Dear Hurricane Sandy

I know you're not a real person, but if Mitt Romney thinks that corporations are people, and a whole bunch of admittedly wackadoodle people think a bunch of cells constitutes a person, then I suppose I can be forgiven for addressing you directly.

First of all, looking at your "path" on the weather map, you do look like a pretty scary Halloween ghost. "Frankenstorm" some are calling you.  Looked at another way, you could be an elongated uterus. I shudder to think what you might give birth to.

You've caused quite a stir here. All of the deck furniture was lashed down yesterday afternoon by some friends who came to help us get ready. Our neighborhood looks like everyone has done the same thing.

Very unsightly, I might add. We're beginning to look a bit like Dresden, preparing for war.

Yesterday and today, there's been a parade of boats in front of my house. The roadways are also filled with boats on trailers being hauled away to safe, higher ground. All except a boat directly across the canal from my house, which is swaying in the winds that have picked up steadily all day.  I sure hope its owner comes here soon from his home in PA and takes it out of the water.

The water is the highest I've seen it. And, there's a full moon rising.

I got an email this morning that coffee hour at church tomorrow has already been cancelled.

The Governor of DE has announced that he will order an evacuation of the Delmarva Peninsula. It's not a matter of "if" but "when". 

I'm told that NBC's exasperatingly cheery and irrepressibly peripatetic meteorologist Al Roker was broadcasting from Rehoboth Beach this morning, describing it as "Ground Zero" for your landing pad when you come in from the ocean.

That's when I started to get nervous. I mean, if you can't trust Al Roker, who can you trust? Well, okay, Janice Huff, but you get my point.

Someone suggested that I top off my car's tank with gasoline because, if we lose power, the gas pumps won't work. I did just that. Apparently, the word has gotten out because I had a 15 minute wait in line before I could get gas for my car. Someone in line told me that several gas stations in Seaford - which, despite the name is inland - are already out of gasoline.

I was relieved to see a generator hooked up to the back of the gasoline station. If we lose power, the pumps will still work. If there's still gasoline.

I also went out to the market and, along with water and toilet paper and tissues and batteries, bought some staples: Peanut Butter, a bag of peanuts, a large jar of cashews and, as a treat, some pistachios. Protein.  Okay, and some fat. Also got some apples and oranges and veggies that should last a few days. Thought some protein bars might be a good idea so I picked up some of them.

Oh, and, chocolate. Three bags of M&Ms: Plain, Peanut and Almond. On sale. Three for $5. Medicinal purposes only. I find chocolate better than any anti-anxiety med on the market.

How high's the water, Mama? 3 ft. high and risin'.

I think I probably should have gotten a few more bags to spread around to my neighbors.

I was talking with the office assistant at the doctor's office where I got my allergy shot this morning. I was telling her about this article entitled, "Hurricane Sandy: Divine Wind for Obama".

I "got" this part: "Obama needs a serious boost following his lackluster performance during the first presidential debate. Sandy may very well be his “divine wind,” or Kamikaze, the typhoons that saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under the command of Kublai Khan."

Actually, that same thought blew into my head at one point when I was bracing myself against the winds that are coming up over the water. I quickly dismissed it as wishful thinking.

At least the weather forecasts have knocked off some of the incessant political campaign ads that have been on TV and radio. That is an unexpected mercy.

Here's the thing in the article that got me, though,

"Sandy’s timing has many people speculating that the storm’s path is an engineered event. On Thursday, HaarpStatus.com reported elevated levels of HAARP frequency in the ionosphere above the East Coast of the United States. HaarpStatus describes itself as “a real-time sensor network from over 28 sensors placed in rural areas across the United States.”

“From a 9.1 this morning to a 9.5 tonight, this area is in grave danger and this has been building for a week now,” the site reported yesterday. “Hurricane Sandy is coming as a result of a week of high impacted readings in the ionosphere.” ...........

......... If the research conducted by HaarpStatus.com is correct, the government (or factions within) are manipulating the ionosphere and driving Sandy into the East Coast to create chaos and Katrina-like post storm conditions that will have significant political ramifications during the November 6th election.

According to some observers, bad weather on election day will work in Obama’s favor. “Obama has been effective at getting voters to vote early, so anything affecting turnout on Election Day is likely to be bad news for Romney,” John Hudak, a governance studies fellow at Brookings, told U.S. News & World Report. “It would certainly set up a benefit to the president if a natural disaster did interrupt voting.”

It is not clear why the ruling elite want to make Obama look presidential at Romney’s expense, however. Both candidates are preened race horses for the ruling global elite and with a few notable exceptions their agendas are almost identical."

I am NOT making this stuff up.

So, I mentioned it - laughingly - to the office assistant at the doctor's office. Her face suddenly got a look of horror and she said (Hand to Jesus, this is true), ""Oh, I believe it. If you don't believe it then there's something wrong with you." 

I mentioned this conversation - with my jaw on my chest - to the PA who was going to give me my shot. She said, "Pity her. She only listens to Fox." 

Honest to Pete! How can you 'pity' someone when their ignorance boarders on the delirious? Besides which, it's flat-out dangerous.

Next thing you know, people will believe that hurricanes come into existence because of LGBT people and uppity women who demand reproductive justice and equal pay for equal work. Wait a minute, some of them already do. It's "divine retribution" for disturbing the "natural order of things".

Mitt Romney - that radical! - has already broken ranks from the Tea Party that pays him and said that he believes in "Climate Change" (used to be "Global Warming" but some people couldn't make the translation when it caused snow storms in October), but he isn't sure he believes the "scientific reasons" for it - which, of course, has been placed squarely at the feet of human beings polluting the environment. 

Well, I'm betting he suddenly believes in the "scientific evidence" presented by  HaarpStatus.com
Turns out, "the government" is to blame - which, of course, is not "people". Only corporations are people. And, bunches of cells that gather in a woman's uterus even after rape because it's "God's will". But "people" are certainly not women and children  - or the poor or disabled.  They are just "victims" who want to remain dependent upon the government and corporations and cut into their profit margin.

Sigh! Okay, so enough of this foolishness. Jesus didn't say this but I know that "the wackadoodles will always be with us" - especially as long as Glen and Rush and Ann and Sean continue to feed their ignorance and fire their anxieties with weird conspiracy theories.

You, Ms. Thing, are causing real problems.

Like the 90+ Hospice patients Ms. Conroy is responsible for, some of whom need to be re-located from their homes to IPUs (Inpatient Units) upstate. 

Some of them are paralyzed. Some of them - ALS patients, mostly - are not only paralyzed but they are respiratory dependent on machines in order to breathe. 

Others just live too near the water and will have to be evacuated, anyway, when - not IF - the Governor gives his order.

She's spent most of her day on the phone, coordinating care, and trying to calm anxious families and instruct caregivers and nurses in emergency preparedness and techniques. It's been a real nightmare.

And, that's just the caseload of Hospice patients in one home health care agency here. There are lots and lots and lots of people to be concerned with.

So, not to worry about us. We'll be fine. We are in good health. We've taken precautions. We are prepared. We have good friends on higher ground who will take us in - and our three pups - when the evacuation order is given.

You are really wreaking havoc with lots of people's lives, Ms. Thing.  So, if you could, why not consider staying out in the ocean? I mean, you could whirl and twirl to your heart's content and not do any real damage to real property and real people.

If there is any intelligent life in you, I beg you to reconsider your path. If there isn't - which I suspect is the case - well, I'll just send this out to the cosmos as a prayer.

Can't hurt. Might help.

Never mind. Suddenly, the only reasonable thing to do seems to be to reach for that bag of peanut chocolate M&M's.

Medicinal purposes only, of course.