There's a Storm A'brewin

We are waiting the arrival of Hurricane Sandy here in Central Jersey.  I am hurriedly putting together a couple of scheduled posts because 1) we may lose power, and 2) this will keep me busy for a little while instead of watching the round-the-clock news coverage of what's coming.

We've already had a little scare with the power going out for a few minutes neither of us having showered yet! - That is bad because we have a well and without power, we do not have running water.  So I think we set a new record of getting that done in 10 minutes!

The last several days we have been getting ready.  We visited the condo in Barnegat and pulled in the furniture off the porch and tied down the air-conditioner.  The condo is up on pile-ons so we shouldn't get water, but the wind will be another thing.  Pictures sent to us yesterday before the storm arrived already showed the bay breaching the dock across the street.  Can't worry about that now.  We only hope that the people who live there year-round took the evacuation seriously and have headed inland.

I made the grocery store run on Saturday afternoon - not my favorite day or time - but surprisingly there wasn't much of a crowd though there were shelves that were empty.  Trying to shop for things that can be eaten cold or can be made on the stove top (we have a gas stove) was a little challenging.  I really do not like what I call "crap in a can" type stuff like spaghetti o's and such.  And we've been trying to stay away from those box mixes but I succumbed and got HWNSNBP a couple of canned goods and found the mac and cheese that did not need milk so we could keep the refrigerator closed.  Let's say our menu for the week will be interesting.

Yesterday we got the message that school will be cancelled for two days and HWNSNBP's place of business has closed, though they are encouraging all who can to work from home if they have power.  This is unprecedented for him.

We have a generator that will mainly be used to run a pump if the basement floods.  This was necessary last August when Irene came to visit.  HWNSNBP has filled the gas cans and we have water in plastic jugs I had been saving for a project I was planning.  Thankfully I had not yet cut them up.  That water is for toilet flushing (again because of the well).  We have bottled water set aside for drinking and cooking.  All the gutters have been cleaned and the leaves swept away from the drains as much as can be at this time of the year.

It's been raining, but not heavy, and there have been some wind gusts.  And like I said, the lights went off long enough already for us to have to reset all the clocks.  If we have flooding, this street may become an island, but we are prepared.  The worst is expected later in the day.

Hoping all of you in the path of this storm stay safe.