A very large and dangerous Hurricane Sandy continues to move parallel to the East Coast, with a turn to the northwest expected tonight and early Monday. Sandy is expected to make landfall along the central N.J. coast Monday evening

This is what the edges of a hurricane looks like.  This afternoon you could feel the change in the weather although we don't expect the full force of the storm to hit until late tomorrow.  It's been raining on and off and the wind is picking up.

We have milk and bread and eggs (storm food!) and candles and flashlights and a brand new pump.  It's a good thing Pk checked out the old one today because it didn't work.  We ran right out to the DIY store and bought one of the last three.  Check out the sleek modern design.  A thoroughly sexy pump.  As long as it pumps the water that will inevitably fill our crawlspace, I don't care what it looks like.  It's set up and ready to go.  And as you can see, the trash cans are trussed up and tied to a brick wall to keep them safe. 

All the public transportation is shut down and most of Philadelphia is closed.  We will be home from work tomorrow and probably Tuesday as well.  The rain is ok but the wind scares me.  The trees on our street are still in full leaf which makes them good targets for the wind.  The health system says it is not a NO ACCESS time for us and employees are expected to report for work.  This means that although I realistically cannot get to work, I have to use vacation or personal time.  It's sucky.

You know what one of the hardest parts of all of this is?  The waiting.  We have prepared everything we can and now have to wait to see what happens.  I spent most of the afternoon knitting and watching season 2 of The Walking Dead.  I have two AbFab discs for tomorrow. 

I got as many photos of the fall colors as I could since after this storm, they will all be gone.

My neighbor's tree, Pk calls it the tree barometer, has just started to change.  I took a photo of it early today once I realized it will probably be naked shortly.  We didn't expect much in the way of fall color because of the near drought conditions and heat of the summer but once again Mother Nature has come through and painted the trees beautifully.


Well, I'm off to check the NOAA website one more time and check my work email again to see if they've changed and then go to bed.  If you live in this part of the world, be safe.  If you're somewhere where it's not windy and raining, keep a good thought for us. 

See you on the flip side.