Pbenjay's Blog

There’s no way I’m going to sleep tonight so I thought I might try to write the next chapter in the Hurricane Hoopla of how we rode out the storm.  All I can say is “Thank God I was here!”

Normally an accounting of  a day in the life of  starts at the beginning but not this one.  Here’s what’s going on now…. my heart is still racing a little.

I just covered the chest in front of the bow window and everything on it with a sheet of plastic!  Then I put a basin and a pail on the floor to catch the drips that are dropping steadily.  Apparently the wind is pushing the water up under some of the shingles or where there is a seam in the roof of the bow window.   The constant dripping sound is so ominous and is competing for my nerves with CBS and Peter upstairs trying to tune in his radio and get it to work on batteries.  Add to that the sound of the rain pounding on the air conditioner in the kitchen and believe you me as they say, I am so uptight, I’m sure I’ll be writing this blog at 3am.

Earlier this evening we were watching a movie because we just couldn’t listen to any more news and Peter noticed a drip, dropping right in front of us on the coffee table.  Needless to say, I screamed and ran upstairs to see where it was coming in from the roof.  And Juanita, if you’re reading this, sorry but that is why I said I had to go!  Got upstairs, checked both ceilings and saw nothing.  Run back downstairs, move furniture and get the dish basin to catch drips.  OMG, my house is so out of order that I am in battle to the death with my own OCD and the storm and not sure who is winning yet.  Two of the porch chairs are in the living room, all the front porch tables are in the living room, and now that I had to cover the bow window area, the plant stand and books are in the middle of the room. Oh and the porch floor lamp is in the living room and the coffee table is now in the middle of the room.  However all that is a digression because I have to tell you the source of the drip.

I went back upstairs and walked over by the window in the bedroom and realized the carpet was wet! There was a puddle by my nightstand.  I threw books on the bed, grabbed a towel to mop it up and saw that the water was being blown into the room underneath the air conditioner.   Yelling for Peter to bring me towels, I stuffed some under the unit and he went into the guest room to check that unit and sure enough it was leaking water in also but not nearly as much.  More towels.   It only took 5 minutes for the towels in our bedroom to be wet so in the middle of this storm, we took the damn air conditioner out of the window!!!  Right now it’s in a trash bag but of course there’s no place to put it so it’s still in the bedroom and I hope I don’t walk into it in the middle of the night.   Wait, that’s not gonna happen because I’m not going to bed.  As soon as we got the window closed, the leak in the living room stopped

So then we checked the air conditioner in the kitchen and why are all of these goddamn air conditioners in windows facing East!! That one is much more secure, minor water collection around the base and I have stuffed dish towels around it and put plastic on the floor and moved the kitchen table away from the window which puts it sort of in the middle of the room and I had to remove the cafe curtains and where are they? In the living room along with the slickers, the clogs, rain ponchos and more plastic.  Oh yeah, the storm is winning!

By the time we actually got into Frank’s in Asbury Park it was noon so we had lunch instead.

We showered and drove off for coffee and breakfast, thinking a Starbucks and a hot breakfast  would help fortify us for the rest of the day But first I wanted to go the boardwalk and see what the shore looked like and the waves.  Lots of people were on the Fishing Pier taking photos.  I fed the sea gulls a lot of bread tossing bits in the air and marveling at how they are able to grab a piece mid-air.  The tides had already played havoc with the shore line; on the south side of the pier, a dune had formed and on the north side, it looked a like a giant with a shovel, scooped out the sand.

 And then the Beach Patrol came along and told everyone to get off the pier and they ran police tape across the access.   I had to mail a letter and yes the Post Office was open so we headed to Main Avenue and this is what we saw!

Seeing Main Avenue like this really upset me.  I KNOW they were only boarded up to protect the glass but now that the day was here and evidence of impending doom was everywhere, I felt my eyes well up with tears.  Maybe my nerves were already shot.

So going backwards in this day of days, Peter made several trips to the garage and deposited all the rest of the porch furniture along with some cartons of food designated for New York.   We moved the glass top table closer to the fence and I repositioned trash barrels, lawn chairs and our enamel table and anchored everything with bungee cords. And the phone kept ringing with concerned friends and family asking if we were safe or were we coming home?  Thanks for all the concern shown for us today!!!

Before all this (remember we’re going backwards in time) a sudden extremely strong rainfall woke me up-I had the door to the porch open to get some breeze and the door to the front porch on the second floor open for cross-ventilation so I heard it!  I jumped out of bed and screamed at Peter to get up and out because I had no intention of bringing wet porch furniture into the house.  It was already humid inside and destined to get worse.   In my pajamas I grabbed all of the cushions and brought them in.  Now I was racing against the rain to get stuff in the house and in the car and the water was already over the sidewalk.  Good morning Vietnam!

Go to this link to see photos of some of our worst hurricanes. http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/09/02/15-worst-hurricanes.html?om