24 Little Hours

The noise from the hype was almost deafening.  And this from one who does not watch television and checks web news maybe once a day.

There were anxious calls, texts and posts from well-meaning friends and family.   Emails came flooding in.

But here on the Island (as some call it), you would not have known that a category 3 hurricane had Southern New England in its sites.  Life went on.   There was money to be made, houses to clean, bars to tend, tables to wait, openings to attend.  Only the opportunistic hardware store boarded up.  On Thursday.  Some call it prudent preparations.  I call it marketing.

Then Sunday morning rolled around.  Robert and I arrived at Devon’s at almost the same time and looked at each other doubtfully.  The wind was raging at 40 mph, gusting occasionally to 50 or 60.   Devon came up early and asked us our opinion, should he open or call it a day?   He listened to both of our reasonings and quickly decided to shut it down.  I was shocked, as Julia, the chef, had warned me the day before that his decision making could be difficult for us all.  We cleared everything off the porch, moved the tables inside and battened down the proverbial hatches.  It took all of 30 minutes.

The rest of my day was a nice surprise of a gift after working two doubles and partying just a tad.   I had coffee with the girls on the aforementioned porch.  Friends dropped by and we scraped together a nice egg sandwich breakfast.   The wind howled and gained strength and we eventually dispersed.  I came home and slept for 3 hours.   I got up at 2, checked the web and watched the sea roil and the trees strain under the steady tropical storm-force winds.  My neighbors told me of the sailboat that had beached across the street.  The power finally went out around 3 and we gathered at Joel’s for storm drinks.  I got Dev to come out and join in the fun.  Grudges and ill-feelings between neighbors were set aside.

The rest of the day was spent drinking and socializing.  The two bars that were open were full of Townies I haven’t seen at the same time all summer due to varying work schedules.   The Boat Slip had enough back up power to run the ice machines and the DJ booth.  I danced with many of my summer friends.  It was a fun and festive, a much-needed and a well-deserved break.

The wind blew through the night.   The power came back on.   I slept a deep, sound sleep.  Happy.

And this is what greeted me this morning from the back porch at work: