Stacy Horn

Well, North Carolina got it a lot worse than we did. I was looking forward to a good storm, but once I realized how vulnerable I am in this old, rickety apartment, I’m glad I didn’t see the Wicked Witch zooming by on her bicycle.

The news is saying the worst isn’t over, the eye hit Manhattan just a few minutes ago, but it’s not even raining hard. I don’t know what to believe. I was walking on the roof looking for a good shot (there wasn’t one) and the wind was nothing. The lightning last night was the scariest part, because there was still the potential of it developing into something. Tornado watch!

It looks like there was some flooding and power outage on Long Island, waiting for the Suffolk Horns to check in.

I am so glad that just before I went to sleep I thought to put plastic out on my desk. That turned out to be a good idea.

8:30pm: There’s a tornado watch for NYC!

8:20pm: I’m getting a little nervous about the possibility of blown out windows, they’re all half-falling out of the wooden panes as it is. I’ve got plastic and a staple gun ready to go. Just don’t decapitate me. Or the cats.

I was also worried about the roof, that has been leaking for 30 years, but the landlord has made recent patches. I’ve had four landlord in this building, and they never actually repair the roof. They just keep patching.

6:45pm: ZZZZZZZZZ. Wait, what? 900,000 people are without power??

3:45pm: Back from sight-seeing. The internet host for my company Echo emailed me to say they’d been ordered to evacuate and they’re in Zone B so I wanted to see what it was like out there. I’m in Zone C. Right now it’s very quiet, it’s just lightly raining, and a few bars and restaurants are open, so naturally people are disaster-drinking.

1:00pm: Finished my super healthy lunch of brown rice and brussels sprouts and strawberries for dessert. Need to be strong and healthy in case of hurricane apocalypse and I need to help rebuild civilization (and fight off zombies).

11:40am: Just a little rain here. I worry about my pigeon. The picture below is of pigeons huddled against the rain on the building across the street.

Although this is putting me in danger of writing something that will become famous last words, Irene has already been downgraded to category 1?? Do hurricanes ever whip back up? Or is this it? Maybe I’ll go to the movies.

Hey, has anyone read this article about Joe Hill? Bottom line, I can’t buy that neither Joe Hill, his girlfriend, or the doctor who treated him, wouldn’t come forward to explain his gun shot wound. Protecting his girlfriend’s privacy doesn’t seem like a compelling reason. She wasn’t a married woman. Becoming a martyr for the cause? I just don’t see that either. I don’t see his girlfriend keeping quiet for that. It just doesn’t make sense.

An approaching storm, except not Irene, I took this yesterday, on my way to empty store after empty store.

Okay, I don’t want anything bad to happen, and I hope no one is hurt, but I must admit I’m a little excited about the storm. For the first time in New York City history there’s a mandatory evacuation order for parts of the city!!

Hey, Suffolk Horns! How are you doing??

I am mad that after so many years of post-9/11 preparedness I finally stopped being so vigilant and now I feel unprepared. I stopped into my local hardware store this morning, the place was demolished, the shelves empty. I went to Home Depot and asked where I would find the hurricane supplies and they said they were cleaned out too. I really wanted a battery operated Coleman lamp to read by. Oh well. I’ve got all the crucial items.

You can still get beer!

That’s how many laps I swim, except this week I forced myself to stop counting. Everything is a competition with me and if there’s no one to compete with I compete with myself. This can be a very good thing, but in this case it was wrecking something perfect. Swimming is not only great exercise, I love it. But I was turning it into something grueling.

As long as I keep swimming the whole time, I realized, I was getting the great exercise part, and I should just relax and enjoy it. So now I do. When I’m doing the back stroke I look at the sky and the gingko trees. During freestyle and breast stroke I look for the diamonds the jewelry store robbers lost underwater (it could happen) or perhaps a new undiscovered species that only lives in the Carmine Street pool.

Workers down at the World Trade Center leaving work at the end of the day.