Sandy's Luxury Camping

While I am certainly impacted by Hurricane Franken-Sandy it is certainly not to the extent of those near the shorelines. We had very little rain on Long Island and since I live miles from the coast there was no flooding at all. Wind damage is another thing and monster trees are down everywhere, including on the electric and phone lines from the street to my house.

But with a box full of batteries, three cars topped with gasoline and two propane tanks for the barbeque we actually doing pretty well on the energy front. The laptop gets charged at a friend's house where there is electricity and a desk where I will write my column later today.

Time to think about the modern world. Look how dependent we are on "the system" that brings us an abundance of food, power, entertainment and other supplies. For those of us who ever rode out a few days of blackout, our stashes lasted just fine. But I have been thinking of the power company's warning that we'll be out 7-10 days. At some point, laptops, cell phones, battery supplies and gasoline for generators will run out. Then what? You can't just run down to the corner to fill up as their power is out, too. And for a while, Long Island was actually fully cut off from the world as bridges, tunnels, airports and shipping were all shut down. Stop and Shop is not getting a truckload of milk and bread so fast.

I am not advocating becoming a doomsday prepper but if, (insert deity of choice) forbid, our modern supply chain is cut off for say a month it is not like we can go out into the woods and hunt some Kobe beef. Or drop a line and pull up some Chilean sea bass. Or harvest some baby arugula.  Not here on Long Island in November in the shadow of New York City.

Just a thought. We are not as in control as we think.

With that, I must say that this is the most luxurious camping trip I have ever taken. We have a full grill, king size beds, waterproof roof and wind proof walls, internet (granted, stolen from the neighbor's unprotected WiFi) and a pantry full of canned goods. And I have learned to listen to the radio for entertainment.

Of course, this is all stored food and energy and eventually it will run out. But while it lasts things are really not so bad (again, my house is standing so we have it good compared to others).