Irene

The best laid plans of women and men
oft go awry
Especially when  face to face with the
hurricane's eye.

Hurricane Irene is messing up our weekend plans.  Of course, I should not complain, as we are not directly in the path and needing to evacuate.

We had our weekend on Long Island all carefully planned with outdoor activities.   First some good, fun tennis outside,  then walking the Brooklyn Bridge, and then on Monday, a day at the U.S. Open.  At the moment, I'm not sure we will get to do any of those things, when we go and visit daughter and son- in- law for the weekend.

When I told this to daughter Priscilla, she said,  "What is it with you and hurricanes?"   She was recalling, of course, the time I flew south right into the path of Hurricane Katrina.  I had my (non-refundable) plane reservations, and was headed to Mississippi to visit my mother. (Alzheimer's, didn't know I was there)   I was confident that I would far enough north in Tupelo so that I would not be affected at all, and went anyway.  That turned out not to be entirely true.

In the hotel where I was staying,  every other room was taken by people who had evacuated New Orleans.  The first night,  I buried my head under the pillows so I would not to hear the terror of the seventy mile per hour winds outside my door.   Thankfully,  we did not lose power,  but many nearby places did.

My family back in New York was worried about me.  Cell phone traffic was so overloaded, that it was almost impossible to get a call through.  I did manage to briefly, so they knew I was not in mortal danger.

I never was really in danger, but the most terrifying part for me was the fear of not being able to get back home!  Suddenly, there were long long lines at every gasoline pump.  Although I had a rented car,  and a plane ticket out of Memphis,  I feared there might not be gasoline for getting home.  I would have driven if I had to.  I was so grateful that the plane left Memphis as planned, a few days later.

It took a few days for the worse of the Hurricane Katrina to come to light;  for the levees to break, and the stadium to fill with desperate people.

I was one of the lucky ones.  I got home safely, no worse for wear.   Having a trip planned, driving right into the path of a Hurricane does bring back all those very scary memories.

Hopefully we won't have to evacuate Long Island!