I awake today glued to the Weather Channel. Ivan the Terrible, as he is being dubbed by some after the Russian Czar, has not changed course and he's getting closer to the Spice Isle. From Barbados to Trinidad is on Hurricane Alert. Things are definitely looking bad. It's now impossible to get a flight back home so I resign myself to follow what's happening back home via the Weather Channel and the Internet, in particular, a Grenadian Talkshop on the Web http://www.spiceislandertalkshop.com/talkshop.
I make contact with the folks back home and learn that a number of work places are sending their staff home today, Monday, as they expect the Hurricane to hit later that night. Watching Ivan's progress on the Weather Channel, I calculate that Ivan wont affect Grenada till Tuesday so it could be that at least some folks back home are taking Ivan seriously.
Taking care of my house is my first concern. I phone my neighbor in Grenada and arrange for her to collect a key for the house from one of my friends back in Grenada, and I'm thinking it's a good thing to have a spare key for your place by someone you can trust. There's not much that I want to ask, because I know that everyone has to secure their property, so I ask that all the chairs out on the verandah be put inside and all the windows closed. Nothing is put away into plastic bags. I didnt even remember to ask to unplug all my electronic stuff from the electrical outlets. My car is parked in the carport - exposed on three sides to anything Ivan may throw at it.
I try to comfort myself by telling me that the house is well constructed, has reinforced concrete walls with a multi-hip roof and should be OK. Maybe, the verandah's roof might go. This portion is seperate from the main roof and the wind could easily get under the ply. And this... and that.... and the other.... and the next, and the dog. Although I claim not to be a worrier, I realise that I'm a worried man.... I should be home.... be there if anything should happen to my home.
But it's Labour Day in Brooklyn and its time to get distracted, so to the Eastern Parkway and Crown Heights I go.
