Halloween/Hurricane Sandy

Black cats and goblins and broomsticks and ghosts.
Covens of witches with all of their hosts.
You may think they scare me. You're probably right.
Black cats and goblins on Halloween night.
Trick or treat!

 My favorite holiday has arrived. Unfortunately there is enough horror on the news these days to make Michael Myers seem like child’s play. It’s unfortunate yet another Halloween has been clouded with a weather related disaster for the second consecutive year in a row. But while last year’s snow storm postponed trick or treating, this year’s Hurricane Sandy put a stop to life in general. There is catastrophic destruction shown on every channel.  From over flooded subway stations to burned homes in Queens to amusement park rides floating out to sea in Seaside Heights, NJ.  These were the same rides I went on as a young child in the ‘80s. The tri-state area is dealing with the aftermath of one of the worst storms in recent history. 

Now usually I don’t get affected much by torrential rain, snow, or winds but even this year I was not spared some misfortune.  As Monday’s night howling winds took full force I predicted my luck was going to run out. The lights flickered. The cable tv went black.  I went to sleep and woke up with no electricity. It ended up being out for a full fifteen hours. In light of what others suffered through and will remain suffering through for months to come, losing power for less than a full day was not that big of deal.  Still, I felt a sense of isolation and even slight panic as the hours passed getting closer to sunset.  I live on the ground level so I get very little light through my windows on a good day, so with clouds and no power it was like hanging out in a small cave hour after hour. Worse than that was the quiet. No tv, no internet, no radio, and little use of my phone. So I couldn’t even hear myself talk. I took a walk outside and found more eerie quietness as the streets were deserted. I witnessed more broken tree limbs than actual persons walking about. Leaves, branches, and scattered Halloween decorations were all I came across. Many traffic lights were also not working causing confusion on the streets. Much to my dismay many local stores were not opened due to either lack of power or flooding. I felt like the world had come to a screeching halt as far as daily routines. And I’m all about routine. I take comfort in my daily activities like getting on the bus and going to work. For the last five days I’ve been stuck in a non-active limbo forced to watch endless news coverage or staring dumbly at my Kindle while holding a flashlight. No words were sinking in as I tried to read. It was hard to concentrate on much knowing my food was spoiling in the fridge and the impending darkness was just a few hours away. Still, it was light years away from the pain and suffering endured by those who lost their homes due to fire or water…or those who needed to be evacuated from hospitals in the middle of the night. I was one of the lucky ones and for that I am grateful.

So the real terror remains outside my window and downtown in lower Manhattan or across the way in New Jersey. Watching my favorite horror films seems trite and almost ridiculous when I could just watch the news to feel a true sense of dread. Still, we must go forward with our routines in order to pick up and move on. I’ll be watching John Carpenter’s Halloween tonight…and maybe a few other classics like Fright Night or The Shining, but it simply doesn’t feel the same. Even the annual Greenwich Village Halloween parade was canceled. In what was supposed to be a night of trick or treating it’s a night of simply being thankful for being able to turn on a lamp or sleep under a roof or have hot water to take a shower. Most frightening of all on this Halloween night is the realization that life can forever change in an instant.