Sunday, October 28, 2012

Prepping For Sandy

It may come as a surprise to you, but I've been obsessively watching The Weather Channel for days now. It seems Hurricane Sandy is coming and it's never going to leave.

Ordinarily my pathologically optimistic nature kicks in and I choose not to worry. And I'm not worrying nearly as much as I should. The past two big bad weather events around here (Tropical Storm Irene which was devastating in this area and the big and unnecessary Halloween snowstorm) didn't interrupt my electrical service one bit. Other people lost their electricity for a week, and my clocks didn't even blink. In fact, the last blackout I can remember happened the night of the Olympic women's figure skating final, and even then, semi-miraculously, the electricity came back in time for me to watch the final flight (Kim Yu Na won).

But at some point one of the cheery people on the Weather Channel assured us that approximately a zillion trillion people are going to lose their electricity for days and days and days, and we should all go out and buy board games so kids will have something to do.

That sounded uncomfortably familiar. I realized I'd written scenes like that in Life As We Knew It. And that was when I decided to take action.

I went to the supermarket Friday and Saturday and today I went to every store I could find to buy batteries. In front of the CVS Pharmacy in Goshen, NY, I ran into a woman who told me she'd bought some D batteries from a hardware store where they really ripped her off, and I thought, I wrote that scene in The Dead And The Gone. But I didn't tell her that.

As it happens, the only batteries CVS had were Double As, which would come in very handy if I needed to change batteries in my remote control during the endless blackout, but I doubt that will be an issue.

But I'm set. I brought in my welcome mat. I got a radio working on batteries and checked my two flashlights every ten minutes. I took a novel (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton) out of the library so I'll have something to read if (when) my cable goes out. My freezer has ice cubes and bottles of water scattered around. Since I don't like drinking warm water, I bought juice boxes and apple cider. I also got oranges and grapes to prevent scurvy.  Just to be on the safe side, I bought muffins and chocolate chip cookies, as well as stealing candy from my mother.  I cashed a check and promptly spent all of it on batteries and  juice boxes and apple cider and oranges and grapes and muffins and cookies, so it's a good thing my mother had that candy for me to steal. I always have candles, so I don't worry about that.

And I bought a new toy for Scooter, to keep him from being bored.

Scooter pondered what to do about this all.

Then he checked it all out.

His new toy was definitely the most interesting thing.

I also brought his carrier in, in case we have to make a fast exit.

But that was of no interest to him.

Take care everybody. I'll be back as soon as Sandy lets me!


6 comments:

Janet said...

I am on the Connecticut shore and getting ready for Sandy as well. I read or saw this tip on tv. Fill plastic bags--the kind that won't leak if you put liquid in them and hold them upside down--a put them in all the nooks and crannies and spaces between other foods in your freezer. They will freeze and keep your freezer colder when the power goes off, and you can drink them if necessary. But remember, don't fill them all the way, water expands when it freezes. Karl insists we are doing this all for naught, and I hope he is right. In the meantime I, too, bought oranges and grapes, and look forward to watching the storm with or without electricity.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Janet-

I'll try that water trick. There isn't much room in the freezer (Marci suggested I put the box of chocolate chip cookies in there, which is clearly the best use of space).

Be careful. Keep away from that shore!

Lisa Mandina said...

My sister lives in the upper east side in Manhattan, and when she went to the grocery store to try to stock up there were no gallon jugs of water left. So she's hoping it doesn't last too long, but she's finding all the smaller bottles of water around her house that she's left sitting around and filling them with water. And then is pleased that I bought a pitcher when I visited her this past summer so that she can fill it with water too. Hopefully whatever hits NYC will not be so bad and get fixed quickly, as I'm supposed to be flying in to see her on November 14th.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hello Lisa Mandina-

I think we're all hoping Sandy doesn't last too long.

And I'm sure everything will be back to normal (whatever that might be) by November 14!

Anonymous said...

Good luck!

From one who survived Rita.

Anonymous Santa Fe

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you, Anonymous Santa Fe!