Post Hurricane Sandy

The hurricane has been devastating and yet, I am trying to create some sense of normalcy...

The kids are back in school, Mike has gone to work... and I have gotten into my studio....
I want to show photos of the devastation... but it is just exhausting...
I have a friend living with us now... until she can get her own place after losing her whole rental and most of the contents...

We are blessed in that we had damage but it missed our first floor by inches... but there was 2 feet of water in the garage, all the HVAC  and duct work/insulation under the house had to be ripped out and replaced but we are almost done...

Below shows how the river   came up to the house and washed up all the reeds/cattails, etc up with it...
The height of the water in the garage, and the crap that had to be discarded and replaced.

Lost several trees and various other items but compared to neighbors and friends...
Again, I cannot stress enough how lucky we were that it wasn't worse and the destruction was so much worse at our neighbors homes!

This documentary by Charlotte Nagy(a young girl) is a good indication of what happened to my town and the beach town(Sea Bright) right over the bridge(a 15 walk for me) from me... 

If you have a 1/2 hour... check it out.

Stuff everywhere... 

Boats everywhere... the boats we see on people's lawns are not theirs...
they were originally docked in the water OR DRY DOCKED
 no where near where they landed....

I have been to all of these places...

The reality is that indeed, it will NEVER be the same.

A lot of discussion and controversy as to how reconstruction occurs, especially in Sea Bright...

I have opinions... but for now, we are moving  our HVAC units that were raised to what we thought was high enough , about 1 foot higher...and insulating all the ducts with waterproof stuff!

These "storms of the century" seem to be happening every year or so and
we can not pretend they are not!

The impermanence of all things in life has become very, very evident.

I did get some work fired(when the electricity came back on... after 9 days)
and met with the owner of Vessels Gallery from BOSTON Tuesday
who was in Brooklyn, visiting...
Traffic was crazy getting in to the city,BUT,
I was able to let her choose from some of this work for an upcoming (white) show!

And I was able to dig in to some other pieces and get get started on them in the studio...

So...

The world(and the wheel) keeps spinning and life goes on...

I guess.. but it is very weird...