Nope, it's not a cool SyFy movie Linda will watch this weekend, it's for real! Linda has never been very good at planning for disasters. When 2000 rolled around, she didn't even have an extra bottle of water or more than one day supply of pet food. The last few storms, she didn't go to the store to get toilet paper or milk (ha, she doesn't even drink milk.) For some reason, she's feeling like she needs to prepare for what weather forecasters are calling the "perfect" storm. Frankenstorm is looking like a doozy and utilities and our local government are preparing for the worst. High winds, heavy rain, extreme tides (I think we'll be OK on that one. The stream is 300 yards away at the bottom of the hill. She has seen it cover the road at one point years ago though) and maybe even snow will be hitting our area this weekend. Some guy who is all-that at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said ""We don't have many modern precedents
for what the models are suggesting." There is now a 90% chance, up from 60% two days ago the East coast will get pounded. Here is what they suggest everyone should have on hand:
Three gallons of bottled water per person
Three days supply of food that does not need cooking (including pet food)
Battery powered radios, flashlights and extra batteries
Extra blankets
A full gas tank
Here is what Linda actually has on hand: Extra blankets. If she is going to really prepare, she is going to have to go out and fight hoards of panicked people at the grocery story. We do have a giant cooler that can hold most of our refrigerated foods, but then there's that whole problem of ice if we lose power. Our flashlight is AWOL, it's around here somewhere.
Linda can't figure out why her whole life she hasn't been afraid of bad guys breaking in, weird noises, walking us alone at midnight, traveling to Mexico for a week by herself (more than once) reading scary novels, panicked weather predictions, etc, etc, etc. The last few months, she has been feeling much more wimpy and even overreacting when a silly kid rings her doorbell at night then runs away.
