Is It Winter Yet?

I used to love Fall. It was always my favorite season. This year though? Not so much! Fall and I are no longer seeing eye-to-eye. The past few weeks have pretty much sucked. I normally don't complain about the weather (HA! I couldn't even type that without cracking up) but this is what's been happening. I'm sure you've heard about it all on your local news..

Hurricane Sandy came and went, taking out power with it. Long Island and the shore in NJ got hit the hardest. They called the storm "Long Island's Katrina". It took 5 days for the power to get turned back on. We lost a section of fence, but it is fixable. It keeps making me think of the people who were affected by Hurricane Irene last year (we lost power 4 days that time) and were still waiting on money from FEMA to be able to rebuild. I am grateful we only had the little damage we did and I pray for those who have to start from nothing and rebuild now.
As for my family, my daughter pretty much spent the week at my parents house. They were more than happy to have her and I was happy that she at least had a warm bed and shower. I toughed it out in the cold because of my dogs. They slept in their jackets each night and ran around to keep warm during the day. The rabbit couldn't have cared less. He was his usual self.

Then the Nor'easter Blizzard hit. Literally, the first day back at school. By the time I got Mini off the bus, it was snowing pretty hard and it was FREEZING! I guess our district was determined not to use any more days because we ended up with a 2-hour delay. We didn't lose power during that storm. I thank all that's holy for that one because LIPA (Long Island Power Authority) had announced that if you lost power during the blizzard, your power wouldn't be turned back on until after the Sandy victims had their power. In case you haven't heard, this is requiring building inspectors and a LIPA rep to go door-to-door, business-to-business to make sure each house or building is sound enough to handle having power back. It's pain-staking and there have been protests across Long Island with residents asking LIPA to work faster. It has been pretty crazy.

This weekend, the weather was in the 60's. I'm not even kidding. Yesterday, my truck said "63" and today it said "65". So we go from a Hurricane to Blizzard to 60's all within two weeks. At this point, I think Mother Nature is just screwing with us!

One of the best things to come out of all the turmoil is the sights and sounds of people reaching out and helping. The outpouring of love and support from all over is truly heart-warming. I'm not talking about celebrities. They have to help so they look like they care. I'm talking about Long Islanders helping out their fellow LI-ers,  NY-ers helping out their fellow NY-ers.

It gives me hope for humanity.
It makes me smile.