Marty and The Hurricane: Final Edition

Well, here we are. The final chapter in my Hurricane Sandy coverage. What a journey it's been. We laughed, we cried, I got mad at an Asian guy, that tree I said was going to tip over did come down, but it was cut down. I've watched the video of me covering the 'flooded' streets outside my apartment more than everyone else combined. The people in my building throw terrible parties. I've typed hurricane so many times that I keep leaving he 'e' off. But now it's time to get serious.

If you want to hear about all the damage the hurricane caused, I'm the wrong guy to talk to. Not much happened in my immediate vicinity. I saw nothing that did any real damage. That tree that almost fell and a sign blowing down was the worst I saw. If you want to see some of the havoc it caused, go check out these pictures.

I was going to go out today and get some video. It didn't seem right. That and the only video to get was a bunch of tree branches on the ground and a fence that had been blown on top of a car. Much of the flooding has receded. You can't get to the areas that are still flooded. A video seemed pointless.

You can't see the guy in the carousel sweeping because I suck at taking pictures

I did take a walk around. I started out in Downtown Brooklyn, by my apartment. It was weird walking around. Normally there is so many people and cars. That wasn't the case. Despite the fact there is power, most of the businesses are closed. A few of the local eateries and grocery stores are open. A few people were out and walking about, surveying the damage downed trees had made or going to the stores that were open.

I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. See how things were in Manhattan. The first thing I noticed, while walking across the bridge, is that the carousel that was surrounded by water last night, isn't anymore. You can still see the line of debris that the tide left.

As I crossed over into Manhattan, I realized something about Downtown Brooklyn that I hadn't noticed while I was walking around there. The traffic signals were working. The power was out, and still is out, in much of Lower Manhattan. The volume of traffic wasn't anything near what it normally is, but there were still quite a few cars out. Most of them taxis. Many of the intersections were just free-for-alls, for cars and pedestrians. The busiest intersections did have traffic officers directing traffic. But even those intersections were still up for grabs for whoever wanted to get across them. The only time there seemed to be any order in the way traffic moved, was when a police car, ambulance or firetruck was trying to get through.

There were more people out and walking around in Manhattan then there were in Brooklyn. Walking around in Brooklyn was weird, but Manhattan was eerie. These people were just out and walking around because there was nothing else to do. They weren't walking around to see the damage that had been done. They were out because their power was out. Walking around was all they could do.

Everything was dark. Even the occasional local coffee shop that was open was dark. Their stores were dark, save a few candles, but they were still serving hot coffee. I assume they were running their machines with generators. I saw one street vendor doing his thing and making gyros. He had a line around the block.

The power was out everywhere I went. I walked around most of Lower Manhattan. I went as far north as 23rd Street. Which is actually about where you see the power coming back. Had I kept walking, I would have seen that. (For reference of how far I walked, the Brooklyn Bridge puts you at roughly -15th Street.)

Bus service is slowly starting back up. The subway system is probably going to be down for awhile. Which is a huge blow to the city, and myself. Many of the stations flooded. Several of the lines that travel underwater also flooded. For now, I'm stuck walking around. For some reason, I don't like taking the bus. Even though there is nothing wrong with it.

Walking around made me realize how lucky I was. I didn't even see any of the damage done by the flooding, or the fires up in Queens. Just seeing how much of the city was without power, and may remain so for days, was enough. I never even lost power for a few seconds.

When I crossed back over the bridge, I forgot how lucky I was. Seeing the working street lights and the stores with lights on made me forget. Power makes you forget things.

Sand streak number 1

When I walked back into my apartment, I was reminded once again of how lucky I was. About a foot a part, near my front door, were two streaks of sand. I have no idea how they got there. There are no vents nearby that they could have come from. The streaks were to orderly to have come from my shoes. I don't walk in that area anyways. It's like Sandy was trying to tell me something.

"Hey dumbass, you already forgot how lucky you are. Well, here is my calling card. Maybe next time you won't forget, or be so lucky." That's probably what she was trying to tell me.

Streak 2 was a lot more orderly before I ran my fingers through it to see what it was

Marty and The Hurricane: Eighth Edition

I keep hearing reports of people's power being out. I checked on the website that shows power outages for Con Edison. That's who my power is with. There are pockets where thousands are without power. I know they deliberately shut off the power in one area, so that things wouldn't get ruined.

Around me though, there is nothing. There were like 10 outages reported within 3 miles of me. All of them were just single reports of power being out. No buildings. Probably just a tree taking out a line or something. A few of them had reports of no lights. No lights? Does this mean everything else in the house that takes power is working? Have these people tried the light switches? Or putting in a new bulb?

The hurricane party was quite lame. I left as soon as they started making people wear name tags made out of napkins. It was a terrible party anyways. Hooking up prospects were very limited as well. Hot chicks are hard to come by. Not just in my building, the city in general. I always knew Utah as one of the best places in the country when it came to having hot chicks, but the drop off from Utah to New York is just ridiculous.

I got hit in the eye by a leaf. That's the closest I've come to being injured. I saw a sign blow away. That was pretty cool. That debris in the sidewalk I took a picture of has moved down the sidewalk a little bit. That tree that was about to tip over is still standing, sideways. The owner of the Mustang has pulled their car forward a bit. The tree will no longer fall on their car. The flooding I took video of has subsided.  It stopped raining two hours ago. It never rained more than just a drizzle.

I just went outside, and the rain has picked up. It's raining harder than it has all day. It's still a light rain. Wind is done blowing for the moment. I'm going to get some video of the scene tomorrow.

Marty and The Hurricane: Seventh Edition

The hurricane party got off to a very slow start. I walked around outside and got some exclusive video and pictures of the Downtown Brooklyn area.

In the first picture we have some debris that has fallen from a tree and is lying on the sidewalk.

Here we have a tree bending in the wind. The good news for the owner of this Mustang is that it is falling very slowly. Once it does fall though, the wind will probably just blow it around everywhere. It's probably going to hit some stuff.

Here is some exclusive video of the flooded streets in Downtown Brooklyn.

I'm headed back down to the party. I'll get some footage of that. The cable does appear to be out. A laptop is connected to the TV. 

Marty and The Hurricane: Sixth Edition

I thought I heard some thunder. I looked out the window. It was just this piece of sheet metal flapping around on the roof of another building. Someone should probably take care of that. If it does fly away, the odds of it hitting my windows is extremely low. I'm not going to tell anyone about it.

Still just a very light drizzle. The wind isn't as consistent it was earlier. Occasionally, it completely stops. I thought maybe I was in the eye of the hurricane. That would be stupid. The occasional gusts of wind are the strongest they have been all day. During the gusts is when that piece of metal starts flapping.

That stupid Asian guy who finally cleared off all the stuff from his balcony earlier today, was just on his balcony shining a flashlight around. I saw the light shining on the building, so I went to my window to check it out. He shined his light at me. I think I'm going to go kick that guy's ass after all of this is over. He's pissing me off. I might go do it sooner if I need a flashlight later.

The hurricane party should just be getting started. I'm going to go check it out. If there is any hot chicks, I'm going to see what I can do about making the power go out. Unless something drastic happens soon, we're all going to look like assholes for having a hurricane party.

Marty and The Hurricane: Fifth Edition

Hurricane party at 8pm.

Looks like some people have put together a little hurricane party in the lounge. It's set to start in a little under 2 hours. Last time I was down there, it was billed as a Halloween/hurricane party. I'm not quite certain what happened to the Halloween part. I am glad to see it go though. I don't have a costume.

The hurricane party is a little premature. There is no hurricane like conditions in our area yet. It's just kinda windy, with a light drizzle. I just came from standing in the street for a few minutes. The amount of rain falling is pretty much nothing. The wind does get gusty at times and the traffic signals swing back and forth a little. The party throwers better hope things pick up in the next 2 hours. Otherwise, it's just going to look like we are celebrating all the damage the hurricane has done elsewhere.

If the hurricane is hitting us hard when the party is happening, it will be a big screw you to the hurricane. We'll be telling the hurricane, 'you can't stop us from partying'.

It's a fine line between looking like assholes or showing the hurricane who's boss.

I'm questioning whether or not to go to the party. What if the power goes out during the party? I don't want to have to walk all those flights of stairs to get back to my apartment. Also, I don't know how to get back to my apartment using the stairs. There is two flights of stairs I can take on my floor. Both of them take you to outside of the building. I'm sure those doors are locked from the outside. I don't know what stairs to take to get to my apartment without going outside first. It must be possible. I don't want to take the time to find out though.

On the other hand, all I hear about is how people just start hooking up whenever the power goes out.  If I'm at the party while the power goes out, what a great time to hook up with people. I just need to hang close to the hottest chick at the party. I'm pretty sure you have to hook up with whoever you are closet to when the power goes out.

I think I'll go check out the party and see what the chick situation is like.

Marty and The Hurricane: Fourth Edition

I'd like to be able to say that something has happened. Nothing has. As you can see from the picture, it's not raining. There is just a few drops on the window. They've been there for hours.

Some guy finally moved all his stuff off his balcony. Something that those with balconies, were told to do two days ago. The asshole then had the nerve to wave to me as he moved his stuff. Don't wave at me. Just move your shit.

The wind has picked up considerably, but it wasn't much to start with. I'm still not blown away by the wind speeds.

It's been recommended that I fill my bathtub up. I went ahead and dumped all my Goldfish crackers into the tub. I'm going to need a lot more to fill it up.

I've now realized that they probably meant with water.

I'm going to go downstairs and see how crowded the gym is.

Marty and The News

News, it's in short supply with the hurricane, but I've dug some up.

Natsu upset that he hasn't had sex yet. The man who purchased a Brazilian woman's virginity for $780,000 is upset that it hasn't happened yet. During the bidding process, the 20-year-old Brazilian claimed she could medically prove she is a virgin. However, experts say that they can't definitively prove whether she is a virgin or not. This hubbub over whether she is really a virgin or not, is causing the transaction to not be finished. "I don't really care either way," says Natsu, the winning bidder. "Just let me do my thing."

Winning done right

Preacher and all around crazy man, John McTernan, blames hurricane on Obama, Romney and of course, the gays. Usually when people make crazy statements, they leave a group of people out of it, in hopes that some agree with them. McTernan has found away to single out nearly everybody. Except those weird third party people, but most of them are gay.

Classic

Kindergarten teacher suspended for fake shooting two of her students in Facebook comments. Tameka Gatewood made the comments on Facebook when she became frustrated with two of her students arguing. In the comments, she makes reference to shooting the two students. "Bang! Bang! Shoot 'em up dammit!" She then says, "Just Kidding!!!" The fact that she actually spelled it out instead of just putting 'jk', lets you know that she was really just kidding. I only report on this story so I can put the picture up of one of the parents reacting to the comments.

I clicked on this article because it said Shakespeare had an STD. After reading it, this asshole is just talking about what is in this book that he wrote.

Man, Steven Ford, and his dog, Lola, found in their apartment watching TV with Michaela Beth Ford. Police found the couple and their dog in the apartment after neighbors had complained of strange smell. Police say Michaela has been dead for over 10 days. Steven told the police who entered the apartment, that she isn't dead. Steven was drunk at the time and has now rescinded his comments.

This story makes no sense. I'll break it down. There was this rave. Many of the kids there were intoxicated. Most, if not all, were underage. Police arrived at the scene to deal with the drunk kids. That's when this guy tried to land a helicopter. He couldn't though. There were all these people, drunk kids and police officers, walking around. The landing was aborted. A short while later, the man tries landing the helicopter again. People are still in the area, but he gets the helicopter landed. Police arrest the helicopter pilot and seize the helicopter. That's it. That's the story. No mention as to why this guy was trying to land his helicopter there.

A photo showing an angry hockey fan holding a sign asking if Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner  and Donald Fehr, NHL Player's Union leader, will talk to him, has been circulating around the Internet. The lone NHL fan isn't the only one in the picture. There is a few innocent bystanders in the photo. Those people are upset that it now looks like they care about the NHL lockout. "I didn't even know there was a lockout or that it was hockey season," said one bystander. "I barley know what hockey is. I don't want my friends, my family or America thinking I care about this." Another man in photo has also reacted via Facebook. "Straight up bullshit. I was just leaning against this building drinking a coffee. Now all these people tagging me in this photo. I DON'T CARE ABOUT HOCKEY! STOP TAGGING ME!"

That's it. That's the news.

Marty and The Hurricane: Third Edition

I'm about to go to bed. I wish there were actual news to report. The wind has picked up a bit. Nothing significant. It would just be moderately annoying if you were outside. There have been a few gusts that would be straight up annoying. No rainfall whatsoever.

Hopefully this thing picks up soon. It sucks having to report on nothing. Unless things pick up, there will be no updates until morning. Assuming the power stays on. Luckily, at this rate, the power will be on forever.

Marty and The Hurricane: Second Edition

No changes. Wind gets a little gusty at times, but it's still just a light breeze. I practiced taking the stairs to see how they worked. They work very similarly to other sets of stairs. The sky is getting darker. It usually gets darker around this time of the day. I don't think the darkness can be attributed to the hurricane. Still no rain, despite them saying it would start Sunday afternoon and we are now in the evening hours.

Marty and The Hurricane: First Edition

As long as I have power, I'll continue with periodic updates.

I'm hijacking the news for my Hurricane Sandy coverage. So far, nothing is happening. The sky is all cloudy. According to the tiny trees on the roof of my building, there is a very slight breeze. No rain.

The buses and subways stop today at 7pm. Which is fine by me. I don't go out much, even when the weather is perfect.

I'm not concerned about the wind. I'm in a little cocoon of buildings. The buildings will take all the hits from flying debris. I'm only worried about stuff flying of the roof of the building across from me. Unless they forgot to take the chairs on the roof inside, I think I'm good. The trees up there are too small to do any damage.

I have some food. My mom seems to think I need to stock up on toilet paper. She is either mistaken about how much I poop, or how long hurricanes last. If I somehow run out of toilet paper during the hurricane, or its aftermath, toilet paper is going to be the least of my problems. I buy the mega rolls, which last me more than a month, and I have at least nine of them. My mom says that isn't enough.

I've charged my iPad, Nexus 7, phone and one of those USB charger things. I'm only worried about the power going out. The phone will still probably be useful if the power goes out, but my tablets will just become flashlights.

If anyone wants to text me, you're going to want to text my 435 number and not the 415 number. If you deleted my 435 number, that's your fault, I told you not to. I need an Internet connection to get texts on the 415 number. If the power goes out, I won't have WiFi and I'm turning the data connection off on my phone to conserve battery. Assuming cell service, doesn't go out, I can still be reached at the 435 number, although it may be slow. If you do try to reach me and I don't reply, just go ahead and assume I died and mourn appropriately.

I'd get into logistics on why I have two numbers and why, under normal circumstances, you should use the 415 number, but no one ever understands.

I'm mostly concerned about the power going out because I'm on the top floor. They call it the penthouse. From what I can tell, it just means I have to wait on the elevator longer than everyone else. Depending on how you count floors, it's could be floor 12-15. If the elevators don't work, I'm not walking down, or up, that many stairs.