A WORD OR TWO BEFORE THE "BIG BLOW"

I am trying to think of everything that I might possibly need to do before tomorrow night when Hurricane Earl passes by. Right now, he is indicating that he'll keep his distance like a gentleman, but you never know what might happen in the next 24 hours. So I have gone into full battle mode with my preparations. We are stocked up on non-perishable food, alternate lighting supplies, a generator, extra gas for it, a full can of propane for the grill, batteries, water storage and my Berkey light (a water filter so effective that you could put pond water in it and come out with absolutely pristine drinking water), paper plates, cups, towels, flatware, plastic bags, cars all gassed up, supplies for the pets, first-aid and meds. I always go way overboard and you might ask yourself why.

Why, indeed! I assure you, the most compelling reasons are that I am rather obsessive-compulsive, eccentric, and always up for a little drama, and that is the plain truth.  And you just never know if and when the real deal may befall us. And then we'll be ready to shelter and care for the seven of us, and maybe even be a benefit to our neighbors. You see, at the end of our little nub of a neighborhood sit we on a little mound that is 18 feet above sea level. Not impressive in the least until you consider that pretty much everything else in town is either at sea level or below (for real). So that means that unless we are directly hit by a catastrophic hurricane, we will not flood; however, it also means that we become an island. Nobody in, nobody out. Unless we float. 

Is it mere coincidence that we also have a canoe and two little rubber boats? Well, what do you think? But what we would most likely do is stay put for awhile, and carry on till things normalize or the Lord comes back. And I wouldn't be surprised to see either of those two things occur within about a week.

Now, tomorrow, I plan to scrub the bathtubs really well and before bed, I will fill them with water, which is standard practice whenever we are facing one of these storms. That way, you at least have some washing up water you can access if the power fails long enough for us to lose water pressure in the faucets. I also need to run a bunch of canning jars through the dishwasher so that they can be accessed in the unfortunate even of needing to cook up and can a bunch of food before it spoils.  Also, I will want to vacuum everywhere and make sure everything else that can and should be laundered is done and dried before the storm hits. And of course dishes done and kitchen cleaned for the night, early. 

I made this little rule up because about ten years ago, I had made an enormous turkey dinner the night that a hurricane hit us, and was forced to greet the newly imposed stone age with a kitchen full of dirty dishes, and a washer and dryer full of wet and mostly wet clothes, respectively. I also had a wallet that was, lets just say, below sea level itself, and a houseful of highly spirited children, five of my own and two that were left in my care for about ten days. Needless to say, the day after the hurricane was hot, sweaty, exhausting and seemed to last for about two years! I was very discouraged, but out of that dark pit, vowed like Scarlet O'Hara digging through the dirt for that spare potato, that ah would nevah be in that position again!!

So yeah, kids grow up and so did I, but just a bit. I now know enough to get things in order ahead of time, keep the menu a bit more tame tomorrow, and just simply give myself permission to relax for the duration. But I do hope we get a bit of a show from Mother Nature and Mr. Earl, though I hope everyone on the east coast is kept under God's protection, no matter what.

After that, I hope we can get down to business and break out the fall decorations without breaking into a sweat. Happy September!