I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

October 31, 2012 - 5:27 p.m.

Not Koufax, not Becker, and not the chick from Grease.

I'm going through blogging withdrawal. The DTS are pretty bad but the pink elephants are worse. They're all supporting Romney.

I'm going to write about my only one, once in a lifetime in New York disaster. Of course with global warming it might happen more than once in my lifetime. It almost happened last year. My Sunday plans were canceled because of the impending store. The subways stopped running on Sunday night. Then nothing. Sunday was fine. The storm didn't make landfall for another 24 hours. Mini-Hagrid and I didn't make many preparations. We hard boiled some eggs and bought some water and decided to fill our tubs with water. We then just sat around and watched TV. There was a great Twilight Zone, "Terror at 20,000 Feet" starring William Shatner.

School was closed on Monday and I did some more shopping. The stores weren't even busy not the madhouse they were on Sunday. On Sunday the line outside of Trader Joe's was more than a block long. On Monday the crowd was smaller than usual at Trader Joe's.

Then came Monday night when the storm was supposed to hit. After dinner we decided to watch a movie, "Sleepwalk with Me." I had never heard of it but it was very good. It reminded me quite a bit of "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind;'" not in subject matter but in tone and style. Well at least the first half our did. Then the movie stopped working. We played around and ended up ordering it again. I figured they'd have to see that we ordered the same movie twice a half an hour apart and shouldn't charge us twice. If they didn't notice we'd fight it and win. But, here's the thing, shortly after it started again we lost power. You might have heard about that. A few other people did too. More than 200,000 of them in lower Manhattan. I sort of made the news but none of the coverage that I saw got the lead right. It should have been:

Mini-Hagrid and Horvendile lose power and water!


Some other people were affected too.

Notice we lost water. That's what happens when you are on the tenth floor. Gravity can't lift the water that high. Good thing we filled the tubs so we'd have water to flush the toilets. Well it would have been a good thing if we had. We thought about it. We said we'd do it. We didn't. Have I mentioned that I'm an idiot? I also put off doing my wash. That's going to be an issue soon.

The weird thing is that the storm looked like nothing from our apartment. The winds weren't that strong and it was only a moderate rain. There was hardly any lightning. All the damage was done by the storm surge. The water level was so high it breached the seawalls and flooded the subways, power plants, and tunnels.

So we can't flush the toilets. What do I do? I only use it for number 1. The blackout only extends to 31st street so I walk up to what I now call Civilization and use a toilet there. My bathroom of choice is the Marriot Marquis in Times Square. You just walk right in there. You have to get a key at the New Yorker and they aren't really supposed to give it to people that aren't guests. I make sure to look extra pathetic when asking.

When walking up eighth avenue almost all the stores are closed where the electricity is out. So what's open? Some small groceries and delis and Erotica. It might be the end of the world but people need their porn and or sex toys.

I still haven't ventured over to the Hudson to see the wreckage. I hear it's pretty bad but I keep getting distracted going places to recharge my phone and today my computer. I mainly do that at the New Yorker. By today a shower was problematic. Bad Carey's friend Barbara lives only 7 blocks away in a complex that actually has electricity. They are on a different grid. 28th actually has a working traffic light. I called her today and used her toilet and took a shower. What a luxury. Krugman is right, I miss indoor plumbing more than the internet. i was keeping up on facebook a bit on my phone. Every morning I still played the WFUV Question of the Day.

I stayed at Barbara's for a while and Carey made his way in from Queens. He actually drove. He never drives into the City. That was a nice surprise. We watched some TV. Coppola's first film, "Dementia 13" was on. Then the cable went out.

They went to eat at Taco Bell and I went up to the New Yorker to write this. I had already charged everything at Barbara's house. I can't find a seat by an outlet to charge the computer here as I write.

We've actually been cooking as the gas is still working. The problem is cleanup. We are using paper plates and plastic utensils and cleaning the cooking gear by wiping it with paper towels and hand wipes. Non stick pans are a godsend. I am thinking of eating out tonight. I'll ask mini-Hagrid. I don't want to go alone. It would be nice if the movies were open but they all have the same sign up, "Closed for inclement weather." That's a bit of an understatement and not even true. The weather is fine now. It's closed because the ocean decided to attack New York.

Life is a bit odd. During the day we both tend to go out though I did a lot of reading yesterday. I finished my book "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett. At night we live by candlelight and talk. That part is actually very nice. If I lived alone it would be a lot less pleasant.

I have talked on the phone with people and have spent a lot of time in Facebook via the phone. It's important to feel connected to the world. I also read the times to see what's going on. I forgot to get a hard copy of the paper today. I wanted to.

Partial subway service is coming back tomorrow. My guess is that I'll have school on Friday. I hope so. I'll have to make these days up and that will probably mean school in January after the Winter Vacation.

So now I'm going to go. and explore a bit. Maybe the movies are open on 42nd Street. I'll come back to the hotel later and see if I can top off my computer's battery. I'll try and write again tomorrow.

OK one last thing. This time I mean it. As I was walking on Tuesday I thought about how we didn't fill the bathtubs with water. That was our fault but the City should still be supplying emergency services especially water. The school across the street should be open, supplying water, and the use of the bathrooms. Not having flush toilets is a health hazard. We are very much like people that don't get health insurance and can afford it. We made a bad choice but the punishment is too severe for the crime. It's human nature. Shit happens. Which is why we need the use of the toilets.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile October 31, 2012
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