Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The hype: A storm may be coming

Here we are in the middle of the last full week of our non-eventful August.  Well, I say, "non-eventful" even though we did have one really major event.  Yea, I know "uneventful" is probably a more appropriate word, but I like mine better.  The one event we did have was Gator Wife's still unexplained meeting with a utility pole that ran out if front of her. 

Her car was officially declared "totaled."  It really doesn't take much to make a ten-year-old car get more damage than the car is worth.  As I mentioned over the weekend, we did get her a new one rather quickly and I got to drive it for the first time Tuesday.  New cars surely do drive much more comfortably than old ones.

It seems like only yesterday we began eating the fresh veggies right out of our own garden.  I sure do like them.  Already, though, time is running out for the super fresh goodies.  The weather hasn't stopped them; we've just eaten too darn well.  One bad thing did happen.  Our summer squash plants were blooming abundantly a few weeks ago.  I love summer squash and was looking forward to those blooms becoming succulent vegetables.

It never happened.  They were in a garden off the beaten path at the end of our yard, away from where Gator Golden can leave her scent of presence.  Some unknown critters have completely eaten our summer squash.

I missed it.  An earthquake rocked much of the East Coast Tuesday.  All the way from the Carolinas, through New England, and into Canada.  I heard some people on the local news say they felt the quake here.  If they did, and I'm not saying they didn't, it sure must have been a mighty weak shake.  One building on Marginal Way in Portland was evacuated because it shook for a minute or so.  There was no damage nor injuries.

I have never felt an earthquake.  In fact, according to NBC news, the last East Coast earthquake occurred more than a hundred years ago.  I'm rather elderly, but not quite that old.

I got a new cable box Tuesday as my old one was acting rather funny.  I was sitting in my den setting it up and never knew a 5.8 level earthquake was striking the East Coast until I read about in the news I peruse a couple times a day.  I simply missed it.

Now our attention turns to the new hype threat; a hurricane or at least its remnants may or may not hit this area Saturday night into Sunday.  Irene is a Cat.2 storm this Wednesday morning and could strengthen into a Cat. 3 before it begins to lose some of it power later in the week.  It looks now like it'll miss Florida and nudge the Carolinas before heading straight for New England.  Of course the edges of the storm could cause some problems along the coasts of Florida up to the mid-Atlantic states.

The cone of potential storm travel puts us in that "could go well west of us inland or well east of us out to sea."  If it does turn westerly, it could slam into the U.S. over the Carolinas.  If it doesn't veer one way or the other, the projected track puts us right smack in the path of at least some heavy winds and heavy rain over the weekend.

Now I feel just a little guilty for joining that hype I rail against so often.

Gator

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