LiveBlogging Irene

7:47 PM Saturday: So there's this big storm coming, you may have heard about it. Living in more-or-less-central Astoria, I'm in safe territory (i.e., not an evacuation zone), but rain and winds are still expected, eventually. So I figured, what the hey, might as well drive the traffic on this blog back up to 2006 levels for a bit.

I've been making basic preparations, a bit at a time, since Thursday. Non-perishable food is stocked, water is in bottles, the AC is out of the window, that sort of thing. My roommate taped the windows in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, but I left mine untaped; it doesn't really do much, the experts say. He hasn't actually closed them yet, though; I'm hoping he remembers to sometime before midnight. We're on the sixth floor, so flooding damage is a bit unlikely, and the windows are our most vulnerable point. (My comics and books are all well away from the window in my bedroom, save for the ones in the Strand bag, and I don't care about those by definition.)

It's raining, but so far not any more than the average summer storm. We're not supposed to get the full brunt of this thing until sometime around midnight, though.

I'll probably update on a more-or-less hourly basis, until I go to bed or the power goes out. In the meantime, let's enjoy each other's company.

8:50 PM Saturday: Not much weather change. The guy next door actually has his cats out in the hallway, as he does sometimes. They seem copacetic.

Apparently there's a tornado watch in effect for NYC now. That certainly takes me back; growing up in Oklahoma, I went through a lot of those. I mainly remember being annoyed at the announcements cutting into whatever TV show I was watching. Watches rarely developed into anything; it was the warnings that were serious, as they meant that, if they were in my area, there was a good chance a tornado would touch down somewhere. So we'd bring the dog in, get away from the windows (easier said than done in that house, especially after we added the sunroom), and keep an ear out for the sirens. No dog here, but I am taking as reasonable precautions as I can about the windows. I surreptitiously closed the bathroom and kitchen windows, but the roommate is keeping the living room ones open so far. If he still has them up by ten or so, I'll just go in and do it myself, and fuck what he thinks.

Meanwhile, I've finally cracked open my audio book of World War Z. I figure, what better time? Hopefully the power will last long enough for me to finish it.

9:37 PM Saturday: Just had a false alarm. My computer (an old workhorse laptop) suddenly warned me about going to battery power, and I thought the power had died. Except the lights were still on, so that can't be it. Turns out the adapter cord fell out of the jack.

10:02 PM Saturday: No complaints when I closed the window just now. Poked my head out into the hall to hear the rain on the skylight, since I can't really hear much from my room (and not just because I've got my headphones in). It sounds like it did on our sunroom in Oklahoma. My mom used to love sitting out there listening to the sound. I thought she was crazy; it drove me to distraction if I was just sitting in the kitchen. Anyway, it's picking up a bit. Winds aren't audible.

10:57 PM Saturday: Okay, now I know why he didn't complain when I closed the window; he just went and re-opened the fucking thing. Some people can't be helped.

Meanwhile, Mark Hamill is totally the high point of the World War Z audio book so far.

12:00 AM Sunday: No real weather change yet. It's just about time for the bulk of the storm to arrive, though. I'm actually going to go to bed in a bit. Hopefully, I'll wake up with electricity, but I'm not counting on it.

10:38 AM Sunday: Well, Irene hit us about two hours ago, and I apparently slept right through it. Things seem OK in my neck of the woods; we haven't lost power, all my windows are intact, and there doesn't seem to be any flooding out on the streets. Folks closer to the water haven't fared so well, of course, so I consider myself fortunate. Winds are still pretty gusty, but nothing I haven't experienced walking to the bus stop in Oklahoma. High tide is apparently in a little bit, but we're not close enough for it to matter, I think. Barring any bizarre happenings (always a possibility in this town), I think the storm's pretty much over for me.