“The illest weatherman in the biz”

Well, we did the whole checklist of simple preparations today, so hopefully the Umbrella Theory will kick in and the storm won’t cause any serious effects. Although I will honestly be severely shocked if we don’t lose power–even though the storm appears to have shifted slightly westward, meaning we might only get 100km/h winds (what the locals would refer to as “a stiff off-shore breeze”) rather than the 165km/h ones (“a real blow”) that had been predicted.

• Move deck furniture into sheltered corner, where nothing can move unless everything moves
• Move lawn furniture into sheltered corner under deck
• Fill bathtub with water for flushing, should power outage happen (being on a well means you need power to have water)
• Fill barbecue tank so that we can cook if power goes out
• Grocery store visit to get lots of fruit, canned goods, etc, and nothing that requires fridge or freezer. Also get some bottled water.
• Plug in the battery powered inverter (thanks Ralph!)
• Check that we still have lots of candles (we do)
• Find flashlights and check battery status (LED flashlights last forever!)
• Make sure laundry is all done and dishwasher run in case we lose power

9PM and we still have power.