My first day back on campus yesterday went fine. I was so tired last night though - it is a long day and it will take me time to get used to it. My foundations classes are small - the result of Irene?

I found this story pretty funny.

I'm feeling distracted, preoccupied by all the people who are in survival mode from Irene as others elsewhere carry along as if nothing happened. Here in Castleton our cable was restored (it came back at first without sound, which was weird). We are still under a boil water advisory. Bob was going to try to work in Troy today, I am not sure how that worked out. We've been avoiding traveling to Albany through Rensselaer. Aside from this, all is well here.

But I hate to be without electricity and other services, and I do not have a generator in Samsonville. We'd planned to spend Labor Day Weekend there, the last glimmer of summer, before closing the pool the weekend of my birthday. Now I want to be there to make sure all is fine, even though I do know, via limited communication with my sister and nephew, that everyone is indeed OK.

I feel like I should be doing something to help with the clean up, although being off the grid might make my presence more of a burden. The water also doesn't work when there is no power and dry ice is not in abundance for keeping food cold. Luckily we emptied the fridge and freezer before we went home on Saturday but we would need supplies to stay there.

Central Hudson is reporting 90 percent of service should be restored by 11 pm Sunday, I assume that is the prediction for my house, but I cannot be sure. Parts of West Shokan are probably in the 10 percent that will remain off the grid since the damage was so extreme.

Facebook continues to be the best source of information. That might be true even if the story was not being mostly ignored outside of the local area. The rural northeast is not all that important, I guess. Luckily, we already knew that, and are resilient. But here is a story about Phoenicia that did make major MSM.

Added: I discovered another storm casualty, my oregano. It didn't kill it completely, but almost.

As I was doing my annual surveying, I could hear the sound of chainsaws, either in the cemetery or beyond. Today the sound didn't irritate me as it usually does.

I know I mentioned dry ice above, but I believe dry ice is one of the biggest needs; it is very hard to get.

Finally...I just found out my aunt and uncle (ages 85 and 94) in Shokan got power back today. A bright spot.