A funny thing happened on the way to surgery…

Nov 1, 2011 | On Being Positive

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Lynne Tapper

I am a lifelong endurance athlete with the dual goal of training and racing until my bones turn to dust and sharing that passion with as many people as possible.

Well, actually, it’s not funny at all. But I thought the title would catch your attention.

With six days to go, I was happily minding my own business.  Taking Sofie to her swim meet and getting ready for a neighbor’s Halloween party.  All was going along as planned.  Until…a freak snowstorm hit the Northeast.  A major, devastating snow storm on October 29th! Insane!  Trees and power lines down galore.  For many of you reading this, you know of what I speak or write.  But, for those of you not in the Northeast, allow me to vent for a few sentences.

The reason this snow storm was so devastating is because very few trees had lost their leaves (creating more surface area) and the ground was not frozen…a perfect storm, so to speak.  What resulted was major devastation in the form of huge tree limbs and full trees toppling onto homes and power lines.  If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it either!  Over 97% of my town of West Hartford (and over 800,000 homes in CT) still does not have power…4 days later!

I won’t complain too much, as we do have a generator (which we inherited when we purchased the home in 2008). We have been able to do some computer work, keep our food refrigerated and frozen, take a few hot showers and even watch a little news on the small tv in the kitchen.  But, we’ve had to ration the use of the generator to conserve propane.  And, like most other homes we had no heat so our house was 56 degrees inside.

After learning today that school was canceled for the entire week, we packed up and fled for the Big Apple. Since I need to be in Dobbs Ferry (near Manhattan) on Wednesday evening, we figured we’d head out a bit earlier.

In short, this totally sucks.  On a good day, this would be challenging. But given all that I have in front of me, I’m pretty pissed off!  I was looking forward to sneaking out of Connecticut on Wednesday, having surgery on Thursday and heading home on Saturday to recover in the comfort of my own home, with my husband, my mother, and all of my friends!  All the while my kids’ routines would be uninterrupted and they would be watched by my in-laws.  Now, I don’t know when I’m coming home or when my kids’ school will start again.  I do know that I will not be back in West Hartford until the power is back, that is for sure!

In the meantime, I’m trying to make lemons out of lemonade.  Our drive to Manhattan was uneventful. We got settled at my in-laws and met my Dad for a wonderful dinner at a new Greek restaurant on the Upper West Side.  We ended the evening with a stop at Pinkberry for Eli.

Tomorrow morning I’m very excited to go a run of the full loop in Central Park.  It’ll be fun to see the 2011 New York City Marathon finish line.  (The marathon is Sunday, November 6th).

For now, I’ve decided to forgo being angry and have decided to embrace this unplanned bonus of being in New York City with my family.

I just hope there aren’t any more natural disasters in the next 48 hours! Is that too much to ask?

i

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