lblanchard: (Default)
Actually, it's not a terribly nice day for a bike ride, but I'm ready for one so I'll do one at lunchtime if I get enough work done.

Wednesday I had hopes of going out but life happened and I wound up working until the first hobgoblin showed up.

But yesterday I took my creaking knees out for a brief ride to a meeting and oh! were they happy afterwards. I'm determined to get at least a few miles in today -- if nothing else, a run to the Wal*Mart for greek yogurt and cheap coffee.

I'm a little bemused by some of the Hurricane Sandy aftermath things. On the plus side, we have New Jersey governor Chris Christie working side-by-side with president Barack Obama, which is a good thing. On the negative side, we have utility crews from Alabama being turned away because they don't belong to some union. We have the head of Staten Island blasting the Red Cross for being slow with aid. While I'm no fan of the Red Cross, I remember a whole lot of FEMA officials standing up in disaster planning meetings in the past and saying folks are basically on their own for the first four days because it takes that long to get aid into an area. On the other other hand, I can see the frustration of the Staten Island folks when they see that New York Mayor Bloomberg is going to go ahead with the New York Marathon. And I can see the determination of Mayor Bloomberg to show that New York is open for business.

Meanwhile, I'm good. The only hurricane un-prep remaining is putting the plants back outside, just in time to get zapped by the first frost, due here this weekend according to Wunderground.
lblanchard: (Default)
The sun is making a valiant effort to shine, and it's about 20 degrees colder here than it was when this hurricane caper started. I am looking forward to getting out to check our Post OFfice Box and deliver some documents this afternoon. Roy will be back from Omaha in time for dinner and normal life will resume. With less anxiety about the weather it's easier to concentrate on work and I'm looking forward to a productive day.

The big tubs of water have been emptied and returned to their places. The files that I moved because of worries about The Flying Air Conditioner have been returned to their regular places (most of them). Other things are slowly migrating back to where they usually live -- although the cooler, camp stove, etc., haven't made it out to Anderson House yet.

A piece of disaster prep arrived from Amazon this morning, in good time for the next disaster: an oil lamp with hurricane shade plus two extra chimneys that I plan to put around votive lights to keep them safe from drafts. The lamp oil that I thought I ordered wasn't in the box -- I will have to check the Amazon site to see whether I forgot to order it or it's coming separately.

The weather forecast is offering us warmer weather starting tomorrow. I think the plants can stay in Anderson House one more day.

Many folks in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic have not been as lightly touched by these storms as I have. I am grateful that our neighborhood has largely been spared.

Time to put the orange bulbs in the front candles, to hang the plastic pumpkin over the front stoop light, and to otherwise prepare for the hobgoblins. As far as I know, our mayor has not postponed Halloween.
lblanchard: (Default)
The turkey carcass yielded about five cups of turkey bits. The bones are simmering on a slow flame in the medium stewpot. So that's done. The hard drive is backing itself up as I type.

The Mother of All Closets has had clothing removed from the pole in front of the leaky window, the better to change out the towels. I swear that window is going to be the next thing we fix here, well before the living room floor.

18 gallon tubs are staged by the respective bathtubs. The BIG stewpot (five gallon capacity) has been filled with water and is sitting on the back burner in the downstairs kitchen. Candles and matches have been placed strategically all over the house and I'm carrying one of those wee LED flashlights in my trouser pocket.

I have to tinker with a load of laundry that requires special handling, and I have to chop the appropriate vegetables to add tasty flavors to the turkey broth.

It started to rain about half an hour ago. It's raining in earnest but not particularly aggressively, and the trees that I can see don't look particularly agitated. I think this may be plain old weather and not part of the trifecta.

This has got to be hard on all the migrating birds that will be sucked into this as it squats over the Atlantic Flyway unless they change their course. But the storm is alleged to have a thousand-mile footprint.

Profile

lblanchard: (Default)
lblanchard

August 2023

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223 242526
2728293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 17th, 2025 11:27 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios