hurricanes – Retirementally Challenged

I know that some people who live in more challenging climates think those of us living in coastal Southern California are weather wimps. And they have a point. We don’t have to deal with freezing temperatures in the winter or soul-sucking humidity in the summer. At least where I live, we don’t have many annoying bugs and summer temperatures above the high 80s are rare. We balance our envy of those who experience glorious fall-foliage with gratitude that we don’t find ourselves in the path of tornados and hurricanes… until now.

A very agitated whirlwind named Hilary is headed our way after churning off the coast of Baja California for a while. They say that by the time she reaches us, her category 4 hurricane status will downgrade to a tropical storm, but she is still expected to pack quite a punch of wind and rain. Since, apparently (as the local news keeps remining us) our area hasn’t had a tropical storm in 84 years, most of us have no idea what we are in for. Excitement mixed with worry seems to be the mood of the day.

I made a trip to Home Depot this morning to pick up a part for a house project and noticed that the shelves that normally hold bags and bags of construction sand were empty. I also saw people stacking multiple carts with large sheets of plywood. I didn’t go to the supermarket today, but I wouldn’t have been too surprised to see a few shelves of necessities emptied out. Even for a storm that is only expected to last a day or two, some people slip easily into their inner survivalist.

We’ve done what we can to prepare. Anything in our yard that could be gathered up by the wind and flung elsewhere has either been brought inside or moved to a less-exposed area. Since we don’t live in a low-lying region, we don’t expect to experience any flooding in our neighborhood. I think we’ll be just fine.

Yesterday’s sky was bright blue except for this strange apparition that appeared mid-day. I wonder if Hilary was sending a reconnaissance cloud to check things out before she blows into town.

So now we wait for Hilary’s arrival. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit some excitement and, judging from posts on Facebook, I’m not alone. We don’t get a lot of rainstorms here, and this one is supposed to be a doozy.