Susanna J. Sturgis   Martha's Vineyard writer and editor
writer editor born-again horse girl

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Storm Prep

September 01, 2010

The hurricane's coming! The hurricane's coming! Hurricane Earl is progressing up the U.S. east coast, and the anticipatory panic has already been going on for several days, although -- or maybe because -- the weather service can't predict where it'll make landfall or how strong it'll be when it gets there.

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout . . .

In the days of my youth John Prine sang "Blow up your TV, throw away your paper / Go to the country, build you a home / Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches / Try an' find Jesus on your own." He's still singing it. Loosely interpreted, it makes pretty good sense. The TV and the paper part, however, can be strictly constructed.

I can't literally blow up my TV because I don't have one, and I also can't stop the spillover babbling from people who are glued to their TVs or their weather-related RSS feeds. Short version is that, yeah, I did learn that a hurricane was coming. A couple weeks ago we had a three-day blow and didn't see the sun for most of a week. So I consulted my underwear drawer and calculated that if we didn't see the sun from Friday to Monday, I would most certainly run out of clean underwear. Preparedness is good, so this morning I did laundry.

The humidity is heavy, the breeze minimal, but the sun is out and the laundry was dry by mid-afternoon -- all but my Presidential Visit August 1993 T-shirt, which for some reason stayed damp even when my denim cutoffs were all bone dry. This round had more short-sleeve Ts and fewer sleeveless than the last. Still no long pants, however.

Now I can sing along with Cindy Kallet: "I am ready for the storm."

Speaking of whom, Kallet and Grey Larsen are performing at Katharine Cornell on Saturday. Can't wait.

 

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