St. Frances?



I got talked into buying up for the big storm. It's like Christmas for the sellers of bottled water, anything in the bread family and expensive non-perishables. I haven’t visited my local grocery, but I'm pretty sure they're breaking out the crape paper and party hats in the manager's office. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't piping Hurricane Carols over the speakers.

Tis the season to buy bread and water FaLa, La,La,La,La,

The Sam's Club(tm) I went to had plenty of batteries, bread and water and there were no lines. That could be because the storm isn't even going to hit Florida until Saturday at the earliest and everyone else has decided to stand down and see what's going to happen. But this is North Carolina; people here start to panic buy when the sky gets gray. Last year I couldn't find batteries anywhere and the water was gone from the shelves. People here have experience with nasty storms and they learn from their mistakes. I still don't have a cooler, but I don't have much to put in a cooler any way. We have had a lot of rain lately and the ground is saturated. It hasn't rained much since I've been back but my pump in the basement has been sporadically going off for the last two days. And that worries me.

I remembered to buy batteries this time, so the flashlights that I'm pretty sure I remember where I put, will work if they work at all, I don't remember. They were cheap. I'm pretty sure I got organized and put all that stuff in a box somewhere, but then I think I moved the box and now I'm not sure exactly where it is, except that I do have one and in it are many useful things. I think…

I do have a supply of smoke free oil for my cute lamps - cute lamps that I have not filled or lit and I'm not sure they work or how to make them work if they do indeed, work. I should probably find that out I guess. I think they were sold as practical oil lamps as opposed to the little pretend flash light/Coleman™ light I bought for last year's stormapolooza. Which, by the way sucked. Both the storm and the lamp. The storm made a mess and the lamp didn't actually throw light. It just wanted to sit on a shelf and be cute.

That's why I gave in and went storm shopping early. I didn't want to have to rely on a kid's toy to keep me from stepping on Mr. Kitty in the dark. I'm also not going to run out of food this time either - I think I'll be all right, unless I get really tired of tuna with no mayo sandwiches and all the Frosted™ Flakes I can stand. I have enough soda, I think - to get through. I all ready took most of my outdoor furniture and stashed them away but I think before it gets serious, if it gets serious I'm going to have to take them to the basement for safe keeping.

But. Nothing might happen. We may get a little rain and a little wind and that’s all. But… but the ground is saturated and a little rain goes a long way and once the trees can't hang on it doesn't take a lot of wind to make them fall down. And I have this house under this huge oak tree and it has a nasty habit of flinging its branches around and many of them flee this flinging by falling onto my roof

I still haven't received my door prize.