Saturday night at 8:15 Kristen and I were just finishing dinner, preparing to boil water to fill the bathtub, when the lights came on.  We both gaped at each other for a moment or two.  We didn’t expect to get power back that soon.  Then, forty-five minutes later it went out again. Talk about a downer!  Fortunately it came back an hour later, and we’ve had power since 10pm on Saturday night.

Yesterday Kristen cleaned out our bathroom supplies for extra soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and anything else we could donate to the temporary shelters in town.  I cleaned out the storage unit in the basement; fortunately I’d waterproofed most everything for Hurricane Irene last year, but we did still lose some incidental clothing, magazines, and about 200 of my CDs.  Today Kristen cleaned out as much of her studio as she could, now we have to wait for either repairs, or the ability to move her to a temporary location.

Thank you to everyone who’s been so concerned and supportive during the past week (that has seemed like a month).  Special thanks go out to people like Charles, who, though out in L.A., was a constant source of news as to what was going on while we sat both literally and figuratively in the dark, and Doug and Jean, who, after having just got their own power back in the Village on Saturday morning, loaded up a suitcase and bags with provisions and brought them out to us via bus.

We still have a ways to go until the experience is behind us, and we have a bit of survivors guilt, too, as while we have power, many in Hoboken and the entire state, do not.  While it was no picnic for us, it’s been much worse for others (the woman two doors down from us lost everything), and it’ll go on for some time to come.

We’re looking into FEMA to see if they can help with Kristen’s studio (but you can still schedule a session with her at Oriens in Manhattan on Thursday afternoons and evenings!), and dealing with other things like washers and dryers in the basement that need replaced, past and present deadlines, etc.  It’ll all sort out.

Thank you all, again.

-Devin and Kristen