Reading Freely

On Friday evening the library closed an hour early, because Hurricane Isaias had ramped up to Category 3 and was hanging out on the Gulf Coast, pondering where to go for dinner. It destroyed one of Flounders’ signs in Pensacola, so probably not them. I considered myself reasonably prepared — food, water, flashlights — and kept my phone fully charged until the power failed at 8:30. I simply lay down in bed and texted a few friends the news — “So it begins” — and tried to sleep. The next few hours were rather odd, as I kept hearing popping noises outside like someone was firing artillery. This could have been trees — I heard a LOT of trees popping during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 — but it could have also been transformers. At some point a third of the county was without power. I also heard some unnerving electronic sounds that repeated but were very short-lived. I described it as “Like if someone was starting a synthwave track with a serious bass sound, but they only let it start for like 2 seconds three times in a row”. Still have no idea what that was.

As I lay in bed, I resolved to look for a battery-powered stereo. The weather radio I have has the virtue of being hand-cranked and functions as a flashlight, but its radio reception is crap. I can live without lights and my computer, but the lack of music and feeling of isolating were a lot more grating. In the morning the lights were still out, but I have natural gas so I was able to fry up a wee bit of bacon (it’s allowed in natural disasters) and read a bit of Asimov’s guide to the New Testament. My Reagan read is on my phone, and for some reason its battery had been tanking all night despite my not using it aside from a 3 or 4 am post and occasionally looking for damage reports. I turned off wifi and Bluetooth so the phone would stop looking for signals, but I don’t think it helped too much. (It’s a Pixel 6 whose battery is aging.) Astonishingly, power was restored midday Saturday. The yard was absolutely littered with small limbs, baby pine cones, etc, but nothing had hit my vehicle. I did take pains to park it away from trees. My plans for the day — funeral, followed by a bookstore opening and Swede Fest in Thorsby — had all been scuttled, so in the drizzle I listened to a BBC adaptation of Fellowship of the Ring, instead. I did sally forth to check on my parents’ church at their request; they’re the only members who actually live in town and were under the weather, so I checked its electricity and looked around town en route. There’s one major tree down in Old Town that has caused transmission problems to two houses I dogsit for. I saw a lot more damage the next day, though, driving around in the country.

The storm cancellations caused major social issues for Sunday, since two events (the funeral + bookstore opening) had been shuffled to a Sunday that was already a bit of a sticky wicket: I’d intended on going to my church’s Fall Fling, then running up to north Alabama (Nauvoo) with friends for a Cursillo closing, but the hurricane forced me to choose between honoring the living and the dead. I went with the living. I’m glad I did, because it involved carpooling with friends and enjoying their company, then the Cursillo closing itself which is an event — think of it as combination family reunion + costume party with church in the middle) and then a ride back with the same friends, including my godsister who is due to deliver in the next two weeks. We also went onsome backroads I’ve never gone, so I got to do a fair bit of leaf-peeping well away from the interstates. Returned home very late in the evening enjoying the whiplash between the dread and gloom of Friday-Saturday and the joy of Sunday.

I finished listening to a BBC dramatization of Fellowship of the Ring, but I may wait on posting about it until I’ve finished the other two collections (Two Towers / Return of the king), since I’ll probably say the same thing about them. Perhaps throw in The Hobbit remarks, too, though it was made for NPR rather than BBC. The road goes ever on!

Its the middle of the night but Isaias has moved northwards. I lost power around 830 last night. Although I didn’t use my phone after I laid down, I apparently left an app open and so I’m hovering at 60% right now. There are a lot of trees down and about ten thousand in my county without power. Once daylight comes we will know more. Power trucks were already staging yesterday, though, so I am hopeful I won’t be in the dark for too many days. Riding out the storm wasn’t as scary as Zeta but it was certainly weird. More when I am behind a proper keyboard!

After a dormant hurricane season, the Gulf has produced its first storm and decided to interrupt Game Day in Alabama. Half of my dog sitting gigs for the next two weeks were cancelled, alas, as were my plans to visit a new indie bookstore’s grand opening and drop by a Swedish fest. (A funeral may or may not still be on.) Honestly, can’t these hurricanes interrupt the workweek instead of the weekend? While at first we were thinking it wouldn’t amount to too much — it was tracking well east of my area — overnight it strengthened into a Category 3 (same as Ivan, which brutalized us in 2004) and moved west so that now we’ll be close enough to smell not only its cheap cologne but the hamburger it had for lunch. I was already getting Hurricane Zeta vibes yesterday, but now things look worse. The odds are very good that I’m going to lose power for a few days, so you may have to do without presidential biographies for bit. (I’m kidding — I’m close to finishing Forgotten Man, and in my Reagan biography I’ve only gotten him elected.) Fortunately I’ve no shortage of physical books to read, and the weather has been cooling off so we won’t be absolutely miserable.

Just for historical reference, our last hurricane experience: