It didn't seem that long ago that we hunkered down for the "once-in-500-years" storm that was Hurricane Irene. Although the storm's presence wasn't strongly felt in Manhattan, damage outside of the city was widespread. A month later we endured a "once-in-500-years" Halloween blizzard that gave us a dusting, but dumped feet of snow upstate. After these storms, we're very prepared for Hurricane Sandy. The entire city is shut down and again its eerily quiet. There are only 4 businesses open in our neighborhood: one Korean market and three liquor stores (the liquor stores are packed).

We have plenty of food, water and wine, and the iPads are fully charged. Now we wait.