Irene visits NYC

Well, that was exciting. Some of you may have noticed that we had a small weather event run through NYC recently. ;)



I first heard about it on Tuesday when my sailor called and said "Make plans to go to your parents house this weekend." We watched the news as it became more and more likely that NYC was going to really get a whallop, and I did end up clearing out, which was good because my neighborhood ended up with an evacuation order. I brought along my friend who lives in Hoboken - the same friend who sewed her wedding dress last October - and we had a fun weekend in the rain that was like an extended camping trip at times.

Let's see- I baked up chocolate chip cookies for the guys on my sailor's ship and dropped them off at 6 AM on Saturday AM. I hear they were gone before the ship even pulled away from the pier, so next hurricane I'll bake a double batch, I guess. ;)

Then we put my fish into a ziploc bag, packed some snacks and bottled water, drove out to northern NJ. My dad has decided that my fish's name is Anchovy (it's really Horatio, but that's my dad for you!), so the weekend became "Operation Anchovy Extraction" as in "operation rescue the fish from the huge storm!!"

Here's my dad checking on his sailboat before the storm starts:


We lost power early on, and a dam near by broke. And so here I am checking on the sailboat in the rain to make sure the lines are secure:



The lowlight of Operation Anchovy Extraction may have been the 5 AM run to get more ice to put into the fridge and freezer. Nothing like loading massive bags of ice into the back of your subaru in the rain at the crack of dawn. At least the place we got ice from had hot coffee! Our coffee making method this weekend was pretty convoluted: Send someone out into the rain to turn on the gas grill. Fill camping pot up with water, put pot on grill. Ready french press. When we thought the water might be boiling, send someone outside to check. Commiserate when the water wasn't quite there yet. Check in a few minutes. Boiling! Carefully carry water inside and pour into french press. Drink coffee and listen to the radio some more.

The sailor is back on dry land and busy grumping that it was just a large rain storm, to which I've been countering that anything that prevents me from taking a shower for two days is more than just a large storm! I hope you all had a safe & dry weekend!