Hey, it's just a hurricane.

There's been talk of Hurricane Earl for several days now. Hurricanes are tricky things. It's always tough to tell where they are going to go and how powerful they will be. Up here in Massachusetts Cape Cod and the islands will get the worst of the storm which at this point (about 4p.m.) the ocean is starting to churn on Nantucket and the wind is picking up in Hyannis on Cape Cod. The Hurricane has been down graded to a category 1 storm which I see on the television involves winds of 80 mph. At one point yesterday (Thursday) it was a category 4 storm. I think that means winds of around 140 mph. Still 80 mph winds are nothing to sneeze at and I don't recommend sneezing in the wind if you know what I mean.

All the local TV stations have their "storm coverage" on as I write. I admit I'm a sucker for this stuff. At least for an hour or two. It's the same for a large snow storm. With a snowstorm it does get a bit comical after a while. Reporters placed in various locations report the obvious.
"We now go to Carl Dork in Marblehead. What's it like there Carl?
"Well Dartanian as you can see the snow is falling at quite a clip." (Cut to a shot of the snow falling through a street lamp) "And it's really piling up on the ground." (Cut to a shot of the snow on the ground.)
"Back to you Dartanian." 
Waiting for a hurricane is no different. Earlier in the week, knowing I had Friday off, I did have thoughts of going to the ocean before the storm got here, to get some shots of the agitated ocean sort of like this one taken 3 years ago in Maine except then it was a beautiful spring day.

 Well it turns out that where I am in the Boston area we will get the late summer version of a Nor'easter snowstorm with some heavy rain and winds. All of this will happen later in the evening somewhere between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. So much for picture taking opportunities.
I did find it amusing yesterday at work where people were talking about the storm. Just like a snowstorm people had some crazy information about storm. One guy said the wind was 199 mph. This happens often when we are waiting for snow. All the meteorologists will say, "We are expecting 4 to 6 inches of snow." Invariably someone will say, "I heard we are going to get about a foot of snow!"

It's not all that hot right now at 76 degrees but it is about as humid as I can ever remember. The dew point is somewhere in the 70's. It is bad timing that this storm is happening right at the beginning of the holiday weekend especially for those business's on the Cape and the Island. And yet the weather on Saturday through Monday and the rest of next week looks to be near perfect.

And that's all for now from eastern Massachusetts. Back to you Congolia.
I'm outta here.