Hurricane Pfffft

Although it seems, according to estimates of power outages that occurred due to Hurricane Irene (at last count, approximately 37 billion homes, businesses, yurts, ant farms, etc.) that pretty much everyone was involved to some degree in Irene's sweep up the East Coast, we realize there may be some who missed the whole thing. This would include those of us who were actually THERE for the whole thing.


The hype about the coming hurricane was such that our electricity went out even before anything began to happen, as if the power grid just figured it would be easier to surrender early. And then it stayed off for some time after the storm passed, apparently just to be sure.


But for the most part, the most popular word to describe the hurricane was "lame." 


To give you a better idea of the whole experience, we present here a dramatic rendering of the before and after (including exact quotes):


Before: A hurricane is coming! We need batteries! Water! Milk! Cardboard! Duct tape! Aaaaaggggggghhhhhh!


After: Uh, did we miss something?


Many people, deprived by the lameness of the storm of being able to tell any convincing survivor's tales, nevertheless found things to be indignant about. One of the Hero's acquaintances, who lives not far from us, complained to the Hero about the personal suffering the storm had caused him: "Dude...did you, like, lose a bunch of cable channels?"


"Dude," said the Hero, "we lost, like, electricity and phone. And CABLE. It's STILL out."


And instantly the Hero was catapulted into the realm of Brave Hurricane Survivors.


Although of course we are glad that nothing terrible occurred around us, we admit we had been hoping for something that might offer a spectacular opportunity for our annual Christmas newsletter photo (perhaps something like "Elvis Helps Local Residents with Community Clean-Up"). We could use some new ideas for the annual photo, perhaps even new subjects (really, do the Hero and I even have to be in it?), as the photo, like Hurricane Irene, is in grave danger of descending into "lame."


But of course we haven't exhausted natural disasters yet. There is still the possibility, for example, that we may be due for a volcanic eruption soon...