ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE

Or at least a Nor'easter.

Sitting out on my deck at midnight last night, cordless phone in hand, longtime friend on the other end, you'd never know a killer storm was on its way. Mars was still clearly visible, bright and orange, through the trees. No wonder hurricanes were once such killer storms--the ancients probably never saw them coming. The friend is rapidly becoming a famous artist--I called to catch up and wish him well. He's single; he'll soon have art groupies and all the artsy press will have him in their Contacts on their PDAs. In fact, I fooled him for a few minutes into thinking I was from the New York Times. He says he wasn't fooled, but I know better. I've known him since second grade, so I know when he's taking the bait.

This morning there's a bit of a chill in the air and the wind is picking up. The sky is a very uniform gray. On the car stereo, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by the late Johnny Cash. I kid you not; bought the cd yesterday, that tune happened to be on deck when I started out for the office. By early afternoon the streets will be deserted, the wind will have doubled and the rain will start. We're expecting 2 to 6 inches, most of which won't sink into our saturated ground. That's going to be the big problem this far north--the rain. We just don't have anywhere to put it. Troubled water indeed.

I'm thoroughly nonplussed by the storm, though I'm happily a member of the Axis of Isabel. We did our preps, moving potential missiles indoors and tying down some of the big stuff. I mowed the front lawn, just because. We bought a little more drinking water, and I picked up a wind-up radio earlier in the week--it was the last one in town--just in case the lights go out. But I really don't expect that to happen.

Floyd was bigger and meaner and hit us more directly up here. For a while I thought it would take one of my trees down, but it didn't. Our basement leaked back then, so I spent countless hours bailing and pumping to keep the flooding to a reasonable level. We have since fixed that problem, so we'll be high and dry this time around. Isabel's probably going to give us a glancing blow and peter out to our west. But if you're in North Carolina or Virginia, you're in for a wild ride. But I guess you already knew that.