Goodnight, Irene . . .

The wind and rain are very loud out there right now. I'm just to the east of Washington and I-95, so we're on the line between hurricane and tropical storm as the eye is along the coastline. Hopefully when the eye runs into NJ and NY it will be quite a bit weaker, so you won't have worse than what we're getting here. There have been a dozen aftershocks from the earthquake into today, but I don't think I've felt any of them--poor folks in Mineral and Louisa.

We lost power for a couple of hours this evening, and I got to break out all my battery operated lights, fans, and radio, and kept doing chores without a hitch and threw a couple of catnip parties to keep the kitties calm. I'm happy to say it came back on after 2 hours, and it's been flickering a lot, but still holding. We're coming into the roughest couple of hours we're supposed to get, so I'll be thrilled if the power stays on through to morning, but I wont' be surprised if it goes out again. Not bad so far, Pepco--keep it up!

I debated whether to park my car in the coop supermarket parking lot a little away from trees, but opted to park it here under the trees where I could keep an eye on it, and have a short haul if I need to get out the 12 gallon cooler I got on sale at Kmart yesterday if the power goes out for more than 4 hours. I did pick the spot I think is safest where I think the trees would most likely fall away from it and branches don't look dead and loose above it. And heck, stuff could blow into it in the parking lot and it could flood there, so I feel better at least being able to check on it and I'm counting on it's sturdy roundness to make things roll off my round, blue, steel vessel.

I'm going to put fresh washed sheets on the bed, give the kitties one more nip party, take another shower, and try to go to bed. Aaand the power just did a big flicker, and there was a big bump sound, so I'd better send this when the modem resets. A safe night and tomorrow to all of my flisties still in the storm's path.

Power's back!

Yay--we just got our power back--it was out for 18 hours starting at 4:30 this morning. So all's good here now. I hope all you folks north of us who were more in the eye are OK.

I didn't get to bed until after 5 am when the winds were settling down, and it took me a good hour or so to get to sleep, but I slept through until 2 in the afternoon--I was pretty exhausted. So then I got up and went hunting for ice, tried several places before I was successful, and came back with my quarry an hour later. The power was out in all of Old Greenbelt through to Greenbelt Road, and lots of branches and leaves were down on my drive, but I saw no downed trees. We're not very flooded because, until last week, most of the storms in the area have missed this immediate area, so we haven't had as wet an August as most of the area has and our water table needed all that Irene brought.

The fridge was up to 50 degrees F, so I think I got the perishables iced up just in time as they had several more hours of power out to go. I still have my perishables in the coolers, so I'm going to clean out the fridge tonight before I put them back in. I don't know if the freezer would have really made the 48 hours they say freezers can go, because, though the freezer was full, the ice cream I just checked seemed pretty soft. However, no ice had melted. Still, I don't think the frozen foods in this freezer should be considered safe after 24 hours. So that's good to know at least for next time.

I went out later this afternoon to check on the strays--they were fine. I gave Ostra her massage and pet down. I don't think I mentioned before but she's fully pettable now and shimmies her tail straight up in the air mewing all the while as I approach--it only took 2 years. (-; I can pet Brigit fleetingly, and she's just started mewing to me, but it's going to take some more months, I think, depending on how jealous she gets of Ostra, and if Ostra lets me pet Brigit; Ostra's trying her best to keep us from touching by swatting both of us. Cats. (-; A. keeps saying she's going to try to trap them and bring them to a fosterer, but I'll believe it when it happens--she's been saying it since spring.

Then I picked up some more ice and batteries on the way home, as I sure made use of the battery powered fans and lights last night. So it's good--I'm almost stocked up again for next time. I made use of every bit of prep I did. I'm sure glad I won't need to get more ice tomorrow--the cost of this stuff adds up, and I'm glad I won't have to truck my frozens to L tomorrow, although I'm very grateful for her offer. And I'm glad I didn't have to buy dry ice--I looked up where I could get it locally and that stuff is expensive--I'm not sure it's worth the expense if you don't keep expensive fish and meat in your freezer. Tomorrow I'll walk down to the lake and see how it looks there.

What an exhausting week! Be safe everyone!