on line while i picked out the rest of the items on our list . . sweet potatoes and carrots and celery and turnips for soup. the line moved fast, and she had to leave the cashier checking out the groceries to come find me.

bleecker street playground had their annual halloween festival today. i was able to get some pictures on the way home. on the left in the stroller is a storm trooper, and the girl on the right . . we didn't know who she was supposed to be. we thought it was a cross between pipi longstocking and alice in wonderland.

 

 horses on bleecker street!

it was very grey today, and warm.

 tweedledum and tweedledee . . right?

 we thought this family was so sweet!

we were so happy to be home with all our heavy packages. however, when i got inside, there was a hullabaloo trying to figure out if chanda would have rehearsal today. morgana had a flowers rehearsal at 3 pm. she was going to take the train up and then chanda and i would meet her (chanda had to usher at HB so we couldn't all go up right away together). but when it was determined that chanda wouldn't have rehearsal (the trains were shutting down at 7 pm and the rehearsal space at ballet academy east was closing at 5 pm), i decided to drive her. there was a mad rush to get out the door, but to first get a load of laundry in, which ended up not happening anyway because all the machines were in use. so the cats were put away, chanda went to usher, greg went to get chicken for xena, morgana and i went to the upper east side . . and korrina was already set at the theatre.

 at ballet academy east, it was a quiet rehearsal during which the russian dancers tried on their costumes.

 afterwards, waiting to go home . . 

and finally home, waiting for sandy . . 

 after getting back from the nutcracker rehearsal we ran off to a cast party at HB. after the party and cleaning up the theatre, korrina ran off to her friend's house in brooklyn.

it was now about 6 pm and it was time to work on the halloween costumes with their friend deychen. the three of them are being hogwarts students. they have grey skirts, white shirts, ties, gryffindor patches, and grey sweater vests (all from the salvation army, except for the ties). they just need to make the black robes. we're supposed to go up to my sister's in connecticut for halloween . . we were supposed to go last year but there was that freak snowstorm (same time as this hurricane) and she was without power for five days. i'd like to go this year even if there is no power . . i just hope the roads aren't flooded.

morgana is dusting the piano here . . greg was paying bills online, and i was cleaning the bathroom . . and the laundry was washing in the laundry room across the courtyard. it was a busy household, waiting for sandy.

 the robe is pinned . . the sewing machine got stuck. they'll sew them by hand!

yes, just waiting for sandy. there's been two or three drops of rain and now a fine mist, and every once in awhile there will be a gust of wind off the river, but other than that, it's quiet. it's quiet people wise and car wise also. i love snowstorms, but i don't love waiting for a hurricane.

----

if i have to wait for any more hurricanes, i'll have to change my label to "hurricanes" as there will be too many individual ones to list separately!

----

i have a good friend named sandy who lives in princeton, new jersey. i haven't seen her in years. i'm thinking of her a lot now. knowing sandy, she's not happy about sharing her name with a hurricane.