OK, I'm starting to get a little freaked now. Hurricane Irene, a category two hurricane in the West Indies, looks set to swing up the eastern seaboard and land directly on New Jersey and New York on Sunday.
We've spent the night photographing the family's possessions and making sure that all important documents are secure. For all the e-commerce in the world insurance companies aren't going to be impressed with a printout alone. M's folks are already stocked up on food, water and medicine, and have an impressive larder, although if the power goes out there will be some frenzied cooking of frozen stuff.
The news channels are full of nothing else and we check in periodically for updates. Some of the news was a tad alarmist. Someone on the TV advised people to write their name, social security number and date of birth on a piece of paper, wrap in plastic and put it in their left shoe and lace it up. There's something to induce panic, and for no good reason.
M's parents are being very nice about it but I suspect they might have reason to regard me as something of a natural jinx. The last time I was here at Christmas we had a massive snow storm that dumped 26 inches of snow in 24 hours, snowing us in for two days. So far on this visit we've had an earthquake and now a hurricane.
Heaven only knows what's going to happen when I come next time – a rain of frogs, multiple lightning strikes or a small volcano no doubt. Personally I'm hoping for slow zombies. Everyone's being very nice about things, but I suspect 200 years ago I'd be hauled out and burnt as one of Satan's imps for this run of bad luck :) Thank goodness for progress.
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