Surprise!

OK, many people are undoubtedly posting about the storm Buffalo was recently lucky enough to receive. I must jump on that bandwagon and bitch a little too.

If you look at my last post you'll notice that I was totally on top of this breaking story. Now, remember, I am not a meteorologist. Should I be? Probably. But I digress.

In all honesty, I have to say that there was NO WAY anybody could have predicted this monstrosity of a storm. It was so freekin' bizarre. Granted, it started to snow early in the afternoon on Thursday but what transpired was, without a doubt, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

It started out as a cold day with bone-chilling rain. The rain turned into hail and then back into rain. It was a rather boring morning. Then...the rain turned into wet snow, but it wasn't really accumulating. Then...it started accumulating. And how!

Long story short: it snowed 28 Goddamn inches within 12 hours or so. Trees were canopied over every road downtown; nobody was prepared. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power - like God flipped the switch. It was insane!

Thousands of downed trees; hundreds of crushed cars; countless flooded basements, caved in roofs, broken windows; people still (5+ days later) without power. Life in WNY is quite surreal.

I went into Valu Home Center and tried to find batteries and flashlights. I say "tried" because they had no power! Employees were walking around the store with flashlights telling customers to "remember the price of whatever items you want to buy...our registers are out!" REMEMBER THE PRICE?! Haha, it makes me laugh still. Anyway, I got two flashlights and some batteries...and remembered the price. Needless to say I got home to find out that I bought the wrong size batteries for the right size flashlights. I did not go back.

I spent the weekend driving from Buffalo, to Grandma's, to my house, to Buffalo, to Grandma's, to my house...going in circles but staying warm in my car. The roads, with exception of the downed trees and power lines, were passable (the snow melted the next day...for the most part.)

Heh. I mentioned my Grandma. I have to tell a funny story: I finally got out of my parking space on Friday (it was like riding the bike in the sand...my wheels were moving, going in all sorts of directions, but I was able to do it!) I drove immediately to Granny's because she lives alone and was without power...and I was worried about her. We sat together around her fire, we drank a bottle or two of vodka, and then I told her I was going to run home and check on my dogs. I checked on my dogs (I had no power either.) The house was pitch black and it dawned on me that my SUMP PUMP would not be working. I ran downstairs and found a partially flooded basement (I'm over-dramatizing...there was a very large puddle forming around the sump pump but it wasn't really flodded.) I did have to bale the water out, 5 gallons at a time, however...EVERY 5 MINUTES! I ran outside to survey the neighborhood and heard a generator running at my nextdoor neighbors house. I ran over and begged for him to let me use it to power my pump. He said "sure". BUT...my extension cords were in my garage...which has electric door openers - shit-outta-luck. I told Dave (my neighbor) that I would be right back...(Granny had lots of extension cords, I would get a few from her.) Well...as I'm driving to Grandma's my cousin Danielle calls me to tell me that Granny had refused any help from my family! They were all offering to come and pick her up so she could stay with them (they had heat and power.) She fucking REFUSED! Well, I got a bit peeved. My Grandmother is a bit of a martyr. She likes to play the "poor me" card a lot but she doesn't accept help...even from family. I got to her house and I started yelling at her. She sat down and pouted, like a little girl, saying she wasn't going to leave her house...after yelling, calling my cousin and my Dad to yell at her, telling her that she was going to die in the house...she won. She refused to go anywhere and she stayed in "her house". Needless to say, she didn't die. Thank God.

OK...this is getting a bit long winded. Let me get some fresh air and I'll come back with Part Two soon. (I know you're totally sitting on the edge of your seat!)