Pediatrician appointment today. Report card: Excellent! Peppermint’s weight is into the 22nd percentile, and her length, shnykees, her length is in the 96th. 9lbs 5oz (up 13 ounces in a week), and 23.25 inches (an inch in two weeks). We should have called her Bamboo! So today has been great. We know our girl is sparklingly healthy. She knows it too. All smiles and wiggles. Such a doll!
As of this writing, parts of Manhattan are still dark. The lights are coming back on in patches, such as at the Barans (hoorah! We almost felt guilty for coming back here knowing you guys were still in the dark), but not yet at Lee & Suz’s. Power back up all over Manhattan by midnight, we have been told, but I still see a black hole in the middle of my skyline. Surely by morning.
Considering this was Day 6, Lee and Suz came over here for a hot shower and to recharge their devices. Lee came for lunch and to get some work done, and Suz made it over for dinner. Barely. Lee took the East River Ferry, which at 11am was no big deal at all. Suz planned to take a car after work, but the livery company jerked her around for eight hours and then, when they finally showed up, they refused to leave Manhattan. Gas crisis. Fine. So they took her to the ferry. Perfect, right? Not at rush hour. The line stretched almost four blocks. Commuters, denied the subway, the LIRR, and cars with fewer than three occupants, were converging by the thousands on one of their very few options. The little ferries officially only hold 149 people at capacity! And they never hit capacity! She was patient, and lucky, and made it on the last boat. Nice. So we took them to our favorite Thai restaurant – Tuk Tuk. Delightful. And then Suz got the hot shower she’s been craving for almost a week.
Here’s the substation explosion that blacked out midtown for six days:
And here’s Sandy, time lapsed from orbit, in the interest of seeing the superstorm in all her murderous glory:
And if I had it, I would show you a picture of a tired but happy me. Grateful for good friends, deeply appreciative of my family, and feeling profoundly fortunate when millions nearby are still shivering.
Hey – update: Lee and Suz have power back! Good thing they made the crazy commute over here for a hot shower today! Well, let’s be perfectly honest. If they hadn’t, their power would still be a couple days away. That’s how that goes.
Bloomberg cancelled the New York Marathon just a few hours after confirming it. This in the wake of aerial footage of the devastation on Staten Island, which sparked public outrage over the gross waste of resources better used in the recovery effort – such as the dozens of generators that could easily restore power to thousands of homes, or the tons of food for carb-loading marathoners that could maybe feed thousands of the freshly homeless. Wise move, Bloomberg. I think he should immediately have turned embarrassment to triumph by loudly and publicly ordering the redistribution of said resources. I’m sure it will happen. Personally, and after a day to think on it, I think he made the right call both times. First, he wanted to offer New Yorkers a bright end to a dismal week, not to mention showing the world that, once again, you can’t keep New York down. It was a good sentiment, drawn directly from 9/11. What he missed is the visual – thousands of cheery well-fed runners trotting past thousands of destroyed homes and homeless, possibly even new bodies washing up on shore. It would have been a debacle. So… also a good call on the course correction.
Marjorie says I should go get my chest X-rayed. It’s still sore, though it doesn’t really slow me down much. Not much I could do about it if I did have a broken rib. Still, it would be nice to know. Which reminds me, I got a call from a name I don’t recognize. It may be the fella that hit me. I will return that call tomorrow. It will be good to let him know I didn’t die of internal bleeding, and more importantly that camera is indeed fine. Probably I should go get X-rayed before I tell him I didn’t die. Maybe they’d let me keep the picture? Jim got to keep his awesome brain scan.
Speaking of pictures– oh for the love of all that is holy, Taverner, just go to bed.
Fine.
But we’ll continue this conversation. Just you wait and see.
Ok, one more picture:
