It's messy out there. But O.K.

Other than difficulty sleeping while the wind smashed twigs and leaves against my windows, I had a pretty good time of it last night.  The wind gusts' whistling through everything outside was something else.  The power flickered about a dozen times, but it stayed on.  I know some parts of my town definitely do not have power, though.

Even the mail carrier said the power was off this morning at the postal facility, which is in the next town over, and they were guided in by flashlight and had a delayed start until it got lighter outside.  He's a nice guy--I wish we had him all the time, but with all the changes in the postal service in the past year, we have a different carrier almost every time.  He remembered my last name and asked if my parents were O.K. (he sometimes delivers to their neighborhood, too).  He also said there wasn't much mail today (evidenced by my water-damaged phone bill and a campaign flyer) because all the flights had been canceled--something like 14,000--but there would be a lot once those flights started up again.

So I guess it's just local mail for a little bit.  I put my rent payment in the mail and that's all that matters to me.  I'm out of stamps so everything else I need to mail will have to wait until tomorrow.

Around 2:00, I took the trash out and walked around the parking lot and around the buildings.  Not a lot of big branches came down, so that's good, but there's a good coating of sticks, leaves, and shredded leaves everywhere.  Plus there is a chilly, steady rain coming down.  It's light, but it's cold. 

I heard from a couple of my trivia teammates (and our host) and everybody's O.K. (even if not everyone has power) so that's good.  And the pub owner emailed that they're open this evening and trivia is on.  Originally I wasn't going to go anywhere until tomorrow, but based on the information I've gotten I think it would be pretty safe, not to mention good to get out and exercise my brain.  And who knows about tomorrow, because I have a feeling the town where my school is located got hit pretty hard by Sandy.  I don't think they have power.

But first--more work on my de-cluttering project.  Might as well take advantage of not having anyplace to go.