I wrote this comment on a friend's post: "I want to be a Rhoda or a Mary. But I worry I'm the other friend, Phyllis, the married one who exasperates them all and doesn't have enough self-awareness to realize that she's doing it."
Until this morning, when I looked up the name of the character, I had forgotten that Phyllis was also the landlady; if I was a younger grad student, I could have a lot of fun writing that essay about the power dynamics in the show--Phyllis could never really be on the same level of friendship, in part because of her marital/motherhood status, in part because she's the landlady. Of course, if I was younger and a grad student, I might not have the necessary knowledge to conceive of the idea, much less write it.
But this is not a normal day--we've got a hurricane of historic proportions off the shore of Florida. I'm trying not to draw comparisons to other Labor Day hurricanes.
I used to say that I preferred hurricanes to other weather systems because you could see a hurricane coming and prepare.
After decades of seeing hurricanes coming, I am no longer sure I prefer hurricanes. I might would rather wake up to a house shaking in an earthquake or duck into a storm shelter minutes before a tornado comes.
I used to think that knowing a hurricane was coming meant that you could secure your property, gather your valuables, and get out of the way. With these larger hurricanes, that's no longer true.
Earlier this week, I wanted to throw everything in the car and drive to friends in South Carolina. Their houses are hundreds of miles inland; mine is less than a mile from the Atlantic. Now those friends' houses are closer to the center of the cone of possible tracks than my house. How odd is that?
We can see a storm coming, but we spend days wondering if now is the time to get ready. It takes a lot of work to secure the property, and then to take apart the preparations when the threat is gone. At a certain point, there's some local hysteria that makes going to the store a herculean task because of crowds and shortages.
We will be doing lots of prep work through the week-end. With that kind of storm headed our way, we can't take chances. Even if it misses us, we may still feel some effects. I'm preparing for flooding.
I was lucky that I filled up the car on Sunday, so I could avoid the mania of the lines at gas stations. I always have plenty of food in the pantry and freezer. I have lots of containers and a bathtub that I would fill with water. In short, I'm always ready to a certain extent. I pay a lot more attention to the tropics than many people.
Yesterday we met some of our neighborhood friends at the Tipsy Boar to celebrate one of our birthdays. Happily, it was still too early to do much storm prep beyond discussing what we would do in certain scenarios.
After that time together, my spouse and I went to Hollywood Vine to get some wine for the duration. And we got home to discover that our Amazon delivery had come--if the power holds out, I will be listening to Rhiannon Giddens' new CD this week-end.
My hurricane supplies are now complete:
You can't see the red velvet cake because we already ate it. Some hurricane seasons we lose weight, while others have us packing on the pounds.
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with strange aches in my arms. I realized it was from my hurricane prep yesterday.
The storm path had shifted south, and I wanted to make sure the plants in my butterfly garden wouldn't turn into flying projectiles
I've been toggling between writing, Facebook, Internet rambling, and weather sites. I cannot spend the whole day this way. Today is the day to move most of our stuff out of the cottage. I had planned to do that anyway; my sister-in-law arrives in 2 weeks to live here while she gets settled into her new job and finding a larger space to live.
Because of the hurricane, I've changed my approach. I'll move boxes in, and later this week-end, when I expect it to be rainier, I'll unpack them.
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