Hang on Sam

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/09/cape_islands_ma.html

Hope you are ready and that nothing much happens!!

beat

Sam,

Sounds like it's time to batten down the deck furniture and head over to your friends' tavern. You'll want to weather the storm where there's a good supply of food and legal beverages.

Maybe this will chase away some of those pesky sharks. Friends of ours were over in Truro last week and said another one was spotted out there.

The weekend forecast looks better, so I hope it's a relatively smooth ride for you and Mrs. Sam until then.

Regards

Thanks guys. We really haven't thought much about it. As long as we have the three necessities—gasoline for the cars in case power outages make gas pumps operational, batteries, and milk—everything should be fine. Me may wind up having our current renter stay in one of our guestrooms during the worst of it, especially if there's a power outage. We'll probably sneak over to the parking lot above one of the beaches to watch the wave activity.

I do have one Cape hurricane story from probably 20 years ago. We were then in a house designed by my wife and built to our specs. We had sliders facing in a southerly direction, and the hurricane came up from due south. The wind was fierce, and the glass on the sliders was bowing into the livingroom. So I got the bright idea of grabbing a piece of half-inch 4x8 plywood so as to nail it against the wood shingles over the slider. My wife would have tried to talk me out of it, so of course I didn't tell her what I was up to.

I brought the plywood out of the garage, carefully holding the edge toward the wind so the wind wouldn't take it. Up onto the deck outside the slider. And I faithfully kept holding it into the wind as I approached the slider. What I hadn't counted on was that we had a bay window off to the left of where I was working, and the wind bounced off that protrusion and circled around behind me, taking the damn plywood like a kite. And, because I was too stubborn to let go, the wind also took up in the air toward the bannister surrounding the deck. The deck was elevated about 15 feet over a cold frame I had had built for my wife's flowere, and that wood frame was built with two foot by 2.5 inch boards nailed together and sticking up in the air 15 feet underneath me.

As I went over the bannister, plywood in hand, I somehow hooked my feet over the bannister railing. The bannister at once cracked, but it held well enough so that I gradually fought the wind and sort of shinnied down the bannister to the deck flooring, plywood still in hand. Now I was totally pissed off, and I made a rush for the slider, slammed the plywood against it and nailed it at quadruple tempo like Wile E. Coyote would do.

I was totally exhausted, and I was barely able to make it back into the house, whereupon my wife asked,"Where have you been." "Oh just looking around." But then she spotted the plywood over the slider, and she didn't speak to me for the remainder of the hurricane. Her first word to me, about two days later, was, "Stupid!" And it got worse from there.

Needless to say, I never did that again. But there were later exploits even higher on the stupid scale. Sometimes it's like pioneer life down here.

Sam

great story - wish her opening words had been kinder, but the story would have suffered, so what the hell !

good fortune on this one - seems like perhaps it'll be downgraded again before it gets to you. LOVE the idea of watching the surf overlooking a beach ... my idea of heaven !

best of luck,
Michael

Sam

sort of reminded me of one of my highly ranked "stupid" things I've done. I think still at #1 is as a probation officer I am required to do home visits. years ago i had a deaf person on that had been dealing drugs. Thing is I had been to his home before. He had a "doorball" that was hooked up to some lights in his home that would flash indicating someone was at the door.

Several months later I was doing a spot check and walked up on the porch and knocked on the door. I figured he was home as his truck was there. I waited and knocked again........still nothing. I then left my card in his door and left. It was about a half mile down the road that I realized what I had done.

Also high on the scale was trying to start my generator last winter when the lights went out. I had done some work on it and among things were cleaning the spark plug. (that I forgot to put back) The recoil is broke so you have to wind the cord around it and pull...............dam thing would not fire.....go figure. Adter a bit I figured it out.

beat

Beat,

Okay, you're now part of what I call my "Ill Advised Club." ("Stupid" is such an ugly word. lol.

Sam

Michael,

Watching a storm on Cape Cod is in my top 10 things to do—winter or summer. (I lead an unexciting life.) As long as no one is in imminent danger, it's pretty cool. We're part of a group of about 15 friends, who call one another to make certain everything is okay. At the slightest provocation, we declare an emergency, meet at the (otherwise closed) tavern of two of the friends, and focus on staying hydrated until the worst is over.

Come to think of it, we have an emergency every Monday night, year-round, although we congregate on a beach during good weather.

Thanks for your interest.

Sam

Sam

You be safe now dammit! We need you around here and Mrs Sam needs you to go the distance.

Jeb,

Which distance are you talking about? I'm prepared for several possibilities.

Take care,

Sam

always thinkin eh big fella? Let your imagination run wild.

Sam

When I here the term go the distance I think of the scene from Rocky, when he tells Mickey "You ain't stoppin nothing."

beat

My wife has been tuned in to The Weather Channel and they're broadcasting from the town where we stay each year on The Cape; just a couple of towns down from Sam's. One of my favorite pubs there looks to be having one heck of a party, but we haven't spotted Sam there yet. It sounds like the storm has been downgraded but high winds are still expected. Hopefully Sam stays away from the plywood.

Believe me, NYCelt, the incident has already been mentioned around the house today, and the rules have been clearly laid out.

At 1:12 in the morning, the storm is blustering around but (and I hope this doesn't tempt the fates) doesn't seem like anything special. It's always good when they occur at night because it reduces the likelihood that someone will skid and knock over a power transformer.

Yeah, I'm sure they're having a blast at the Squire. Sorry to miss that.

Take care,

Sam