Coming to you from a Starbuck's near Penn Station where there's electrical power and life seems normal. I'm having to stand at a bar near the counter because it's pretty packed in here. Even if not for the storm, this Starbuck's might be this way. Crowded, nowhere to sit, wifi jammed up and slow. But I'll take it. And I'll take back what I just said, there is one thing out of the ordinary here. I was just solicited by a man selling portable phone chargers, a clear sign that there's a new market for electricity in the city. I saw footage on CBS when I dropped by work of people hooking up power strips to the wiring in the manholes and charging their phones en masse in the streets. Crazy.
Crazy how we're all such slaves to our devices, our windows to the world. We are not only starved without food, we are starved without information about the outside world and what's going on around our community. It's not quite apocalyptic here but there is a bit of a sense of what it could be like without all the creature comforts that characterize modern living. If we hadn't come to depend on so many of these things that run on electricity and depend on electricity (i.e. preservation of mass quantities of food via refrigeration and mass transportation), I don't think we'd be so lost without them.
Speaking of mass transportation, the reason I'm in town so early when I don't have to be in to work until 1:30pm, is that I had a ride with one of our reporters and her producer, my friend who lives four blocks from me. The reporter was staying in Brooklyn with her sister because they had no power in Westchester. Because of the mayor's carpool rule, or maybe just because of the sheer fact that there are millions of transit riders forced to drive, the traffic was horrendous. Strangely, only until you got to the Brooklyn Bridge was it such. Then, the road opened up and we made it to work from the bridge in only 10 or 15 minutes. No one was on the West Side Highway.
I dropped by work, grabbed a banana, and checked in with people before setting out for the line between power and no power. On the way, I ran into one of my co workers and I ended up going back to the hotel where she said there'd be food. There was fruit and muffins and coffee. I stayed for a sec chatting with her, noticing that the pool is actually above the lobby's glass ceiling, something I don't know how I didn't notice before. Then, I came up here. The walk was easy and it was interesting to see how things were. People walking and driving around like normal but everything closed up until I got to the 30's. There was an Episcopal Church handing out sandwiches on 9th Avenue around 26th Street or so.
No I stand here drinking an expensive OJ and leaning on the counter typing. I have a free copy of the New York Times from today which I will probably read at some point, though I may go outside to do so, if I don't try to send off some long overdue emails. Much more later on. Hope you've been enjoying the pics and the updates.
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