Thanks, Anneliese. I'm still at work with the groceries I shopped for on my lunch hour, when the crowd at West Side Supermarket was beginning to get that tense feeling.

What an excellent weekend to sit indoors and finally put together my Go Bag.

I looked a little bit ago at the map with the evac plan for Manhattan. Used to live on Governors Island, included in the mandatory evac zone. We were up on the 7th floor, could have been a bit exiting up there, but no wet feet. Loved that place.
So far every place we lived in the East is under the gun.

Adding my best wishes for safety.

Prayers for everyone's safety.

My cousin, who lives downstairs with her roommates in our two-family building, and I spent the late morning and early afternoon securing everything in her backyard, my deck, and the front of the house. I feel safer now that no possible projectiles are near us, and rather like the fact that the deck furniture and windowboxes have transformed my dining room into a garden room.

I have plenty of supplies: canned food, drinkboxes of juice and milk, cat food for my Blackie boy. I have candles, matches, and a nifty crank-operated flashlight and radio that I got after 9/11. I don't need to worry about filling the bathtub because I am in a building shorter than eight stories; since we're below the altitude of the upstate reservoirs, our water supply is gravity-fed.

Thunder and lightning has started, intermittently. The cat is more clingy than usual, but I don't mind; he's helping me feel less alone. (The professor decided to stay in his very solid apartment building in upper Manhattan, holed up with his dissertation work; the subways have been closed down for the duration of the storm, which is projected to pass right through NYC around 3 a.m. Sunday, so I am stuck on my island, and he on his.)

I almost feel like keeping vigil throughout the night.

Best wishes to everyone on or near the East Coast, or with family or friends here.

It breaks my heart to see the misery on the east-coast. I don't know how it can be put right again.
I'm not trying to be political here, but some of the first responders in this instance have been the National Guard.
And the operating word here is "National".
It was brought to mind when I heard on the local news, that plane loads of National Guard members were flying out of our (Silicon Valley) (defunct) military base and going to the east coast to help out.
We need more National Guards at this time to help the people in our nation.

Oh, I know that I have a bee in my bonnet about the issue of military spending and jobs. If we eliminated just one or two drones, bombs etc...We could fund the National Guard and they could help our people in need at this time and jobs would be created.