Sandy

Sandy

As I walked around the property, again, to see what else I could do to secure the place against the probable strong winds, heavy rain and falling trees, I heard voices down the way.  From up on the rock ridge on the north side of my place I could see my neighbors family all out around their pond.  They were duck hunting, but not with guns, it looked like they had a big fishing net, maybe a towel, and a few kids with flailing arms.  They keep about 5 or 6 white ducks with orange beaks in their pond and they seemed to be gathering up the ducks to put them in the coop, with the chickens, hopefully out of harms way, before the storm hit.  I also noticed that the pond was a few feet lower.  He must of taken out the boards to the spill way to lower the level to prevent flooding, should heavy rains come.

Later, I got a call from another neighbor.  He wanted to let me know that he wasn't going off to any of his jobs, he's in construction, and that he'd be staying put during the storm.  He let me know that if I needed anything, he was there.  He had plenty of gas for the generators, so if I needed some he had extra.  He sounded quite unhappy about the weather that was coming and a bit worried about how it might knock down trees and cause all kinds of damage.  He had been here thru hurricane Floyd and that was a mess.

It seemed like most folks around here were taking the threat of the hurricane seriously, and I was glad, because I was sure taking it seriously.

My morning routine is to check headlines of the new search engine, Google news, see what people are interested in, then my email, then the current earthquake activity around the globe.  I like to see what's shaken, how hard and when.  The news outlets don't talk much about the earthquakes unless they create a bit of damage.  I've gotten to feel as though there are some patterns, or reflections I call them, from larger quakes that happen in the days following.  Don't know that it is useful data, at this point, but it might be eventually.

Next I turn to the weather.  I routinely check not one, but four weather sites every morning, as well as looking out my door and looking at the sky, and sniffing the air.  The 4 different weather sites have slightly different reads of the models and data that are available, and they have 4 very different ways of presenting the data.  They all use graphics and numbers that are close to the same thing, but they present it very differently.  One is just plain facts, no drama, that's NOAA.  NOAA is pretty accurate, but not always as explanatory and sometimes not as early in the forecast.

Of course there is TWC, The Weather Channel, and they are very good to, but very sensational, lots of graphics and hype and the whole feeling of the site is a bit tedious.

Then there is AccuWeather, and they are somewhere between NOAA and TWC.  The guys at Accuweather keep blogs that are very educating, both about weather and about how geeky weather guys are, though the last part is probably unintentional.  The guys here are really good, and they aren't afraid to put out there opinions early, and they are usually pretty accurate.

The fourth site is Weather Underground, who sadly, have just been bought up by TWC.  I say sadly because I appreciate the independent analysis and freedom to put out statements with out the larger corporation figuring liability and how to present a uniform front.  The heads of this site seem like real scientist and researchers and educators.  I respect their opinions and that they are the ones who provide easy access to weather imagery of the entire planet, not just North America.  The weather on the planet is all related and they present it that way.

A week before Sandy hit New Jersey and rearranged the barrier island map, the computer models were saying this could happen.  The braver or more brazen weather forecasters were saying it was going to happen.

When I look at the weather maps I always favor the worst case scenarios and plan for that.  It is easy to plan for the best case scenarios and be right most of the time and go on as if nothing happened.  It is just as easy in my opinion to choose the worst, be wrong and go on living.  It is kind of hard to choose the best case scenario, be wrong, and go on living, sometimes it is even impossible.

One could say that by making my choices I am missing out on life and that I might be running around scared.  My attitude is the same one I had when I was climbing 2000 vertical feet on a rock wall, or sailing single handed in heavy weather or skiing in the mountains or riding a motorcycle across and up and down the country.  I don't think this attitude kept me from having a good time or living my life, and in fact, I think it allowed me to live it more fully.  I think it allowed me to be prepared for much of the things that would go wrong and otherwise end my fun.

We had a 50 foot tall tree on the place that was uphill of the garage/shop and I had been worrying over it coming down and crushing the place of one of the vehicles.  I wanted to take it down but hadn't because it is a sassafras tree and they can be so weak as to make them risky to climb.  Well Sandy took it down for me and it did hit the garage but only glancing.  It didn't really do any damage, but to the gutter.  I am glad that I moved the mast to the boat, the tree would have crushed it.

We put fuel in the vehicles on the weekend before the storm and that is now paying off because people have panicked and there is a rush for fuel.

I guess I could divide up people into two categories, those who prepare and those who don't.  The people who live out here on the edge of the park, in the woods are maybe a bit more independent and plan to have to take care of themselves, while it seems that the folks who live one on top of each other or in crowded neighborhoods are more dependent on public services and the flow of electrons, or petrol, or money from the atm and the flow of information on the internet.

I count on the flow of the water, the flow of the jet stream and the winds it brings.  I count on the flow of things from high to low as the affects of gravity work on them, and the flow of the tide from low to high as the moon pulls on the sea.

Given the choice of $5 or an apple, most of us would choose the $5, but for different reasons.  Most people would figure with $5 they could buy an apple and have money left over.  That is probably true, as long as there is enough food of some sort around, but if not, $5 may not buy an apple and a $5 bill isn't very much to eat.  The reason I'd choose the $5 over the apple is because I have access to apples, they grow in my yard, and I have access to a lot of food already.  I also know that I can walk outside or into the woods and find more food to eat.  I have a harder time getting $5 these days, but then again, I don't need for much money when I have access to food, and water, and I know how to get more, with out money.

the chant to rebuild started before the water has even receded.  These castles made of sand can be rebuilt, and probably will be, and they will probably be pulled down again by the sea, or fire, or shaken down, like all things will.  But these homes and lives that we built around these places might be better built elsewhere, or at least more reasonably.