In this year’s End of the World scenario, another hurricane came down on us, threatening all life as we know it. What actually happened was that hurricanes are still predictable in what damage they do, and while the damage was done and I certainly feel bad for the folks who incurred damage, there were no surprises, except towards the people who seem surprised that I don’t like our governor when he speaks.

Last year, Irene came and went with little fanfare for those of us up north. The south and shore took damage, we shrugged it off, and then two months later snow dropped on us and we lost power for a week while the south and shore laughed at us. We did not lose power through Sandy, and frankly, I was kind of disappointed in a way. I was much better prepared for this storm, in terms of emergency supplies and food, and given all the rhetoric and media reports, we were led to believe this storm would end the world. Hurricanes hardly end the world for most inner-land folks, at most, we lose some trees and some power and that’ll make us uncomfortable for some time, but it’s nothing like what the low-lying areas and coastal towns suffer from a hurricane. I simply did not understand the mass panic in the north here, the long gas station lines, long food lines, lack of supplies, it was a first-come-first-serve fustercluck of panic that for 85% of these people, ended in nothing happening. Does that seem weird to you? If we had a real disaster, like a nuclear attack, or zombies, or something far worse than isolated weather patterns, how would these people react?

I can’t blame people though, confidence in our state’s public utilities is at an all-time low after “Snowtober” last year, and Malloy’s involvement was about equally as bad last year as well, which meant he stepped up quite a bit this year, which is about his only redeeming quality, but his comment about this being the worst threat to human life? Language is important, how you speak and what you say affects how people think, and to say something like that, even if you are directing it towards the folks in the evacuation zones, causes unnecessary panic elsewhere. Securing supplies was hard enough in the days leading up to Sandy’s landfall, and sure, the coverage started last week, people waiting until the last minute, but that’s why language is important, these people wait for government and media to tell them what to do, which is sad by itself, people should be prepared, but that’s how people are now.

That said, it sucks that a lot of places down south that just finished recovering from Irene got trashed again by Sandy, and the damages around NYC are also pretty bad. Hurricanes are no laughing matter, but it’s important to understand what a hurricane is and how rare they are to the northeast. This is a common occurrence in Florida, and all coastal towns, and it’s something you should always be prepared for. Living inland, I am not worried about the same things, but power outages and trees falling can happen, and that is what I prepare for. Apartment living though means I don’t have the luxury of a generator, so I have to rely on batteries and other tools. Procrastination sucks, and is expensive, and even though all my devices were powered, securing extra batteries was an adventure. My advice? Buy this stuff during non-storms and off-seasons and make sure they work when they need to. You should always have some kinda plan, and if you don’t, you drive far out of the impact zone and stay there until it’s over. Period. The more you know.

Anyway, life goes on, like it always does. Now when the world ends in December…