How did you spend your two days off during the July blackout? Stephen Novak, Head of Archives and Special Collections We already had a library staff retreat scheduled for Wednesday off-campus, so we all went to that. But on Thursday I went to the Museum of the American Indian down on Bowling Green and then walked up the promenade at Battery Park City, which is one of the most beautiful spots in New York City. Then I saw a sign for the ferry to Hoboken. I had never taken that ferry, so I took it for the first time and walked around there. I walked on Sinatra Drive. And then I went to the gym. It was a good day. I think retirement will come very easy for me! Yolanda Ruiz, Administrative Assistant, Office of Minority Affairs My mother-in-law lives in Washington Heights, so we had to come into the city to pick her up. She also had my nephew with her who is the same age as my son: 5. My son and my nephew had a great time together. They ran through sprinklers we set up in the backyard, they played outside, and they went to the park. I was very happy to be able to spend time with my son and my nephew. We just had fun. We ate ice cream, went swimming, and stayed cool. My sister has a pool in her backyard and she lives about three minutes away from me, so we went there. Thursday was really nice too. I called in a few times, and they said there was still no power, so I went shopping. My husband still had to work and deal with the heat; he’s a community nurse. Constance H. Halporn, Coordinator, Photography Department, Center for Biomedical Communications The power went out Tuesday night, which basically meant that everything we do here at Audio Visual came to a stand still. Our computers, our processors, and even our water pressure wasn’t working. I found out Wednesday morning at about 6:30 that we were not coming in and promptly went back to bed until about 8, which was very nice. Then I sat down at my computer and started working on a photography database of my own. I spent most of the day working on that project, took a nap in the afternoon, which was also very nice, and then went off to teach my judo class at the main campus. Thursday was a slightly different story, because we weren’t sure if we were going to come in or not. Except for a short trip to the bank, I spent most of the day at home checking in to find out if we were going to come into work. But it was still similar to Wednesday: work at my computer, stretch out for a while, and take a walk. Sarah Thissell, Director, P&S Annual Fund My husband, Jameson, is a third-year P&S student and he was on call at the hospital. We live in the Towers, so I couldn’t really get anywhere downtown. The first day I mostly read while it was light out, and I had to walk up and down 25 flights of stairs, because we had no running water for us or my cats. I had to walk up and down the stairs in pitch black because all the emergency lights went out the first day. It was scary. If you lost track of where you were, you couldn’t go out into a hall to see what floor you were on because there were no lights in the halls. We didn’t have batteries for our flashlight. None of the stores in the area were open so we couldn’t get batteries. I used my husband’s little pen light. Just before the power went out, I was on my way downstairs to bring dinner to my husband. I pressed the elevator button and it flickered, so I decided to take the stairs. I had only taken two flights when the power went off. Had I gotten on the elevator I might have been stuck for a while. The second day we had electricity in our apartment but no air conditioning, so I had a fan blowing the whole day and I was able to work on my computer. Bonita Eaton Enochs, Assistant Vice President for External Relations I don’t want to minimize the blackout-induced losses of researchers, but being at home during the blackout was a stroke of luck for me. My husband’s niece and her husband arrived from Nebraska the first day of the blackout, so I was there to welcome them to New York—their new home while my niece works toward her master’s at Teachers College and also helps to care for our triplets, who were born Feb. 24. And, needless to say, I enjoyed spending two more days at home with the babies. |R