1.   Almost everyone can make do with less.  Of everything.
2.   After days at 48-55 degrees indoors, 66 degrees feels almost balmy.  We can all stand to lower the thermostat a bit.
3.   Everyone should eat by candlelight more often.
4.  A headlamp was the most valuable tool during the days without power.
5.   Disaster recovery is a full-body workout.
6.   The human race is split, more or less, 50/50 between self-absorbed jerks and good decent people.
7.   If you want the facts about looming weather, turn off your television and get your information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (noaa.gov).
8.   Don’t wait for a disaster to appreciate and thank people whose vocation or avocation is to serve the greater good (firefighters, police, soldiers, committed volunteers).
9.   Mother Nature will always win in the end—we can’t out-engineer, out-build, outsmart, or outrun her.  Let’s work with her, not against her.
10.  Please, let’s all try to be less wasteful, more grateful, and more respectful of our planet. Treat it like it’s your own home.  Because it is.

NASA photo of Sandy

Thanks to my friend Allison Thomas who, after her community and home were hit by the hurricane, spent nearly five days without electricity, and spent the following weeks helping others recover what they could of their damaged homes.  She wrote this list.

First photo courtesy of Franklin J. Schaffner, filmmaker of Planet of the Apes.

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