Okay, so I went out in it.

And I got wet.

Didn't have much choice, though, since that storm in the pretty picture in my last post parked itself over northern New England and spun around on us for like 48 hours. It seems to have taken the hint and left, finally, but it left a sodden mess behind.

Our neighborhood was just soggy, no major damage, but I've seen pictures of streets a couple towns away that are just lakes.

The odd thing is that commentators kept calling this storm a "hundred year storm" ... but that's what they said about the storm we had two weeks ago ... and apparently about the one we had a few years ago (in 2006 maybe?). So, it kinda seems like we might need to adjust our thinking a little, at least for now. And live on hilltops.

No way am I going out in that!

The rain's coming down so hard it sounds like a million people pounding the roof with their fists.

Judging from this map, I'm guessing it sounds like that up the entire eastern seaboard.


I never knew storms respected borders like that.

Still, I'm not going out in that. Can't make me.

Dangerous cookies

Tom baked these amazing chocolate cookies this evening, and the kitchen still smells like warm, baked chocolate.

Cookie recipes always say stuff like, "allow to cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 more minutes". HA! I don't think so! Those cookies get four minutes out of the oven and I am there! I am an "eat 'em while they're warm" cookie consumer, especially if there's chocolate chunks involved ...

This particular recipe doesn't make a very large batch. And that's probably just as well.

Sugar coma setting in ...

Being seen

The band I play in had concerts this past weekend. We played, the audience danced, and we all had fun.

After one of the performances, a woman came up to me and said, "Excuse me, but can you tell me -- why is your face so familiar?"

I said, "Me?" and she said, "Yes, I know I've seen you -- do you play in any pit bands in community theaters?"

Ah. Community theater, eh? I'd had a feeling that's where this was going. So I said, "Well, I don't play in pit bands, but ... " and I explained about teching for shows at a couple theaters, and she said that that must have been where she'd seen me. Turns out she's friends with a well-known director, one I've worked for a few times.

Now, it comes as no surprise that people who are actually on the stage get recognized all the time. But it's true that even with what I do, audience members still see me climbing up and down from the tech booth before and after the show, or coming in and out of the green room at intermission.

So it is still probably true that a lot of people have glanced at me and noticed me, however briefly, and some fraction of them do recall seeing me just enough to say, "Do I know you?"

Well, that was bracing.

So, this is the weather map for our area:


Which wouldn't be such a big deal except that this is pretty much how it's looked since Saturday. This big storm just parked itself over us and has been whaling on us ever since.

I was kinda dreading leaving work tonight, because I have to, you know, wait at a bus stop to go home, and buses actually had really good reasons to be late today. And where I work, the sound of the rain pelting the metal roof provided a steady reminder of how hard it was raining out all day.

Then, about an hour ago, I noticed ... the sound got quieter. I looked out the window, saw that the rain had let up just a little, and then just grabbed my stuff and bolted. I had an umbrella, but that was probably the first time all day that the wind wouldn't have destroyed it.

I was really lucky because I only had to wait for the bus like three minutes. The rain was kinda chilly and I changed as soon as I got home.

I really can't complain since two towns away people are being evacuated from their homes 'cause their streets have turned into running rivers, never mind people who live near an actual river. Traffic is crazy because some major roads have been flooded and closed off, so people were sort of faced with "you can't get there from here" situations. And Tom said the theater where he's rehearsing had like a half-inch of water in the lobby and the changing rooms.

Luckily it's supposed to be sunny for awhile starting tomorrow.

But yeah. Definitely the kind of excitement most people would not prefer.

The thing about spring

We've had some warmer days here this past week, with high temps roughly 50F. So Tom and I got all psyched and removed the heavy fleece blanket from the bedding.

And of course we were shivering that night because the low temps were still around freezing.

We put another medium-weight blanket on for the next night.

It's progress, though! It'll really be nice to do the "spring-ahead" thing this weekend, too.