Sandy is not dandy and is causing many to drink brandy!

All day long, up in my old stomping ground, of good ole NJ, New Jersey for you out-of- towners; that should be out of country-ers, people have been scuttling and chattering through the grapevine on just what they all should do to stay safe! Finally, the old taping the windows joke has not come into this savvy Irene veteran’s vocabulary this time; thankfully I should say. And that was ‘just’ a tropical storm, none were able to say a word to me, a veteran of helping after Andrew (circa 1992), a Category 5 Hurricane, still some say it could’ve been a six or maybe or is that call me? NOT FUNNY! Any-who, no joke and also with my credentials of living through a direct hit to our home while in it of Hurricane Charley (circa 2004), a Cat 4; all experiences that who knows what we have actually learned since, ya know? Even measly tropical storms have of recent years proven to be quite deadly, and that is with sustained winds of less than 75 MPH, but we had 145 MPH sustained winds and Andrew was much higher at as much as 180 MPH were clocked and suggested and the devastation looked much like a war bombing zone aftermath, not unlike tornadoes do. And so from all this we learned that as most have been told that with this upcoming, possible historic event is, “to prepare for the worst and hope for the best!”, and truer words were never ever said, take heed you Northeasterners and mid eastern-Atlantic states folks this could be a BIG ONE for all of you! Although, what they are saying is that it will be coming in by where we moved to Florida from, way back in 1986, the Jersey Shore, around Point Pleasant; where our youngest was born in that hospital, be careful peeps we care! And with much love and concern my heart goes out to all who are in harms way and again I repeat the most logical way to handle it all is ‘to prepare for the worst and hope for the best!’ Let’s all say it like a mantra, hmm? NYC mayor has already called for disaster help, not that bad an idea…for all in that part of the country to make sure their elected officials know their options and again another cliché ‘better to be safe than sorry!’ The things going through the grapevine, being said were like knowing escape routes, shelters, filling up propane tanks and car gas tanks etc getting cash since the electric could be out, more than likely it will… NO one seemed to be discussing how to prep their homes, more of how to leave if told to and from what I heard some are being told now to evacuate. It has to be due to the heavy population in those areas…which is fierce I can only imagine… since where we used to live was fairly lightly populated being in the country in the woods, the Pine Barrens, yep the same, where the mob buried their disappeared persons, and ten miles from town. Any-who, Hubby only had two nasty storms when we lived there that he, had to evacuate the outer islands while we lived there even then a BIG JOB since that was where most of the populace was. One last thing, not to mention this I would definitely be amiss… Sadly, today would have been my niece’s 57th birthday but she passed away six years ago 13 days before her 51st birthday from colon cancer… I was a little over 5 years old when she made me an aunt, since my brother was 19 years older than me at 24. My kindergarten teacher thought I was telling a lie, since I came in the next day after we found out about her arrival bragging about being an aunt to my playmates, and the teacher called my mom with my so-called tall tale! Perhaps, that is when I became me? I miss you Arlene; did I mention that she was also one of my bridesmaids? At that time she was more like my little sister. On those good wishes to our friends to our north, allow us to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?