It has been an odd sort of day. I was up way too late last night (though not doing much better tonight as it is already 11 p.m. here in the East) and as a result woke up late this morning. Then off and on I’ve been watching the weather channel for information on the approaching hurricane, working on sundry things, cooking a couple of days worth of meals, raiding the chocolate out of the Halloween candy bag (thank goodness there’s not much chocolate in there…), and puttering around the house waiting for the wind to pick up. I stuck my head outside a little while ago and all that’s happening at the moment is light rain and a little wind. So it’s kind of hurry up and wait in terms of the approaching storm. I suspect the wind will pick up and everything will start happening in the middle of the night while I am sleeping.
Across the area things are canceled, postponed, suspended, or shut down. At my workplace, classes have been canceled and administrative offices will be closed all of Monday and not reopened until Tuesday at noon. I did a little preparation to “batten down the hatches” at my house, but still being somewhat new and having limited space for storing things out of harm’s way (I have no garage, no basement and little in the way of places to put thing) I mostly left things outside. A West Coast friend inquired about what room Honor and I would hunker down in should the wind and weather get really dicey. I supposed it would be the bathroom as it has only one small window and is located on the side of the house where there are no trees. My office is another possibility for similar reasons, and somehow I can’t help feeling that it would be more comfortable during the siege than the bathroom. So we shall see. Hopefully it will not be necessary to hunker down anywhere.
I’m grateful that I won’t have to get up tomorrow morning and decide to try to brave the commute to work. I am hopeful that the storm will not be as dramatic here as they are predicting for further up the coast, but I have no idea what we’re in for. My plan is to get to sleep as best I can, stay asleep barring unforeseen storm-related drama, and get up in the morning and get on with the day as best I can. I actually have work-related things I can do, and if I have electricity, I plan to have a semi-regular sort of day.
So I will walk around the house one more time before retiring for the night. I’ll stick my head outside and check the weather one more time. Be sure I have my flashlight near my bed and in general be as ready as I can. That is all one really can do about most anything, after all.
