Hamilton Heights may not be the classiest of places, but because it is on a hill (something like 120 feet above sea level) we were safe. We also retained electricity, hot water and internet access the entire time aside from a few light flickers. Occasionally we felt a subtle building shimmy, and a few times I wondered if a bedroom window was going to stay in place while we were asleep. That was the worst of it. We are lucky.
I had Monday off work as a regular part of my Tuesday-Saturday schedule. Nathan's work closed because the trains were shut down Sunday evening. I didn't know what to expect during Tuesday's walk to work. With such a foul weather lead up I had assumed it would take just as long to die down. In the end I got patches of sun and only occasional wind. Nathan returned to work today (Wednesday) via foot. Tomorrow the subways are returning with partial service, meaning operating on one train per track in those area unaffected by water damage or power outages. The A train runs local from 168th by my hospital to 42nd street by Nathan's store. Again, we are lucky.
Here you'll find photos of the damage found uptown. Fell trees, an occasional broken car window, mild flooding in an area where common even with normal rain, tattered deli signs. The crux of the clean up is sweeping away all the leaves.
It's a downright boring story for us, really.
(All photos taken Tuesday 10/30/2012.)
South bound west side highway, closed with boggy ankle-deep water. Workers had to find and manually unclog drains one at a time.
Along the bike path/west side highway, view of Jersey across the Hudson.
Subways were closed. This station still is.
A cemetery on 155th St at Broadway.
A downsized staff working to maintain full operations.
12th Ave, ~136th St, mere feet above the Hudson River, which is on the other side of the building. Over the retaining wall starts Hamilton Heights, our neighborhood.
Another view for perspective.
Same retaining wall.
Riverside Drive at 165th St, next to the dog run and NYPresbyterian.
Same trees, view of their remaining trunk.
Downed sign on Broadway ~160th St.
One of numerous exits from Riverside Park, ~104th St (?). Trunk sections were over a foot in diameter.
In the area where we were almost hit by a falling branch while out being curious idiots. The van was not so lucky.
7:15 a.m.: Hudson River, from Riverside and 135th St
9:15 a.m.: Hudson River, from the bike path ~ 150th St
Midday update:
12:30 p.m.: Again from the bike path, now with spittle rain and an increase in waves. And ducks.
Evening update:
5:20 p.m.: Felled tree, Riverside at 147th Street
6:00 p.m.: Hudson River in the southern shadow of the George Washington Bridge
6:15 p.m.: Trees previously intact on our way out to the Hudson were down on our return trip. This one missed us by about ten feet.
Yea, we're those jackasses out wandering in the pre-storm with cameras. But we are safely indoors now that the real post-tropical cyclone >50mph winds and rain are in full stride. Our building, which directly adheres to neighboring buildings, has shook a few times. And our bedroom window seems a little sketch. Not as in leaky, but as in the whole window shimmies. Merus has been laying on someone's lap quite literally 95% of the day. Sadie only got freaked out an hour ago when the real stuff started and our phones started chirping with emergency alert texts. Earlier, though, they were like this:
For the last couple years, foul weather capable of temporarily incapacitating a city has only struck when I was traveling to/from the midwest. There was the blizzard of December 2010, the east coast earthquake that shook the Financial District in August 2011, hurricane Irene one week later in August 2011....
I've credited Nathan with breaking the curse, as the two times I've flown to Missouri have been without incident since he accompanied me to Sam and Kristin's wedding a year ago.
The difference? Now I get to experience the natural disasters myself.
Cue hurricane Sandy.
And oddly enough this one has decent timing for me, all things considered. Hurricane Irene blew through on the day of the Bronx Half. The Bronx was my favorite, since it ends up slightly smaller in size and with the most hills of all the borough half marathons. I spent much more time than necessary choosing between a mid-August visit to KC and a return for the Bronx Half, or a late-August visit and the TNF KC 50k. I ended up choosing the 50k, and I got lucky.
Since I'm running the marathon again this year, I've been eyeing the storm (ba dum dum... dumb...) so that if it hits NYC it will hit mid-week rather than marathon Sunday (November 4th). So far so good. At the same time, it does not interfere with my last long run, nor does it interfere with my last shake-out run (i.e. hill repeats) prior to the big day. It also should not interfere with the expo that starts on Thursday.
The biggest difference is that I work at a hospital. Hospitals do not close during such pesky things as hurricanes. We are given extra time to get to work, but we are still expected to show up to work on Tuesday. I am also still in my probationary period, so I do not get days off. I usually walk the 1.2 miles to work, which equates to 2 subway stops. The subways will likely shut down Sunday night at 7pm. Yet another time I wish I had invested in waterproof pants, the main piece of gear I always find theoretically practical yet talk myself out of, only to tsk tsk myself at times like these.
On the plus side, I may be able to get some video (carefully, of course!) of the hurricane as I trudge through it. Wouldn't that be cool? Me getting side swept by all the piles of garbage that so decorate this city while crawling at 0.5mph towards the big NewYork-Presbyterian banner declaring "Great things happen here."
Great may be a relative term in this case. And no patient gets to argue against "I trudged a mile through a hurricane just so that you could walk today. Now move!"
And, since the route to NYP dips down and reascends regardless of your chosen route, I will have the pleasure of telling my future grandchildren that it was uphill both ways. Hazzah.
Eleven days until the 40,000+ sized flash mob that is the marathon. Mission for the next week and a half: keep calm and carry on.
A coworker says I cannot go by "Ms." once married. Apparently I have to go by "Mrs." Why? Because Mrs. means you are nice, while Ms. means you are not nice. I make pointless arguments about wanting my "title" *ahem* to reflect me as an individual rather than "Mrs. [Husband's first and last name]." And since she cannot remember Nathan's last name, her attempts always end up rhyming with my last name. The hyphened version ends up being "Buckles-Ruckles." I actually think its cute. New nickname, it seems.
Merus had her two-week checkup with the new vet. She responded very well to the antibiotics, the infection is gone, her gums are the closest to a normal pink since who knows when, and she has voraciously eaten her way back to a realistic (albeit still somewhat light) weight. Plan: symptom management if/when they arise in the future. Gingivitis, when chronic like her's, tends to be chronic regardless, so that's the best thing to do since amputating their entire mouth is not an option. So far so good. Last night she tried to steal away with homemade chickpea-lentil-curry crackers. Crackers. Seriously.
October has brought much of the rain we could have used over the summer. And we've had genuine autumn weather for more than the usual two weeks. Love it :) But when it isn't raining, the moisture in the air has produced some lovely sunrises and sunsets, like this (worth it in full size):
Merus's gingivitis came back with a fury. The previous vet (Dr. O), who did her extractions in June, was either unable or unwilling to figure out why the screams and food sensitivity and weight loss secondary to not eating were occurring again. So she's seeing a new vet (Dr. P).
The difference is significant.
Instead of limiting the evaluation to a 2 second glimpse in her mouth that sends her screaming off into the corner in pain, Dr. P sedated her to get an actual and thorough look at the entirety of her mouth. Findings: continued raging gingivitis and some ulcer-like lesions on her gums secondary to infection, weight had dropped to 6.8 pounds (she was 9 pounds when first adopted in June 2011, 7.5 pounds after her extractions in June 2012), and significant dehydration (skin tenting! gah!). She got an IV while she was out to rehydrate. Instead of a pain med via oral liquid 2 to 3 times per day (buprenex, which makes her live in an opioid fog, not to mention is time sensitive and thus lapses with pain breakthrough because of being gone at work and/or from her hiding where I couldn't find her - can you tell I wasn't a fan?) on top of an oral antibiotic, we now have a long lasting pain shot performed in office and a once daily oral antibiotic.
I never knew a 30-day lasting pain shot existed. I would have laughed in your face if you had claimed such before this. But it works. Magnificently. It's not meant to be a human convenience. Rather, it makes SO much more sense in terms of maintaining good pain control for an animal. They don't understand the idea of a medication schedule, or the importance of consuming the entire therapeutic dose. Now instead of 4 or 5 oral affronts per day to allow her to eat, Merus has only one antibiotic dosage per day. BIG difference when their mouths are the source of pain and the method of medication administration.
The other difference is Dr. P's office recommended using baby food so that it is super smooth. I'd been mashing wet food to smithereens with water added to try to make it easy to lap up, but with mixed results. Baby food is ridiculously smooth. And our cheap-and-crusty-but-nearby grocery stores carry a few meat in meat gravy purees varieties.
The combination of everything has worked so well, in fact, that it has created a monster. Sadie will start meowing for food within an hour or so of feeding time. Now Merus will meow all day long. Walk by the kitchen area? Mrrrowww. Stand up from the bed (the farthest away you can be in this apartment from the kitchen)? Mrrrowww. Change out laundry loads from the washer? Mrrrowww.
Look up from your computer? Mrrrowww.
Phone rings? Mrrrowww.
Pick up your soup spoon while eating lunch at work 1.2 miles away? Mrrrowww.
Turn over in your sleep? Mrrrowww.
Her meals are ~150 calories per meal since she is underweight. For reference, an 8 lbs cat needs ~115 per meal to maintain weight. And yet no matter the calories or the volume consumed she is friggin' insatiable. The litter box is all kinds of extra stinky these days.
After dinner last night I heard glass clinking while in the bedroom. Investigation found this:
Nathan has pulled her out of the bin not five minutes later. Cute that he thought placing a towel over the top would deter her.
We are just starting the second week of the two-week antibiotic course. We go in for a check up on Monday so see how things have progressed and to decide what the next course should be. My guess is significant interventions will be needed, because while she was sedated at the first visit Dr. P did the blood work necessary prior to surgery. But that will be determined in time.
For now I just have to deal with having two Bad Cats....
