Lee and I are back in New York, which is battening down for Hurricane Sandy as I write, buses and subways stopping in a few hours, interstate traffic stopping, trains and airlines cancelling, evacuation zones at the ready and people already being evacuated from lowlying areas. Exactly a year ago this weekend we had that memorable snowstorm which brought us 12-inches or so of heavy wet snow in the space of four or five hours, followed by no heat or electricity for the next four days. I weathered that one alone in the country by myself, since Lee had to be in the city for the duration. And while it was fun playing Bobinson Crusoe, heating snow for water on the propane stove and reading in bed by flashlight and, most refreshing—once I got over panicking about it—not having access to any electronic devices for several days, I'm not such a roughing-it kind of guy that I want to repeat the experience. Especially with the danger of an ash tree or a Norwegian spruce coming down on the roof in 80-mile-an-hour winds, which are the kinds of winds they're predicting. Much safer to find out about that later, if it does happen, and live out the storm from the safety of our 10th story New York City apartment building, with only the risk of a potted plant flying off the rooftop of one of the brownstones opposite us and crashing through our window.
Isn't weather fun? And some people continue to say there's no such thing as climate change.
In any case, just wanted to let you know why you may not hear from me right away if you email me and get no immediate response. They're saying we may lose power in the city, or in our neighborhood, at least. But don't be alarmed, I've already scheduled two entries for this week, tomorrow and Wednesday. And the good news is that those posts will be my interview with Eric Tide, the one I've been promising for weeks or maybe even months. It's pretty long, so I turned it into a two-parter, but I think you'll find it fascinating. I certainly did.
