If you live in the northeast, hurricanes are not really part of our weather vernacular. They happen, but rarely happen with the ferocity that is experienced by our neighbors in the Gulf States. Hurricane Irene, by all media predictions, will be the exception. Hurricane Irene is expected to move up the eastern seaboard at a category 1 and basically travel directly over the town I live in. (My town and hundreds of others, as this is a real wide hurricane.) My town is a small wooded place in NJ not really equipped for hurricanes. This afternoon I took a ride through some of my favorite places that have a lot of trees. I will repeat this tomorrow after Hurricane Irene. It is my hope the pictures look exactly alike…and that this is the dumbest blog idea ever.
So the start of that post was nearly two days ago. To some Irene was a flood, to some it was a dud, but to none was it a hurricane. No where in my “DMA,” to use a term from my TV life, experienced winds that would be considered in the hurricane range. Not that we didn’t get damage. Lots of floods, my car paint was damaged and lots of downed trees. But for the most part, Irene was not as bad as it could have been.
REQUIEM for IRENE … So again, this was not the hurricane we thought it would be. Still it entailed flooding and loss of life at the national level, but from where I sat, the stocking up on Chick Fila and Chinese lunches and Beef Jerky were not necessary. The media infused personal panic at the mention of tornadoes that had me building forts in my kitchen out of couches and ottomans, seem downright silly in hindsight. But at times, I will not even lie… I was anywhere from alarmed to a little scared. My favorite part of the storm was between the waves. After hours and hours of relentless rain and wind… there was a lull. Around 2 or 3 am. I took to the porch because I had no power. In the absence of radio and TV, (i had lost power,) I get my weather the old fashioned way…I look outside. The second round of more relentless storm was moments from starting, but the first wave was done. It was eerily quiet. Then I heard a small noise. Quiet, then louder…and louder
A single chirping cricket. Amidst the temporary break from the pounding rain and overwhelming wind, this tiny insect struggled to make his chirp heard. It was then that it all came to me, the beauty and the power of the infinite universe as I thought to myself…
LISTEN TO THIS HORNY CRICKET MF-er TRYING TO GET LAID!!!
They say animals “sense” things so I am quite sure he knew the next round was about to annihilate his little cricket home… so he said… “Might as well try and find myself a lady cricket to accompany me to Armageddon” … Godspeed horny little cricket.
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“And there’s a rose in the fisted glove and the eagle flies with the dove, and if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with…” (Stephen Stills)
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