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Lately in my neck of the NYC woods, Mother Nature has been a real b*tch! Two weeks ago we had 5 inches of water in our basement from the record rainfall we received in a 24 hour period. Then this past Tuesday we had a small earthquake (or a bad tremor, if you want to be exact) and now we are supposed to be hit with Hurricane Irene on Sunday. If Mother Nature is in some pissed off PMS mood, I sure as heck wish someone would hand her some <\/strong><\/font>Midol and a chocolate bar!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Our local news has the a bad habit of turning ANY STORM into Armageddon so generally, I take all of the warnings for most any storm much like I do Aesop\u2019s Fable \u201cThe Boy Who Cried Wolf\u201d, believing it to be all talk and very little action, which often times is very much the case. But then once in awhile, they will actually under predict the severity of a storm, as well. The day after Christmas last year, we were warned we might have an inch or two of snow. No biggie, right? Those two inches turned into TWO FEET and had a city, which is rarely paralyzed by anything, not able to be up and running again for close to three days! So as I said, I often take most dire predictions of doom and gloom regarding the weather with a grain of salt. However this time, I must confess, I\u2019m a bit concerned about this storm.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n For the very first time, NYC has issued mandatory evacuations of some areas, or zones, as they call them, and has planned on shutting down the mass transit system starting at noon tomorrow. These things are unheard of and have never happened before. One of the mandatory evacuation zones is located just one neighborhood away from where I live. That\u2019s a little too close for comfort for me! The mayor is telling those who must evacuate to go look to stay with a friend or family member or even an acquaintance out of the evacuation zone. Now I don\u2019t know about you but if I just met someone or don\u2019t know them very well, I would not want to impose on them or have the cahones to ask them if I could stay with them to ride out the storm. As for friends, I don\u2019t have any close enough in \u201cthe real world\u201d to, again, ask them for such a favor. As for family, outside of my parents who live in the same house as me, I have an aunt, uncle and some cousins and their families who live in Long Island but if it\u2019s the choice of staying with them and getting to hear all about how they all have such \u201cperfect lives\u201d and \u201cperfect families\u201d non stop, I think I\u2019ll take my chances with the hurricane thankyouverymuch. \ud83d\ude1b<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n So we\u2019ve done just about all we can do to prepare for Irene. The patio furniture and garbage cans in the backyard have been stored safely away. The subpump has been set up AGAIN in the basement. We have flashlights, batteries, water, etc, all ready just in case. And now I am going to charge up my Ipod , Sony PSP and my cell phone (if it would even work) in case I feel the need to listen to music and play Diner Dash as I watch the shingles from my neighbor\u2019s roof blow past my window. Along with essentials, today I also bought a pint of Snickers ice cream and a Chunky candy bar to help sustain me through all of this (hey, there are nuts and raisins in that Chunky bar so it offers me the nutrition I might need to survive. Yup, that was the ONLY reason I bought it! \ud83d\ude09<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n So I guess we\u2019re about as set as we can be for Irene. We are on alert from sunset on Saturday until sunset on Sunday. In the event you don\u2019t see me around here or on the other sites during all of this, you will know either my phone, electricity\u2026or both\u2026 is out. I will stay in touch how I can and if I can but if the storm isn\u2019t as bad as they predict and everything stays freakin\u2019 hunky dory, I should be around like I always am. If you could, please keep a good thought and keep your fingers crossed for us, K? I’d really appreciate it.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n In the meantime, as we all play wait and see on what happens, I am reminded of this song. Please just substitute Irene for Eileen.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n
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