Day 14 ..... almost over

According to the power company everything is back to normal today.

I'd really appreciate their definition of normal. If my blip is an example of normal then we're in for real trouble when the next storm arrives.

The 'Road Closed' sign had gone this morning [ see yesterday's blip ] and as the sun was out I decided to go for a walk and take a look for myself.

I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. Yes, power seemed to have been restored, but as you can see it doesn't exactly look safe. In fact I could hear the power lines humming and crackling as I walked by. Those cables are active and the metal wrap sparks viciously if you spit on it. [ not that I'd try that experiment of course ]

I spoke to one of the nearby residents and of course they will not let their children out to play and further down the road these lines are actually draped across driveways. So much for getting Long Valley safely back to normal. There again perhaps this is the new normal.

Doesn't take a genius to see that if we have some rain, snow or a strong gust of wind we'll be back to square one.

On the positive side our mayor [ remember him, our invisible man in Long Valley ? ] was last seen heading for Newark Airport for a well earned holiday in the Caribbean. apparently the strain of the last two weeks was just too much for him. his wife and family. By the way, gentle blippers, I discovered yesterday that he gets paid $150,000 per annum for his efforts to help the community. OK enough is enough. For half of that amount I'll run as mayor and make a far better job of it.

So that ends two weeks of hurricane Sandy and I hope that, on behalf of the residents of Long Valley, we have been able to bring you some sense of what has been gong on in our lives.

We cannot thank you enough for your kind comments and the very fact that you have stopped by and looked at what has been a traumatic 2 weeks gives us a sense of belonging to a worldwide community.

Starting tomorrow I hope to be able to show you some blips of another side to our community and our place in local history.

douglas

ps PaulaJ finally got the iPhone 5 activated this morning and it's cool, very very cool :-) Think you should get one.......