Despite the fact that I have severe tendonitis in my ankle I waited in line at Walgreen’s for fifteen minutes to buy my hurricane supply of gummi bears. The line was insane — filled with people like myself who were sure that the End of Days was soon to be upon us and that those of us who were either not card-carrying members of the Tea Party or were insufficiently stocked up on life necessities would not live through it.
Impending natural phenomena of the storm kind bring out a tension in most of us which is manifest by hoarding. Normal prudence is replaced by a skin-crawling need to buy bottled water and canned peas even if one has never ingested either previously. My dear spouse, when instructed to “pick up something to drink”, came home with ninety-six bottles of water that had been purified not once but three times. I am quite sure we will be able to taste the difference. The Foodmaster’s shelves were bare of tinned food by last Friday. Even Nero Kitty was taken into consideration and has been supplied with a social security check’s worth of Science Diet (Tubby Kitty Care).
We have three flashlights, candles, batteries, a radio, a manual can opener, charged up cell phones, Kindles, and iPODs. Our gutters are cleared and the family of chipmunks that live in the garage’s foundation have been evacuated to a shelter. The trees are pruned. The car has been parked out of harm’s way.
Now we wait. .. The radio is saying that the hurricane has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm for New England…
I hope you get through the storm in one piece. We will be thinking about you guys.