That waitress I was seeing's lost her desire for me

I found myself at a friend's house the other night talking about Bruce Springsteen. The question came up:  Which was the best Bruce Springsteen song ever? 

(Editorial note:  I use the past tense here because, obviously, none of the man's recent work can hold a candle to his early stuff.)

In any case, I was surprised that nobody knew the answer but me.  I refer, of course, to the masterpiece titled "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

Chorus: I'm reminded of those commercials in which somebody says that thing about Geico saving you fifteen percent and the other person says "Everybody knows that." Me: Exactly! I thought everybody knew that. Chorus: Apparently not.

None of which is really that important, other than to say that two years ago today Hurricane Sandy roared through the northeastern United States, pretty much ripping New York City apart while, at the same time, totally ignoring the city of Troy.

It was the first time in my life that I actually paid attention to the weather forecasters and filled my tub with water. After the fact I felt like a bit of a knucklehead.

Sandy, perhaps appropriately, also tore through the Jersey Shore. The Bay Head beach house in which I spent the summers of my youth was left more or less untouched, but the house of a family I knew not less than a mile away, in Mantoloking, was completely wrecked.  Literally washed off its foundations and tossed into Barnegat Bay. Very sad.

I'd post the lyrics to the song but for two reasons:  A) Today is not the 4th of July, which is when I always post the lyrics to that song, and B) I can't work my cell phone that well.