Life Through The Eyes Of An Idiot Boxer

On 8/28/2011 at 8:47am, Hurricane (Yes, Hurricane. Fuck this Tropical Storm nonsense. I’ve been through those, this was not that) Irene was in the middle of taking a trip through my Island, some would consider one of a Long nature, at which point my power went out.

Now, I’ve lost power before, I looked at the lights go out and thought “well, I’m not watching any TV today.” When the storm passed I went outside to survey the damage, it wasn’t pretty.

A tree had taken out the power (among other things) line of my neighbor’s yard, as well as the car and shed of the people that lived behind him.

I stared at the damage for a while before I asked my neighbor “did the power go out when this happened?” He then proceeded to tell me that this had happened at 4am and that the power remained on afterwords. In other words, this was not the cause of the outage.

Now I was concerned. If this wasn’t the cause of the problem, I could only imagine what was. So I ventured out for a drive around town to see how bad things really were. The whole time listening to 1010 Wins. Why was I listening to 1010 Wins? Because the car I normally drive, the one with a casset player than I plug my iPod into was stuck in my garage until further notice, and I didn’t have a CD for the other car, so I was stuck listening to news radio and that’s the one my dad always listens to when I would drive with him as a kid.

The whole time, all I heard was various reports of the damage, how bad it was, where, and when clean-up would start. I was listening to this all while trying to see how bad things had gotten in my own town.

The first things I came upon was this:

A tree that had ripped out of the ground and was blocking one of the four main roads in the town.

This image was new to me. I mean, I had seen trees ripped out of the ground by a storm before, but never ones this large, and never in these areas. And that also goes for my neighbors tree which was a massive pine tree, one of many on my street that create a property line between the two sides.

After snapping a few picuters I took a back road and made it to the other side of the street.

At this point, NYC Mayor Bloomberg was on the radio doing a press conference about when the evacuation order he put in place would be lifted and how the damage would effect MTA travel the next day (the MTA that he had shut down the day before).

I left the road I was on and made my way down the second, the damage here wasn’t as bad. Just some branches had fallen, but nothing major.

After that I turned onto the third road, and this is where shit got real.

First I came across a tree that had come down in the entrance to the JCC in the area:

I drove a bit more and discovered a second tree that was blocking the road by the elementary school:

I drove a bit more and came acorss the worst damage of what I saw:

So after my adventure through the town I went home, passing some more downed trees along the way. Some of which had pulled the entire sidewalk out.

Saddly, when I got home I discovered the power wasn’t back yet and that crews weren’t even going to be sent out to assess the damage until Irene had completely passed.

Was I pissed? Yup, but I understood and went into my home, did whatever online activities I could do over my iPhone on 3G (which was running much slower compared to a normal day) and then decieded it was time to find a place to plug in.

I ventured out to a few places before I eventually found a Dunkin Donuts a town over that was open and had an outlet I could use. I took my universal charger (best purchase I’ve ever made at this point) and plugged my computer, iPod and iPhone in at once.

This was my first instance of “coffee shop” computing. It was awkward and weird but I didn’t think much of it at this point because I figured it was temporary.

I stayed for a bit, charged what needed to be charged. Emailed who needed to be emailed and then went home.

A bit after getting home I saw this:

They were there to check the downed cable in the neighbor’s yard, they did nothing and then left. I understood though, ours wasn’t the only emergency of the day.

The power was still out so I went to sleep to some podcasts I had transferred to my iPod at the DD.

That was Day 1…

The next day (8/29/2011) I woke up to the discovery that the power still hadn’t been restored, and at this point my iPhone and iPod were on their last legs in terms of battery power (I might have been stupid and played some iPhone games before bed at full brightness).

I had to plug in.

So I ventured out yet again to find a place to connect to the rest of the world.

First stop was the Library, sadly they had power but no internet.

After the Library I went back home to eat something before I went out again.

It was around that time that I saw some LIPA trucks over at my neighbor’s assessing the damage. I walked over to the three guys who I learned were the “assessment crew” in other words, they were the “we look but don’t touch crew” and asked when we could expect power back.

“A few days possibly” the guy said.

It was at this time I learned what the real cause of the outage was.

A tree had gone down on the other side of the block and it took a transformers with it. However that problem couldn’t be addressed until the neighbors tree was removed because it was laying on cables that would go active when they turned everything back on.

“Shit” I said to myself…

After this piece of news I ventured out again for a place to connnect.

That’s where Starbucks comes into play.

See, the Dunkin Donuts was very small and not many people where there, just people who wanted food. It was tolerable.

Starbucks was the major leagues. And by major leagues I mean major leagues for douche bags.

People using two outlets when they only need one, people who spread out across an entire table made to seat four comfortably, it was just a zoo of people who didn’t give a fuck, it was the cliche I was hoping to avoid, but sadly could not.

After a while I was able to breakdown the people who were clearly not their because they were without power (there were some, at those people suffered just like I did).

There were the Mark Zuckerberg wannabes who were “wired in” like Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network.

There were the 24/7 work-a-holics who couldn’t keep of their cell phone for two seconds

And there were the people who were just there for the sake of being there because they think it’s “hip.”

Eventually I found a table and an outlet to plug into. This is where the loss of my sanity seemed imanent.

The crappy connection aside (one hr to download two podcasts?!)

The environment is no place for someone like me who does their work behind a closed door and iTunes at full volume.

The husstle and busstle is both frightining and disorienting.

Put simply, it’s and environment that’s impossible to concentrate in. And I know I wasn’t alone as I saw the same reaction from everyone else there who wasn’t a “regular.”

Once I finished what I needed to, I got out of there as quick as I could.

I went home to see that LIPA had finally be gun work on the neighbor’s tree:

“HURRAY” I thought to myself. I might just have power back tonight after all.

That was wishful thinking…

I went into my room, turned on some podcasts and took a nap (BTW, thank god for pocasts. Free, long, and not that big of a file. They make time go by).

Speaking of time, did I mention it was only 2pm at this point?

Something that started happening because I was cut off from all sense of technology is that my daily routine of emailing, watching shows to review, writing scripts, listening to Kevin Smith on his radio station, had become broken. My sense of time was gone. So while it felt like 5pm, it was only 2pm.

It was in that time that I realized what my idea of hell is. Hell is me in a room with nothing to allow me to connect to the world. Nothing at all…

After my nap I learned that my aunt and cousin were coming over for dinner because they too had no power and we have a gas stove (if you don’t have a gas stove, get one. It’s the greatest thing to have during a black-out).

They came, we ate, we talked, I learned that a hot water heater isn’t effected by a black out, we had some dess…. Wait, I have hot water?!

Up until now I hadn’t showered because I was under the assumption that when the power goes out, the hot water heater because nonoperational…

I was wrong.

Have you ever showered with nothing but flashlights for light? Try it sometime, it’s freaky.

As the water flowed, all I saw was the glimmer of orange light from the dieing battery in the torch.

After that I felt amazingly refreshed, and just comfortable enought to fall asleep.

That was Day 2…

Cue Day 3 (8/30/2011)…

Still no power…

I woke up, showered, dressed, I’m in a routine now. A routine of waking up at 8am because I went to sleep at 12am instead of 5am.

Cue the first major screw up of this whole thing.

Because of my lack of usual routine, I don’t check my email when I wake up, because I can’t. At least not from my computer.

So I texted someone I shouldn’t of and I regret it because they got pissed.

My dad, who was already up, told me that the Library still didn’t have internet.

BACK TO STARBUCKS!!

I got there much earlier this time, and got a table right away.

I still can’t concentrate and I still can’t get past all the awful people not giving a shit about anyone, but I started doing what I needed to do.

Thing like clearing my clogged RSS feed and catching up on a story I completely missed the day before about something to do with Gizmodo.

I felt bad because I realized I wasn’t going to be able to update my column Channel Guide on FilmSchoolRejects.com with a new edition because I can’t watch any of the new shows because well, I HAVE NO POWER!

As I worked throughout the morning, a woman walked in.

My table was the only one open so she sat down, not a big deal. I understand this, take it where you can get it environment, but that wasn’t her crime.

First of all, she had an iPad, not a laptop, note a netbook, an iPad. People, the iPad has an 8hr charge, and lady I know you are not one of the unfortunate ones that don’t have power.

Second, she had the shortest power cable for an iPad I’ve ever seen. Because of its short run she is forced to sit very close to me around the corner. (Oh, as I’m writing everything up to now, she’s still here and moving closer)

Third, she had the nerve to try and look over and see what I’m typing.

I’m sorry, but there is NO EXCUSE for that kind of behavior.

This woman is in her forties, maybe. She’s not FIVE, her behavior, looking over into someone else’s space, freaking out over an email and almost smacking the person next to her is unacceptable. Lady, you are the reason I never come to Starbucks or any other internet cafe to get work done.

And that brings us to the present (8/30/2011 at 1:50pm)

I’m about to get up and leave this hell-on-earth for the day and get some lunch at the Mexican restaurant next door.

If power is back today, I will close this blog entry out and post it.

If not, I will detail you all in the next paragraph…

The power didn’t come back…

When I left the Starbucks I pretty much just shut down for the rest of day.

The issue of losing sense of time became more and more problematic. When I was ready to go to sleep, I looked at my watch and realized it was only 8pm. That’s just not okay.

I decided to go to a 10pm showing of Columbiana since it was bargain Tuesday (all flicks 3D and 2D are $6)

By the time the trailers started I lost the urge to be in the theater, so I returned the ticket and went home…

Funny thing is, when I left the parking lot it was 10:17. I had been out for 2 hours just to see the damn movie, I think I was just losing it in the house.

I got home and went to sleep.

That was Day 3…

Day 4 (8/31/2011), still nothing…

But it gets worse, I think I’m sick… And I can’t get to a doctor for a few days and I know I’m sick because I’m sleeping in a furnace every night without air conditioning and a loud generator running from the neighbor behind me. I haven’t had a good nights sleep since Saturday and it’s finally taking its tole.

I made it to Starbucks a little later than usual, the upside is that the morning rush seems to have dissapered and just people who need to be here are left, as it should be.

There are only three reasons you should be at a coffe house with your computer:

1. You have no power and need a place to charge

2. You don’t have high speed internet

3. You’re on your way to a meeting and want to double check everything before you get there.

That’s it. THERE IS NO OTHER REASON!

The time now is 1:05, let’s see where all this goes.

1:37pm - Yup, I’m definitely sick. As soon as this crap is done charging I’m going home and back to bed…

1:54pm - Took off headphones for a sec and heard some pretentious ass talking about how the physical nature of film stock is better than digital. Must… Resist… Urge… To… Debate…

Look, I don’t mind someone having the opinion that film stock is better than digital, just don’t be a douche bag about it.

And to top it off, when I put that on twitter, it was re-tweeted by a financial stock exchange account. #WhySkynetWillNeverExist

2:03pm - Holy… Shit… The pretentious douche just stood up. He’s wearing athletic shorts that are down to low, revealing his white briefs… There is so much wrong with this image…

2:12 - Everything is charged, so I’m getting out of here. So no more liveish blogging. See you in the next paragraph…

…

When I left the Starbucks I felt sick as a dog, I knew I had to see a doctor. Luckily my doc had a cancellation so I was able to get in.

I don’t know what I have, but I do know that I left with a prescription for some antibiotics in my hand.

The rest of the day went as good as it could all things considered… At least until nightfall that is.

Sleeping in a furnace with the neighbors generator blasting outside of your window because you can’t close it because it’s too hot takes a toll on a person.

I made my way into the basement where at least it was cool, it didn’t help though… I sweated my way through the night, eventually waking up at 10:30am the next day…

That was Day 4…

Day 5 (9/1/2011)

My first September in seventeen years where I don’t have to be in class. Strange feeling, though that might just be the build up of phlegm in my throat.

LIPA has lost all sense of credibility in my book. It’s just that simple. They know what the problem is, and they know where it is, and they have fixed everything else in my area, there is no excuse why I still shouldn’t have power.

Instead of heading to Starbucks (which I think is where I picked up what ever got me sick, speaking of which, it’s worse today than yesterday), I headed over to the Library where everyone has to keep their mouth shut, so no douch-baggery, and the internet connection is faster.

1:29 - Still sick…

Sadly, the lack of douche-bags doesn’t make for very good liveish blogging, so until the next paragraph…

Went home, had Chinese for dinner, struggled to get to sleep from my plague like coughing.

That was Day 5…

Day 6 (9/2/2011)

STILL! STILL NO POWER!

LIPA said a crew was FINALLY assigned to my area today, so we will see.

It feels like there’s glass in my lungs every time I cough and it doesn’t feel like it’s getting any better.

At the Library now, no douche-bags (thanks god), so let’s get some work done.

8:30pm - Aunt got power back, so getting some work done here before I call it a day, this is just stupid now.

That was Day 6…

Day 7 (9/3/2011)

Yes, Day 7. DAY FUCKING 7!!!!

Back at the aunt’s house while I cough up a lung.

LIPA finally showed up last night just to find out the damage was worse than they thought. SON OF A BITCH!

The customer service rep for LIPA on the phone last night said “you should have never been told you would have your power back at 11:30, we’re not allowed to give out estimates.”

Really? Really?! LIPA, you are fuckign awful and your lack of care for the customer is mind boggling.

LIPA never showed because the crew that had all day to come waited until 7pm and got called away to a house fire while in route…

That was Day 7…

Day 8 (9/4/2011)

I woke up this morning to a LIPA crew FINALLY at work, I am supposed to have power back by the end of the day.

Spending my time catching up on the week’s television for a podcast recording tonight, you know, assuming I have power…

3pm - The power is back!!!

That was Day 8…

Final Thoughts?

I’ll never take electricty for granted ever again. I am like a fish out of water without it. I still can’t believe the amount of douche-baggery that exists in the world. I now realize why I never leave my house to get work done, it’s a shitty place out there.

This has by far been one of the most stressful weeks of my life, no other way to put it.

Things are finally back to normal and I hope I NEVER have to put up with this bullshit again.

10:01pm - BARR, OUT!