SANDY

We spent much of the weekend preparing for Hurricane Sandy.  The forecasts warned of high winds and heavy rain with power blackouts thru much of the Mohawk Valley...first starting on Tuesday & Wednesday; and then as the system got closer on Monday & Tuesday.  Jeff cut up firewood and I stacked it on the porch giving us enough for 3 or 4 days in an easy-reach.  Got 24 gallons of drinking water and extra cereal, milk and bread. Jeff finished taking apart the garden braces and put them away in the garage along with the last of the lawn chairs, wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes.  We actually looked like we had 'batten down the hatches'!  The backdoor on the garage is easily opened by the wind, so Jeff braced it from inside and since we couldn't fit the car in the garage with everything else we parked it between the house and the garage in a protected area. He even put the garbage pails in the garage thinking there wouldn't be a collection on Tuesday morning. I remembered to take the remote garage door opener with me and we were all set.

When the kitchen was clean after supper I made another pot of coffee and turned on the Fox Report.  Things looked really rough in NYC and on the Jersey Shore and we settled down to watch the storm's progress.  Mom went to bed early as usual and while the wind picked up, it didn't rain.  I worked on a sock I'm doing for a swap and Jeff kept coming up with something else we should get before the next emergency
(a generator, a camp stove, lamp oil, etc.)  Every time there was a loud band or wind gust, Jeff went outside
to check if anything had fallen over.  He was worried that the stovepipe would be taken by the wind (and I was kind of hoping the fireplace chimney would be).  In spite of the heavy cloud cover it was so bright outside last night he didn't need a flashlight. around 9pm the lights flickered and went out.  Still no rain to speak of.  We sat in the dark talking until about 11pm and then went to bed.  The dog was nervous about the shadows caused by the flashlights and Jeff still jumped up with every large thud.  Around 3am he decided to make a camp stove out of a coffee can and heated up some of the coffee outside.  Still no rain and the night was still very bright.  The lights came back on around 5am and while the cable tv, phone and internet were still out (didn't come back on until 10am) we managed to get a Utica radio station and caught up with the outside world.  A fresh pot of coffee and it was soon nap time for us all.  Hurricane Sandy hadn't lived up to her predictions here but hadn't been so docile in NYC.  Jeff and I spent most of today catching up on our sleep.  I hope we don't have too many hurricanes but there is a nice stack of wood on the porch....

I had been so involved in knitting that sock last night I didn't notice I had gotten carried away and had to rip out a couple of inches this morning.  And I did not try to work on it after the light had gone out!