lavendertook

Dear Nature,

I'm sorry for using the word "hype" in respect to what you were planning for us this evening and through the night. It really was directed at the media and not you, but I do understand how it still might not sit well with you. A town next to us is already clocking 57 mph winds and we may get up to 90 mph this evening. Some of the trees out my window have been doing full dips. I know you plan on running directly over the cat I'm looking out for in Warwick. Please be kind. You're bigger than us.



So that's the latest graphic from NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) National Hurricane Center. Apparently, Sandy will be doing pirouettes from here up to Trenton, as she spins north, delighting the whole Delmarva peninsula, southern New Jersey, and most of PA to boot. I am impressed we haven't lost power yet--good on ya, Pepco, though I'm sure we will sometime tonight, so here's hoping it won't last longer than the fridge can hold. I'm so sorry for the coastal peeps dealing with the storm surge--theirs is always the worst of it; the price that goes with looking out onto majestic beauty each day.

All pics below are of Sunday's beautiful sunset over Greenbelt Lake. I saw some cloud shapes that made story shapes in me head. There were beautiful pics to capture everywhere I pointed my camera, so I took dozens. I wouldn't know how to begin to pick which of them I should show you all, so the story below helped me pick a manageable amount to upload. I usually sharpen my pics and adjust the light, but I decided to leave these pics as is.

Keep in mind that when I point out the figures and shapes I see in clouds, no one can ever see what the hell I'm looking at. Does this happen to you, too? Maybe it will go better with the photos I take of those shapes, along with some description. If, at the end of this story, you can't find the figure I'm referring to in a photo, please say so in comments and maybe I'll be able to describe it a little further, which will probably be an effort in futility for both of us, and immensely frustrating, and ruin our evenings, and result in multiple defriendings forever and ever, but what's a journal for if you can't use it to show uniquely awesome cloud shapes never before seen in the history of cloudiness ever to your friends, I ask you?


RABBIT AND DRAGON'S DINNER: A Picfic in Clouds and Water

Warnings: This story contains a mythical creature threatening violence to an animal and a general description of dental extraction. There are also descriptions of bleeding applied to cloud colors. In other words, it's a story for children because adults are jerks.




Rabbit hopped along with her head in the Clouds, dreaming her own dreams. Consequently, she did not see Dragon until she was nose to jaws with her. She looked up at Dragon's great red maw, her big red fangs pointing downward, her long steel body with red gleaming ridges wrapping before and above her, the end coiled elegantly behind her, her clear eye fixed on none other than herself, Rabbit, Dragon's next meal.

And Dragon looked at Rabbit's little gray head, and two little gray ears, fluffy gray body, pink paws before and pink legs behind, and bright pink bobbed tail, and Dragon said, "Well now. Dinner has found me."
( And what will Rabbit do . . . )

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!

We got rain, a big rain storm, like we didn't get all of last month!!!!

*dances in happy circles that scare kitties*

\o/