HURRY, RUSH OUT AND GET SUPPLIES! HUUUUUUGE BLIZZARD MOVING INTO THE EAST COAST!!!
yesterday afternoon, i heard about the blizzard that is going to hit today and last night turned on the weather channel and already, things were REALLY REALLY WORKED UP. it was nonstop coverage of the storm, with a graphic of the projected HUGE HUGE SNOWFALL expected out there. UP TO TWO FEET IN BOSTON, WHICH COULD BE ONE OF THE TOP TEN SNOWFALLS THERE. IT COULD BE HISTORIC.
they had a list of all the historic boston snowfalls, with number of inches for each, and it all went on and on and i really wanted to stay up to see if it continued all night, but i got tired and went to bed.
i don’t know what they could have managed to talk about for hours and hours, except YOU BETTER BE PREPARED and IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON GETTING ON AN AIRPLANE YOU’RE TOTALLY SCREWED. footage of people pulling milk off shelves, and i’m sure all the milk must be completely sold out all over the east coast.
this morning i got up and kevin was sitting here in the living room calmly reading the paper and i said WHY DON’T YOU HAVE THE TV ON??? he didn’t have a good answer.
so i turned it on and they were all still there, still REALLY KEYED UP. they have ONE HUNDRED REPORTERS on the ground, and right now a woman is reporting from times square in the rain.
that’d be kind of anti-climactic, if it just rained instead of snowing.
i was wrong, they just said they have MORE than a hundred meteorologists on the ground.
now i’m thinking that the NFL should recruit some of these meteorologists for the next super bowl, in case the power goes out again. these people are REALLY REALLY GOOD at talking and talking and talking, no awkwardness here at all, no lack of words because they don’t even use teleprompters.
the live team coverage is called TRACKING NEMO, and i guess it would be too silly if it was called FINDING NEMO, instead. and why the name nemo, anyway?
whew. i am exhausted already, and it’s not even 9 a.m.
unfortunately i have to do some stuff today because i’d like to just sit here and WATCH THE DRAMA UNFOLD.
anyway, kevin, mollie and i took a little trip. we left on saturday and headed down to gulf shores, AL, because our friend wayne rents a condo down there for a coupla months and we wanted to get away from the cold.
i didn’t mention this before because i don’t want you BREAKING INTO OUR HOUSE WHILE WE’RE GONE!!!! because i know that’s just what you’d be doing if you had known. and mollie wouldn’t have been here to defend the house, only the fierce kitties, who would have demanded many treats and lots of petting from you.
OH MY GOD A STORM UPDATE…there was some footage of a grocery store as they said THE BREAD IS GONE FROM STORE SHELVES IN NEW YORK. but the empty shelf had a sign saying “artisan italian loaves;” there did seem to be regular bread left. but OH MY GOD NO MORE ARTISAN ITALIAN BREAD. plus MILK IS ALMOST GONE.
anyway…we left at 8:30 saturday morning, and drove two days for a total of about 14 hours. it’s about 880 miles to gulf shores.
it was kind of neat to finally see the grass getting greener as we drove. here we are, crossing into alabama.
i tried to get a shot of mollie but she absolutely refused to look at me. she didn’t like being strapped in, and she was kind of anxious for quite a few hours, but by the end of the day she’d calmed down about it.
we saw many pretty fluffy clouds later in the day, and i told dad about how nice it was to see some pretty skies there, instead of the constant grey we have here all winter. he said that they’d just seen some beautiful clouds the other day, so clearly we don’t pay enough attention when we’re home. also, since our living room windows face the east, we only see the sky in the west when we’re out and about, and we don’t usually get out so much.
so there was this actual rocket at the first alabama rest area. we didn’t stop, but i managed to take this mediocre picture.
we stopped in the little town of cullman, alabama, and mollie always enjoys staying in a hotel room. it wasn’t the fanciest place but it was pet-friendly, and that’s all she cared about.
we got to gulf shores at about 3 in the afternoon, checked into our condo across the street from the ocean, and headed down to the water.
it was in the upper 60s, pretty nice, kinda windy. the water was definitely much too cold to swim in, but as we walked along the beach we did see some kids wrapped in towels, so they didn’t care about the freezing water temps. because they’re kids.
wayne’s wife aggie had come down for the week, and as we walked, i saw a couple off in the distance and said i thought that was them, and sure enough, there they were! it was nice to have a welcoming committee there on the beach. that never happens. here’s kevin, aggie and wayne. in the background are some of the huge condos lining the shore. wayne was staying in one of them.
we went up to the 18th floor where they were staying, and i wish i’d taken some pictures. they had a huge balcony, and they said they kept the door open at night and heard the sound of the waves. dang, i wish we’d stayed on the water. but there weren’t many pet-friendly options on the beach.
our condo, was cute, recently refurbished, and here’s mollie on monday morning, relaxing, finally.
kevin, looking things up. the condo was actually cuter on the inside than the pictures i’d seen online. it had two bedrooms, a good-sized kitchen, even a blender. i made a smoothie.
here’s the view out the living room window. you can just see a sliver of ocean, to the right of the little house in between the big places.
here’s the other side of the big place across the street; we could see quite a bit of the ocean. but in the night, just the sound of cars going by, no waves crashing.
on tuesday it was a little bit chilly and there were some pretty big waves.
we went to a wharf in the next town over, orange beach. lots of yachts moored there, plus they had this huge shopping-entertainment complex with very pricey-looking stores, nice restaurants and a HUGE movie theater. it was a 15-plex, and the theater we sat in to see “warm bodies” held 470 people. and we were the only people there! the whole place was eerily deserted; i guess the big crowds must appear during spring break and in the summer when kids are out of school.
we stopped by an ice cream place after the movie because i’d seen a sign that said BEN & JERRY’S and was excited about a hand-dipped cone, but when we got there i read the fine print – it was just pints of b&j’s which you can get anywhere, and hand-dipped edy’s. so we didn’t get any ice cream at all.
they did have a lovely azalea bush out front; they were all over the place.
kevin with a poop bag after our walk on tuesday.
i realize i have a few more photos, from kevin’s camera, but right now i have to rush away. more later, plus my deep thoughts about gulf shores and vacationing.
meanwhile, KEEP TRACKING THE STORM! it’s starting to snow a little in boston, much earlier than they’d anticipated, and jim cantore was already on the brink of compete rapture with storm anticipation.
ok then,
mrs. h.