Not So Much As a Sniff Of Hunkering In Virginia Beach

Battened Down!!

So I'm not sure about the rest of the city, but there's a palpable air of excitement about the approach of Hurricane Irene (follow Irene on twitter here, she was in 'spin' class the last time I checked. Ho ho!!) on the Upper East Side. Some people are almost giddy in fact. It is quite thrilling I admit, as long as no-one gets hurt of course and I suppose fears are assuaged somewhat when you live in one of the gray areas on the evacuation map that isn't expected to be in any danger of floods as a result of storm surges and you get to ride out the storm within the comfort of your own apartment.

It was almost business as usual for me this morning; my 8.15am Total Body Conditioning class was still on at NYSC and there were tons of people using the treadmills on the main floor of the gym. Supposedly the location nearest me is operating as usual with the exception of the classes which are cancelled after 11am. I'm surprised they're not closing earlier. They normally stay open until 9pm on Saturdays and Debs told me yesterday that even though the worst of Irene was expected between 2am and 4pm on Sunday the city was recommending people not be outside between 9pm Saturday and 9pm Sunday, so how are the staff expected to get home, especially with the MTA stopping all services at noon today?? Hmmmm!!! Hopefully they will all be safe. Even the Fairway Market that had tweeted they likely wouldn't be open today ended up opening from 6am - 10am, although Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds were all closed.* I popped into Fairway and got a few bits - cut fruit, milk, tofu, the usual hurricane essentials ha ha - it was busy but not insane and the shelves looked to be as full as they usually are. I was reading yesterday that there were bread shortages, but Fairway had a decent amount this morning and there hadn't been a run on the beer aisle. Perhaps wine and cocktails are the drinks of choice for a hurricane. I've definitely seen a lot of Facebook postings from people planning to hit up the liquor store and stock up - personally I'm going to have a teetotal hurricane experience - and according to one friend there were about a 100 people in line at the Trader Joe's wine store near Union Square last night. The line to pay at Fairway was pretty long too, but most people were pretty mellow about the situation and I got to check out some of the Upper East Side hotties while I queued. Silver linings ;-)

Anyway I'm pretty much all set for Irene. I've got 3 flashlights, lots of spare batteries, something like 5 gallons of bottled water plus a couple of large containers of tap water in the freezer should I need to use them for cooling other foods if the power goes out. I heard on the news that Coned is considering preemptively cutting the power in downtown Manhattan below Canal St, which is the area they are expecting to be most at risk for flooding. I also have:

- Season 5 of Dexter on DVD
- Two fully charged laptops, two fully charged cell phones and a fully powered Kindle
- 4 Cadbury's Curly Wurlies
- Cans of tuna
- A loaf of wholewheat bread

I also have a bunch of fresh food that I've cooked up and just need to reheat, power permitting. I also plan to fill the bathtub with water later tonight, just in case I should need it for flushing the loo. Just have to pack my 'go bag' and I'm ready.

According to the latest weather report Irene has apparently been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane, but we can still expect 40-50mph sustained winds, with the potential for 80mph gusts. Later in the day on Sunday we're expecting sunshine and a high of 81F, which just seems bizarre. The city is taking it extremely seriously anyway, too seriously some say, speculating that Mayor Bloomberg is very keen to avoid another f*** up on the scale of the mismanagement of last year's post Christmas blizzard. Better safe than sorry in my view. The fact that some residents of low lying areas that are under mandatory evacuation order are deciding to stay put just beggars belief.

"I built my castle, I gotta protect my stuff," said one buffoon who plans to ride out the storm in Far Rockaway.

How exactly is he expecting to protect his possessions from a hurricane? Is he under the impression that if he lays on the top of his stuff he can stop it from blowing away? Board up the windows and get yourself to a safe(r) area you big numpty; your stuff isn't worth having if you're dead!!!

Other than watching back to back episodes of Dexter I plan to get my domestic on this weekend and have a whole pile of clothing that's either missing buttons or has come undone at the seams, so it's on with the TV and out with the sewing kit and then cleaning, so that the place gets a good scrubbing before my parents arrive in a couple of weeks. Bring it on Irene, hopefully it will be a storm in a teacup, but stay safe kids!!

*Make my OWN coffee??? Seriously ;-)

3pm. It's excruciatingly humid but very quiet out there right now.


P.S. In other nature related news there have now been TWO large sharks spotted off Mission Beach in San Diego. Two!!! There go next week's surfing lessons for sure :-(

Irene Schmirene

The media is quite excited by the impending arrival of Hurricane Irene, but I've not seen any of my colleagues muster anything more than a shrug, although the city does seem to be taking it incredibly seriously. All subway, rail and bus services are being suspended at noon tomorrow, which is having a knock on effect on local businesses and services having to close since their employees won't be able to get home and Fairway grocery store just tweeted that they are likely to be closed tomorrow and encouraged people to shop today. Hmmmm!!

The more I read online the more nervous I get about the windows being blown in and I must have checked the evacuation zone map 5 times already despite the fact that it doesn't change and my apartment is multiple blocks away from even a green evacuation zone and is highly unlikely to experience any flooding as a result of storm surges, but still...

Okay enough anxiety...I'm disconnecting myself from Google, Facebook and Twitter.



Oh great, now I'm reading that a San Diego beach was evacuated after a possible large shark sighting. There go the surf lessons!! "Oh shit," was Megan's response, "but if it's your time, it's your time. At least it would be cool to be eaten by a shark."

Um...I bloody beg to differ, it would NOT be in the least bit cool to be eaten by a shark!!

Megan: if it's our time to be eaten by shark or blown away by hurricane, it's our time to go.

Me: Yeah I suppose, but I think it's been close to 2years since I've gotten any, I can't die re-virginized. Let's go see who's left on the creative floor. The gorgeous grey haired bloke you like was here earlier, you could try him ;)

Megan: haha!!

P.S. Just heard of a tweet that the CVS pharmacy on 42nd and 10th Avenue is out of paper products. Loo roll hoarders abound!!!

Tune!!!!

I love Bombay Bicycle Club!!

Video: bombay bicycle club - shuffle hq Etiketler: bombay_bicycle_club, shuffle, music, video, watch

Okay so I know it's a long range forecast...

...and that it's about as accurate as the weather forecast, but still I was pretty impressed when I saw the estimated swell height for Rockaway Beach on Sunday at noon per the chart below.

19 feet!!!

19 feet!!! Can you imagine? That's Hurricane Irene for you. Seriously if we expect to even come close to waves that large I'm expecting some poor bugger from the news to be dispatched out to the beach to report from the scene. I think it was barely 1.5feet when I was there last Saturday. I keep checking the forecast as I had been hoping to take another lesson this weekend to get in a bit more practice before my lessons in San Diego* next week, but even on Saturday they are forecasting 7 footers, too much for this novice, but I'm tempted to take the train out there to watch other people try.


*My father, who has the physique of a heavier George Costanza, plans to join me for a surf lesson or two in San Diego. I was kind of joking when I suggested it, so I am a bit surprised he's actually up for it, but good for him. I just hope he has medical insurance.

Ooooh

Earthquake in NYC, just a small one, but still, an earthquake!!! The office was all a flutter for a good 15 minutes. I was walking purposefully back to my desk at the time and one of my colleagues said that the water in her glass moved and for a moment she thought it was ME!!! Cheeky be-atch!! What am l, the T-Rex off Jurassic Park!!!!

Story Of My Life

I was perusing a few surfing forums yesterday for some information and came across this post on Smash Surf about a couple of surf related films that are showing at Anthology Archives next week. I sent the info to Megan as I know she's really into all things surf related* at the moment.

"Let's go," said Megan about 10 seconds after I'd pressed send on the email. "Are you in? I'll buy the tickets now!!"

Seriously she is REALLY into surfing just now.

The cost of the ticket includes complementary beverages provided by Barefoot wines as well as nibbles by Kind Healthy Snacks and VitaCoco (whatever VitaCoco is when it's at home. Are they the people that make those frozen muffin tops?)

Hmmmm, let me think, free wine plus a high potential for cute surfer boy eye candy...count me IN!!!

Here's a 2 minute trailer for one of the films. It appears to feature men from 70s/80s video dating sites spliced with surfing (!!!). The dating aspect hits very close to home at the moment given my current experiences with OkCupid and Match.com. To be honest it almost feels a little *too* relevant right now, although I especially like the man dressed as a Viking!!

Thanks For The Dinner & The Sex from Waves Magazine on Vimeo.

*I enjoy all things surf related too, especially the ultra cute surf clothing that makes me look sporty and athletic and like I know what I am doing. Seriously we went to Boarders Surf Shop in Rockaway the other day and even though Megan asked all the questions, the young lad behind the counter addressed most of his responses to me.

"You looked the part, you were wearing Rip Curl board shorts," said Megan

Oh well, if that's all it takes to be a surfer... ;-)

P.S. A normal seeming man from Brooklyn emailed me via OkCupid today. Fingers crossed!!