Just In Case, Goodbye

Is it the end? Last week earthquake, this week hurricane? I'm a seafaring man, I've seen it all, but most East Coast landlubbers are quaking in their boots like an all girls kindergarten class right about now. Buying Evian and tins of caviar. Disgrazia.

But this may be the end. I've noticed the weather is definitely turning to extremes, on an annual basis. Unlike the halcyon days of my yout'. Way back when the hurricane came up here and we said fuck off and that hurricane said "okay." This time, I don't know. My dog is refusing to go out. Which means a house full of shit on top of whatever else. But you can't be mad. I wouldn't send a night out on a dog like this. I mean, I wouldn't send a dog out on a knight like this. Come on already.

So let me say I love you all. I don't mean it, I'm just saying it. If we all move on to the next life together I hope to see you there. And if not I hope I don't end up with a mouth full of dirt. Thanks.

Weaker but still menacing, Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. New York City emptied its streets and subways and waited with an eerie quiet.

With most of its transportation machinery shut down, the Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan — 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolinas to Cape Cod — and packed wind gusts of 115 mph.

Almost a million homes and businesses were without power. While it was too early to assess the full threat, Irene was blamed for five deaths.

The hurricane stirred up 7-foot waves, and forecasters warned of storm-surge danger on the coasts of Virginia and Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. In the Northeast, drenched by rain this summer, the ground is already saturated, raising the risk of flooding.

[Associated Press]