Friday, September 5, 2008

[JessFinds] A natural disaster

Baby Gonzo appears to be getting a bad headcold. She is not sleeping well and is sneezing like mad. Her little nose is running - my beautiful snot-faced tot.

Everyone is abuzz about Hanna coming up the seaboard tonight. We are under a flash flood watch and I think Miss Crab's first soccer practice is going to be canceled. What? You can't put preschoolers out in driving wind and rain with potential severe thunderstorms? Whatever. Wimps. Update: I just got the call - it is officially canceled. She looks super cute in her shinguards. I will need to post photos.

Today feels gross though. It is so humid and soupy. I had the air conditioning cranked on at 7 AM. And my joints hurt, which could be the thyroid or it could be that I am turning in to Old Man Winter and a human barometer.

One of the exciting things about being "Back East" is the occasional brush with a Hurricane / Tropical Storm. I am a storm kind of gal. It used to be a lot of fun when moderate and I didn't own property. I - of course - would never wish a full blown killer storm on anyone but you have to admire the power of nature. Just amazing stuff.

We made it through Floyd in Florida (minor) while visiting Disney World a few years back and Isabella in Virginia (moderate). I was the only staff member at my not-for-profit who showed up to actually tape and tarp. I remember thinking "this must be pretty serious" when the city of Alexandria was out in force sandbagging. That night, we were all idiots, running around to each other's houses and apartments doing a movable feast while downing New Orleans style hurricanes in pint glasses. Hey, cool - your oven is still working? Let's do a pot roast! At least 15 people running around from house to house. Every time the lights went out, a giant OOOOH!!! went up from the crowd.

That action just does not happen "Out West." Oh sure, we had funnel clouds and wildfires and the occasional rockin' earthquake. I lived in Seattle during that whopper of a 6.8 that shook our house a bit off the foundation. We like to say it was the day our house liquefied.

So- if we want to act truly local we should panic, make a run on the store, buy up all the bread, milk and batteries we can find and then hunker down. But I think we are just going to get a lot of rain.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Man...I remember the "fellowship" during Isabella and that was such fun! Now I worry about a tree coming down on my house and killing my child. Look what a difference 5 years makes. Being from Texas where storms are really storms and not the wimpy things we have on this side of the continent, I too love a good storm.