Holiday Spirit???

Holiday Spirit??? 

I don’t know about everyone else, but every year it gets harder and harder to get into the holiday spirit. Our family has been shrinking, the kids getting older, and I find myself not so festive each year. In fact, the holidays often bring along stress that I could do without. But this year I am finding it impossible to feel any joy. Instead of visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, I see the victims of Sandy, who are homeless and still haven’t received any money and struggling for answers from the government and dealing with bureaucratic red tape. I wonder how their holidays are going to be celebrated after so many lost everything they owned in that storm.

And now, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the recent shootings at Sandy Hook are all I can think about. Senseless killings of the most innocent souls. Twenty beautiful children, six loving and dedicated teachers all gone. Funerals and burials day after day. Each one of the victims having a profound ripple effect of sadness from their immediate families to their friends, to their community, the state of Connecticut, to our nation, and to the world. All of humanity has been affected and grieves for these losses because there, but for the grace of God, go we all. These random acts of violence can occur any place, any time without warning. They say we can’t live our lives in fear, but when you have children almost all parents do. Once we have to start letting go and can’t be with them 24/7, we start to have all kinds of fears. We don’t want any harm to come to them. Tragedies like this one, only proves how vulnerable our children are, how dangerous the world is, and validates that we have good reason to be afraid. These thoughts keep running through my head as the number of incident of violence increases.

I worry about these 20 sets of parents, grandparents, siblings, the survivors. How long does one grieve and mourn the death of a six year old who went to school happy and never came home? The grief and pain is unbearable. How does one get over thinking about the last minutes of their young lives, were they terrorized, did they suffer? When do they stop torturing themselves asking “why?” did this happen? When can you look at their pictures without crying? What do you do with the Christmas presents that have been bought and not even wrapped? There are so many things I wonder about, even as I can only just imagine the depth of pain these people must be feeling. 

Every time they show the face of one of the children that was lost, I picture my own children at that age. I try to place myself in their parents shoes, worrying all day for news of their children, only to learn that they were gone. I just can’t do it. The loss of a child has to be the worst news any parent can ever get and in this case to be taken to the extreme by this set of circumstances. There are no words of comfort for these families. No way to rebuild or replace what was taken from them. The losses in Sandy Hook infinitely exceed the gravity and devastation caused by storm Sandy. 

So my heart is heavy and it aches for those whose hearts will forever be broken. I will push myself to cook the holiday dinners and wrap the presents and try to carry on as I normally would. But, my thoughts and prayers, my heart and soul will be with those who won’t be celebrating and part of me will be grieving with them. 

This morning I was thinking how little anyone can do to help in this situation. I know I want to do something to honor the memory of these children. Then, as I thought about it, I thought about St. Jude’s Hospital. I have always been so impressed with their policy of never turning away a child and not charging money to those who can’t afford to pay. They save children’s lives there every day. For those who can’t be saved, they offer hope and comfort to their families and make their children’s final days and weeks happy ones. So, I decided that our family will make a donation to St. Jude. It won’t bring back the children lost at Sandy Hook, but it will help another child from dying.

Long Island Power Authority aka LIPA

I have been too angry to write a blog about LIPA, but it has to be done. LIPA is the power company who serves the people of Long Island, N.Y. or rather doesn’t serve them. They charge some of the highest rates in the country to people who pay some of the highest property taxes. Every time there is a storm, the people on Long Island lose power. So when a storm of the magnitude of hurricane Sandy hit their shores, LIPA was in no way prepared to deal with the situation. 

Today I heard that the Chief Operating Officer, Michael Hervey, resigned, effective at the end of this year. What a surprise! And why wait? Amid criticism from practically everyone he decided to take the cowardly way out. I wonder if he is getting a severance package paid for by the very people who are now without power? Many are STILL without power and I wouldn’t be surprised. 

LIPA has never really done a good job when it comes to power outages and they have been warned to beef up their operation. The haven’t and I can only guess it’s because they want to make huge profits at the expense and neglect of their customers. LIPA is virtually a monopoly. I thought there were laws against monopolies? Anyway, the people who live on Long Island are at their mercy. I heard that LIPA would be reimbursed 75% of their additional expenses in restoring power to their customers by the Federal government AND that they intend to raise rates to make up the additional 25%. In other words, for all their incompetence and negligence they intend not to lose one thin dime! And that’s not all, LIPA bills all went out on time to it’s customers. People still without power must pay if they are on the “budget plan,” which spreads out payments over a 12 month period. If they don’t pay their bills they will get disconnect notices…when the power is restored. LIPA intends to credit them with the days they are “out of power” at the end of their 12 month period. By that time they will have raised rates and their customers will end up owing them money. Pretty neat operation they have going for them?

My cousin was one of the lucky people on Long Island. She was out power only 11 days. She had to go out and get a generator, gas cans and gas on a daily basis to run the generator. There was no gas to be had, so she had to run her generator two hours on and two hours off to conserve. She runs a day care in her home, it’s her business. She is the sole provider of her family. She also cares for her husband, who has late stage multiple sclerosis. They are on a LIPA medical priority list for power. He has medical equipment that she could not run as often as necessary. She did her best to take care of him and run her business in those 11 days. On the 11th day her husband couldn’t breathe and had to go to the hospital. She had to assume a lot of additional expenses thanks to LIPA, but she still has to pay her bill? What the hell is wrong with this picture?

A friend of mine told me about her sister, who after delivering a baby by C-Section right before the storm, had to go to a hotel to be safe, with her children and mother, while her husband watched their house get flooded. The hotel lost power and she had to change the baby with the light from her cell phone. When she went back home, her basement was totally destroyed and there was no heat for the new baby. Like my cousin, they also had to get a generator to heat their home and a lot of additional gas, because they had a new born and couldn’t allow the house to get cold. Hours on gas lines, extra expense, worry, loss of possessions, and guess what? Their LIPA bill came right on time…the FEMA check was no where to be found. 

Those are just two first hand stories that I personally know about, there are tons more that are worse that I heard on the news ever since the storm hit. LIPA doesn’t inform it’s customers what is going on, no one answers their phones. I tried calling on behalf of my cousin, who had her hands full. She was really a trooper throughout and is used to dealing with life’s catastrophes, but me not so much. Just hearing how these two families suffered was bothering the hell out of me.

And guess what else? I found a facebook page that LIPA has to inform residents as to what is going on. They have a website too. Believe me when I say, they only post what they want people to know on there, not the truth. Many more were out of power than they reported. And for the life of me I don’t understand how they expect people without power to access this information? Computers need ELECTRICITY to run and recharge. I cannot tell you how disgusted I am with this company. I think they should get two or three new companies to come in and charge LIPA for all the inconvenience and expense that everyone on Long Island has had to endure because of their negligence. It may come to that too. I hear that the residents have gotten a lawyer to begin a class action lawsuit against LIPA. I can’t wait till it gets started. I hope they found someone who is ruthless and relentless. They don’t even deserve to be in business!

So if the CEO is resigning and running scared, he should be. He should be sued in civil court for his part in this chaotic fiasco that left hundreds of thousands of people in the dark literally and figuratively. It’s an outrage what this company has been allowed to do. The money they make for the service they provide is sickening!

Let’s hope justice will be swift and fair. Let’s hope the people of Long Island fight this to the bitter end and not settled out of court! Let’s hope other companies will come in and take over LIPA customers as soon as possible! 

If you have a personal story about LIPA I urge you to post it here in the comments. Maybe this blog will fall into the hands of someone who can actually use it to go after LIPA? Who knows?

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath...In My Neighborhood

It’s been about two weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. Luckily, we were spared any real devastation because we are inland. But, it’s been two weeks later and we still aren’t getting the gas we need for our cars. Only one quarter of the stations are open in my neighborhood at any one time…most times not even that many. We have 30,000 people who live in my little 16 square mile area and they all need gas. Only one station was open this morning and my husband got on line at 6:45 am. We have power, so it’s not because people need it for their generators. The lines are at least an hour to two hours long most of the time. If you get gas in an hour you are lucky. My husband just got back after a two hour wait this morning, but our gas gauge was on empty and we had no choice. And we are the lucky ones!

Now how about those who are taking advantage of this crisis? There are plenty of them price gouging because people are desperate. There are many filling up 5 gallon cans and then reselling the gas for twice or triple the price they paid. The lines for gas cans move faster, so they can go back and refill and make a killing. Did I mention there are no gas cans in the area for sale? They are sold out everywhere you call. We were just caught unprepared for this catastrophic event. No one could have imagined that a “super storm” could have done so much damage and destruction. No one thought it would affect the supply of gas for so long. Our Governor, Andrew Cuomo, didn’t think so. He said the problem would clear up in a couple of days. It didn’t. If anything it got worse. So yesterday, Governor Cuomo did what Chris Christie did two weeks ago and passed an odd/even rule for gas stations. That should cut down on the lines. It worked in New Jersey and hopefully it will work here. It was a no brainer, and many of us are wondering why it took so long to use common sense.

Well, now we have gas to get to work. That’s all we use it for. I hope by next weekend we will have much shorter lines to deal with. It’s stressful enough. I cannot even begin to imagine how those who experienced flooding of their houses or the entire loss of their homes and possessions are coping. I do know that out in Long Island, after 13 days of no power, the people are going crazy. They can’t heat their homes. Some have no generators and the temperature in their houses dropped to 45 degrees. Some are sick and wearing coats inside their homes. The power company, LIPA, gives them no answers. I saw on the news that people were yelling at each other on the street, I don’t even know why. Many went over to the empty LIPA offices to protest. The Governor spoke harsh words to the power company, but 160,000 plus house are still without power today.

My cousin was one of those without power. Her husband has MS and is in the later stages. His health is fragile. He has special medical equipment he needs, which runs on electricity. She borrowed a generator from her brother to help keep her food from spoiling and to run his equipment. She runs a daycare in her home and takes care of her husband. She was cooking and boiling water to keep the temperature in her house above 60 degrees. The generator was great for a while, but then they weren’t able to get the gas they needed to run it all the time. How’s that for adding insult to injury? She could only run it on and off for two hours at a time to conserve gas. After 11 days without power, and she is on the LIPA medical priority list, her husband had to go to the hospital because he couldn’t breathe. I don’t know how she managed that long. I really don’t. She has always been a trooper. Her life has been difficult. But this would have sent me over the deep end and yet she managed to cope and deal with it the best she could.

Today, my daughter and her boyfriend, along with some friends, are using some of the last quarter of a tank of gas they have to go help victims of Hurricane Sandy in the Far Rockaways. They will be handing out emergency supplies to those in need. I imagine they will have a lot to say after seeing the devastation first hand and speaking with the people there. It’s one thing to see it on the news and another to be right there. I’m sure it will be heartbreaking. I’m proud of my daughter and her friends for being so compassionate and giving. If anything good has come out of all this at all, it’s seeing people, good people, come together to help those in need doing whatever they can.

The holidays are already upon us. It’s the season of giving. I don’t know any better way to celebrate the spirit of the season than by helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy. We can’t changed what happened, or replace their losses, but we can show them people care and give them a little kindness and compassion to be thankful for. There, but for the grace of God, go we.

Hurricane Sandy, Our Experience...

This will probably go down in the history book as the most devastating hurricane to hit the northeast. They gave us plenty of warning. Many were skeptical that it would be so bad because we have never lived through anything as bad as this storm, in terms of damage. The fact that it was a category 1 storm was deceptive because the totality of the situation created more of a category 4 type of destructive flooding. I am still trying to absorb all the problems being reported in the news this morning.

We live in inland, in an old house. I imagined the shingles flying off with the 90 mph winds being forecasted. I was most worried about the two side by side trees in the backyard. They are very tall with full branches and if they came down they would land on my daughter’s bedroom. After hearing me worry about the trees enough times, my daughter agreed to sleep downstairs, on the couch, out of harm’s way. All we could do was watch and wait the entire day. It rained lightly all day, but around 7 PM the winds started howling, the windows rattling and I even felt my bed vibrate. Still it was nothing compared to what was happening along the coastline to so many others. 

We had an early dinner in case we suddenly lost power. My brother, who lives not even a mile away from us, lost power. He was not prepared for the storm. He was irritated. He called me on his cell. We had a couple of conversations. This is how it went. 

Vin: My power went out.

Me: Your power always goes out, I told you to get a small generator.

Vin: A generator needs to go outside and only lasts eight hours.

Me: Do you have candles?

Vin: I bought some at the dollar store that were supposed to last 25 hours and I’m lucky if they lasted three.

Me: Oh brother. Do you have a book to read to pass the time?

Vin: What am I supposed to do? Read by candlelight?

Me: It was good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it should be good enough for you.

Vin: (losing patience with me): I’m not doing that. I took out my little DVD player, I had it charged, but the battery is dead now.

Me: Can’t you charge it with your desktop computer?

Vin: ELECTRICITY!

Me: Oh, I forgot.

Vin: I don’t even have extra batteries home.

Me: Well tonight you better make a list of all the things you need to do for the next storm so you aren’t so unprepared.

Vin: Yeah okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Me: Okay, bye.

My family stayed in the living room, where there are no windows and more importantly, the large screen television and the girls’ laptops and phones. All life’s necessities were there and a short distance from food and snacks. 

I watched the news all day, until I got a headache. Some areas were already under water while we were still waiting for the storm to hit here. At least I was in peace knowing that my husband and girls were home and safe. There is nothing more worrisome than to have your family out and scattered during a storm of any kind and waiting for them to get home. My younger daughter actually starts work next week, so she was able to spend yesterday and today and who knows how many more days, with her sister. I actually don’t remember the last time we are all home together and it wasn’t a holiday or something. My older daughter’s new job is on the block with the falling, dangling crane. Yeah, can you believe that? Her block was evacuated because of that. The crane will probably be easier to fix than the subway flooding. We don’t know how or when she will be able to get back to work right now.

I went to sleep, surprisingly. My daughter did honor her promise to sleep on the couch. I woke up at midnight from an emergency service call of some kind…then they called again at 2 am. I finally pulled the plug out of the wall. I suppose some needed those calls, but I didn’t. I got up this morning. The trees were intact, the shingles were still on the house. My daughter was on the couch at 5:30 am. I woke her up and finally made her go up to her bed so she can sleep in. The girls are still sleeping. I called my brother, who is still without power. I told him to pack whatever he needs to charge and bring it over. I can feed him lunch and dinner while he occupies himself with the internet. He tells me maybe he will come…never gives me a definite answer, but he has nothing else to do.

We got away with murder, to say the least. The next order of business is figuring out how my brother and daughter can get back to work. My brother will be totally preoccupied with his lack of power, but I think it will take a while to fix that. I am guessing they will send all Con Ed employees into Manhattan first.

That’s our story. I’m glad I don’t have anything major to report. I guess I will see how the devastated parts of the city affect our lives in the days ahead. For now we will pray for those impacted the most by the storm...and there are too many of those.