So it is snowing here in NJ today. I always love the first snowfall of the year, as long as the trees have shed their leaves. We are expected to get 4 inches, so no big deal.
Things are pretty much back to normal here with the exception of my computer which lost the hard drive in the storm. Thousands of hours of programs gone, but lots were backed up and retreived. I don't know why they were not all retreived since I have an automatic back up system, but for some reason it didn't back up those programs for a while.
I look at my buddies down the shore and my heat treater in Newark and I am ashamed to say that I suffered at all. The Jersey shore will never be like it was before...maybe that is a good thing, and it will be more huricane proof as a result, but the hardship that many are suffering is sad to see. I am glad that I do not like the shore as much as lakes and so had a place at a lake that had no damage instead of a place at the shore, that might have been gone.
My heat treater is another story. He was in his building on Monday the day of the storm, waiting for a customer that had called to say he wanted to get his parts out of there. As he waited in his building, which is a full city block long, he heard a sound like trickling water. He walked towards his three big roll up doors to see what the noise was. As he got about 50 feet away from those doors they sudenly let go and a wave of water rushed in and knocked him down. When he finaly got to his feet his entire building was full of water up to his waist. His single story building only has a small attic space, and that is where he spent the entire storm, soaking wet with no heat, blankets, or any way of knowing what was ging on outside. He made it through, none the worse for wear only to find his entire business in shambles. His new truck outside was gone, found a mile away in a pile of cars. When I went to see him a few days after the storm there was an army of workers pulling ever transformer, motor and switch in the place. I saw him yesterday and the offices have been redone, with new sheetrock on the walls and new computers all around. Outside there are skids and skids of ruined computers, books, manuals, papers and all sorts of other supplies. But he is back to work in a slightly limited capacity but his capacity is growing everyday. I look at his resiliency and it serves as an inspiration to me....it shows me that no matter how bad things get as long as you survive, you can rebuild. And maybe come out even stronger than before.
