Things were chugging along according to THE PLAN in October
of 2012 at the Kasten house. We had submitted our visa application package to
the Great Black Hole as we had started referring to the South African Embassy.
We had filled two dumpsters with absolute crap and had carted them away. We had
held a very successful garage sale and rid our basement, attic, closets, shed
and garage of years of accumulated detritus that we had been hanging on to
because basically we had the room and we could. We had engaged our real estate
agent and we were checking things off of our handyman list working towards a
listing date in late January/ early February.
We were feeling really good about our progress when BOOM! Sandy hit.
Sandy was a hurricane superstorm which clobbered the New
York metropolitan area and destroyed entire communities in Staten Island,
Connecticut and along the Jersey Shore. Second in damage cost only to New
Orleans’ Hurricane Katrina, Sandy would prove to have similar long-lasting consequences
to the tri-state area. Our town was relatively lucky. We did not experience the
flooding of the coastal community nor the natural gas fires of Brick, NJ and
Breezy Point, NY but the high winds knocked down trees and power
lines which resulted in a power outage that affected the entire town and lasted
for 9 days at our house.
We had experienced our fair share of tropical storms and
nor’easters in NJ before and we were used to the resulting power outages, water
restrictions and uprooted trees but these were usually isolated and of a short
duration. Sandy had a wide-ranging affect wiping out power to the vast majority
of JCP&L and PSEG customers in the state. And to add insult to injury on the heels of
Sandy came Athena, a nor’easter which dumped snow and dropped the temperatures in
our unheated houses to below freezing.
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While we knew that we were really lucky, the timing
still stunk. THE PLAN grinded to a complete halt. The painters could not work inside
because we didn’t have power. Manhattan below 34th street was also powerless so the South African Embassy closed shop for a
week. One of the boats we were trying to sell which had been stored at our
hard-hit yacht club was severely damaged. None of this was terminal of course. Just a setback
during an already very stressful time.
But we had to look at the bright side. Nobody
died. We had lost a couple of trees but neither of them fell on our newly
painted house. We had sold our beach house two summers ago in a part of the
Jersey Shore which had been particularly devastated by Sandy. Even though the old beach house was still
standing and relatively unscarred, it would have been a bitch to put on the
market right after Sandy. Our yacht club sailing head instructor offered to repair our boat and
use it to teach sailing to underprivileged kids if we were willing to donate
it outright. Done.
Eventually we got back on track. Power was restored and the
painters, handymen and floor refinishers returned. The South African Consulate
re-opened and starting reprocessing our application. Vince began stopping in
weekly to check on the progress. Always the same conversation. Vince: “I want
to check on the progress of my Exceptional Skills Work Visa and my wife’s
Living Visa applications.” Stone-faced receptionist behind the glass plate
window: “It is being processed. We will call you when a decision is made.”
Vince: “Is there anything additional you will need? Any clarification?”
Stone-face: “No. We will call you.”
The next week we got the call that Vince’s Exceptional
Skills Work Visa and my Living Visa had been approved and we could pick them up
anytime.
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