Patience is not my strong suit.  And what we’re doing right now is playing a game of “hurry up & wait” with the Storm of Sandy.  A Hybrid! Frankenstorm.  Insert your own hashtag here.  We’ve spent the past few days gathering supplies, and I’m 99% sure we’ve got everything we could possibly need to ride out this thing.  Batteries, bottled water in jugs, water stored in plastic containers, plenty of non perishable food (i.e. a trip to Big Lots the other day & hitting the cereal aisle HARD, coffee.  DO NOT BE ALARMED! Our stove is gas, so we can ALWAYS MAKE COFFEE.  And heat up food.

This morning I went out around 7, walking the 5 blocks to the beach.  At our part of the island, it’s only about 6 blocks wide, from bay to ocean.  And flat.  Very flat.  But I digress.  Look! I’ve even given you a map of Cape May County, the very end of NJ for a frame of reference.  I’m a giver.

I can see the back bay from my house!

So as we tracked Sandy starting last week, we tried to keep a lid on our Hurricane Panic.  Last time, Irene, sent us evacuating to my MIL’s, who had evacuated up north.  We spent three days with live chickens in the kitchen.  During our wedding anniversary.  It was the year of Gov Christie’s impassioned “better put an index card in you shoe so that we can identify you” brouhaha.

This time, we decided to hunker down & stay on the island.  We’re not stupid people.  Between us, we have the common sense of one really level headed individual.  We also have 5 cats, and transporting them wouldn’t be a pleasure cruise no matter where we went.  Plus, the whole eastern seaboard is going to get hit with this thing, so where to go, really?

It’s lightly raining now, at 241pm.

But like I said previously (i’m digressing ALL OVER THE PLACE), I went out this morning, just after 7, and took a walk down to the beach.  It was windy as I expected, the streets empty except for a larger than normal police presence.  Took some photos.  This is the Crocus Rd Beach in Wildwood Crest, NJ.

shot some video.  i know why the Jim Cantore sings.  I mean, yells.  Cause you can’t hear a DAMN THING over all that wind.  so the mumbling you hear is just me mumbling about how high the water level is (high tide plus coming storm) & bitching about getting sandblasted.
By 8am, the back bay was already starting to come over the barrier, which isn’t much.  Because hey, back bay.  By 1030ish, roads on the west side of the island were already blocked off.  I haven’t been outside recently.  The birds are chirping for the moment, and it’s just another rainy, fall day.  For right now anyway.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me via FB or Twitter or text or however to check on us & see if we’re going to be okay.  We will.  I’ll be updating via Twitter most of the time, until the power cuts out & my phone runs out of juice.  With any luck, I’ll be able to take some good photos & put ‘em up on Instagram.

Until next time.  And by next time, I mean in a day or two.  Good luck to all my East Coast friends, cohorts, loves & rabble rousers.  We’ve got some X-files marathon-ing to do before this thing hits.