Of Hurricanes and Tornadoes, Part 2

I started this entry at11:00 am, Eastern Blogging Time, just when I got back from a photo safari around the neighborhood. 

The winds were a little gusty, but not bad, and it wasn't really raining, just a little mist on my glasses.

I didn't see too much damage in our corner of the world.  A few branches down, a leaning tree.  (And can I just parenthetically observe that London Plane Trees are the messiest urban tree ever? Even when there is not a storm.)

There was one big tree down at 45th and Osage, and the poor car ended up very smooshed.

 

We saw one road sign down.  Could be bad luck, could be bad engineering.  That's a fiberglass composite and it should withstand more than steel...

Dickens and Little Nell in Clark Park seemed unfazed.  You would too if you were bronze and anchored to ten tons of concrete...

Some minor utility repairs were underway already at 11 am EBT.

 

I documented several umbrellas that did not survive for another day...

 

And the evidence pointed to the storm drain system getting a workout.

I came home and had this blog within five minutes of posting when we lost power (ultimately lasted 6 hours).  Thinking quickly, we immediately ate the last of the butter pecan ice cream.

Although things now looked grim, we knew we had another pint of vanilla.  But just in case this went into extra innings, we decided to eat all of the lasagna, too.  No point in waiting until it's really an emergency, right?

Stuffed, we walked around the block and found one of Terisa's associates moving in to a new place--on a hurricane day.  Fortunately, by then it had become calm and balmy.  We helped schlepp boxes up the stairs for her.

I don't want to be too flip about this major storm. There was certainly damage and people impacted.  We know many of the creeks that crisscross our ward flooded.  And buildings were damaged and people's lives interrupted. (Darby Borough, here, had serious flooding.)

But for us, Dragon-Lady Irene might just turn out to be Puff the baby dragon.

Still, with an earthquake and a hurricane all in one week, it's going to take a volcano and a plague of frogs to top this.

Will there be a Part 3?

Of Earthquakes and Hurricanes, Part 1

It's been a unsettled week for Mother Nature.

First, there was The Earthquake. (I think this is an actual seismograph from DC....  It's hard to tell, because this came from a conspiracy theorist's website speculating that the quake was an underground nuclear detonation, not a quake. Either way.)

Okay, not so large in Philly. 

I felt a couple of rollers that went for maybe 10 seconds.

Just long enough that I could worry about unreinforced masonry construction. (Actually a picture from the 1990 Iranian earthquake.)

Terisa talked herself and several friends out of believing it.

At least it made us review our emergency plans.
(Can you believe this book is still for sale?  I know, huh?)

Then Sister Irene planned a visit.  We're a little bummed, because Ellen and Wade had invited us out to spend today with them at Cape May: kiboshed by the mandatory evacuation.

 
As of 4:30 pm  Eastern Blogging Time, (EBT) all we've gotten is a lot of hype, and a bit of a drizzle.

But it's not supposed to get big here until tomorrow morning. 
We're prepared, though.  We braved panic buyers to get ice cream to go with the brownies.

Church has been canceled for tomorrow, which is a bit of a reprieve for us; we were scheduled to speak.

So in the next few hours, we'll see what this hurricane thing is all about.  Could be wild, but that's the definition of adventure.  And we'll either have a good time, or a good story.

Watch for Part 2!

Ode to a Closet

Poet's note: When one moves into a starving student apartment, one expects certain privations with regard to space. The following pays tribute to a pleasant surprise in our lodgings: 

*clears throat*

I thought that I would never see a big old closet just for me. 

(Hers on the right, his and hers on the left)

 

But six by nine, and nine feet tall, it holds my stuff, and I mean ALL.

A bunch of shirts (way too many) with suits, shoes, hats and pants aplenty.

A tub o' tools, plus food and water,  it stores it all, as a closet orta ("ought to," colloquialism from the musical, "Oklahoma")

Oh, closet mine, of you I'll rave--just add ESPN, you'd be a man-cave!

 

The end

Three Amusing Differences About Our Lives in Philadelphia

1.  We walk to church here, one of maybe half a dozen families who can.  It seems like we are right next door at 0.7 miles away. We leave half an hour early.

In Riverton, that 0.5 mile drive seemed like halfway to the end of the world: did we have enough gas in the tank?  And we were still usually late.

2.  We have no automatic dishwasher here and must wash dishes once or twice a day, by hand. Partly because we run out of dishes, and partly so we don't encourage pests. (Interesting sidelight: none of the Riverton Gabe's have dishwashers now: us, Paul & Bethany, Lynne & Kit.)

At home, we couldn't be bothered to load the dishwasher but once a week.

3.  Several times we have gone out to the suburbs for activities or things.  The suburbs around Philadelphia feel similar to the suburbs around any city.  Similar big box stores and malls, similar traffic patterns.  We're just now realizing we could have more closely matched our Riverton lifestyle, by moving further out.

If we had opted for a suburban apartment, we would not have gotten the metropolitan flavor we love so much: a five-minute walk to anything:  stores,

 

restaurants (4-5 dozen),

grocery,

movie theaters.

Plus the nightly sirens going up the street.

We would have missed all that.

Stuff You Don't Want to See

If we received fan mail, we might expect someone to gripe:

"Hey Gabe, looks like you are having lots of fun. 

But we know it isn't all fun and games.  How about keeping it real for us?"

So here is a short blog of all the stuff no one really wants to see.

First, there is our work.

Then there is a lot of trash on the street.  Not actual photo of Philly.  This week.

There is road construction.

There is traffic (when we drive) on the street.

Parking on the street is kind of a pain.

Sometimes there are scary people on the street.

Hmmm.  Seems like the dark side of our adventure is the street. 

I should have guessed that, but sitting out on our patio hanging out over the street is still pretty delish!