Still Here!

Yes, Dear Readers, Agnes and I appear to have escaped Mother Nature's wrath ... so far, anyway. This is what we all faced yesterday ...

As predicted, the brunt of the storm came through our area between about 8:00 last night and 2:00 this morning, with howling winds and heavy rain. We were concerned because of the very large trees that back up to our house, knowing that some of them have come down in storms before; up to now, they've always fallen into the woods, but if they should fall the other way ... well ... it'd be bye-bye house. So far, they're all still standing. The rain is still coming down, but the winds have diminished and are no longer the fearsome steady roar of last night.

We live at the bottom of a hill on a cul-de-sac that is drained by one meager storm drain, plus we have a stream in the woods behind the house that can get large and fierce when there's a lot of rain, but we appear to have had no flood problems ... the storm drain did yeoman service, and while we can hear the stream thundering through the trees, it didn't rise enough to get close to the house.

We lost power twice for brief periods of a minute or two, and had a lot of flickering and short brownouts, but for the most part our power stayed on through the storm. This is good, because over 100,000 people here in Northern Virginia lost theirs.

So far, so good! (Crosses fingers)

A few related thoughts ...

The news is making much of the fact that Hurricane Sandy has caused at least 16 deaths. While this is, of course, a tragedy, I can't help but think that we're very fortunate ... every time a hurricane/typhoon/monsoon/cyclone hits someplace like Bangladesh, the deaths are numbered in the tens of thousands and whole towns are wiped out. I think this reflects the wisdom of things conservatives viscerally despise ... things like job-killing^TM building codes and safety regulations. It also reflects the reality that, in spite of all other differences, Americans are able to pull together and do the right thing for each other in the face of disaster.

In other news, GOP presidential wannabe Mitt Romney blamed the failed policies of the Obama administration for the storm, while President Obama laid the blame squarely on the Bush administration.

Here we go again ... and election day is still a week away. At least now the wind will consist of political hot air, and its ill effects will take months to manifest themselves. Sigh.

Have a good day. Stay warm, safe, and dry. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

P.S. - I think I may know why I can comment on some blogs, but not others. It seems that the blogs which allow me to comment are those in which the comment posting opens in a separate window, rather than as an extension to the bottom of the post. Not sure why this should make a difference, but it looks like this is the common denominator.

B.