I’m at a friend’s place in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, and, if I may be given the liberty of briefly anthropomorphizing them, my devices (laptop / phone / ipad) are greedily lapping up the power available here. 

My phone had been drawing a full charge from my hibernating laptop, but my laptop ran out of power last night and my phone died soon after. Fortunately my friend had sent basic directions on how to walk to her place from Flatbrush Ave and I (for the most part) committed those to memory. I’m so used to letting my phone guide me wherever I go; it was an unusual experience to be walking “blind” into an unfamiliar area.

I walked over the Manhattan Bridge to get to Brooklyn today. Compared with the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge is a grittier pedestrian experience. Lots of graffiti to be seen as you walk for a stretch over the Lower East Side / Chinatown before you hit the East River. It feels like a glimpse back into 1970’s New York. 

It was a bright, sunny morning, and out over the water, I looked back and saw the sun glinting off the still-without-power skyscrapers in lower Manhattan. There was a steady stream of people walking from Brooklyn and into Manhattan — not so many going my direction. 

When I reached Brooklyn and started walking down Flatbush Avenue, I saw INSANE traffic. Looks like a lot of people didn’t see this — there were several single-occupancy vehicles. The police (many looking pretty exasperated) are directing traffic at all major intersections, and buses were backed up as far as I could see. I walked up to the recently-constructed Barclays Center, and traffic was terrible around there as well — everyone trying to get to the bridge and over to Manhattan.

Had a hot shower here at my friend’s place, my first since Monday, and am now getting caught up on news, email, and everything on my to-do list. I hadn’t realized the terrible extent of Sandy-caused deaths until spending some time with the news today. My own experience just doesn’t even begin to compare to the real tragedies people are dealing with as a result of this storm.