Arthur actually woke me up from a sound sleep last night to tell me that some show on FoxNews was over the top on the storm deal...
They had people stationed up and down the coast, and would cut from one to the other... each looking serious, they said things like "It's gusting to 20mph here now!"

But GRASS bending? That's even worse.

During all my years growing-up in The Island, I never saw a hurricane. Between 1954 and 1989 zippo-nada-niente. Of course, since then, we've average one every five years or so. Which is much closer to the historical average for the region. I did see my fair share of Tropical Storms though: Eloise, David, Fredrick, etc.; who went on to become monsters by the time they hit the mainland.

Are you sure that the grass was bending due to Alberto, and not the breathlessly hyped-up newscasters???

TBP (to be pedantic) that's *compressor*, not *condenser*. Sorry, you know how annoying we "earnest" people get, sometimes.

After the 2005 season, when they had to go to the Greek alphabet for hurricane names, I'm kinda emotionally numb, and/or a nervous wreck when it comes to hurricane fright. I evacuated for Wilma, but was moderately scared by Charlie, the year before, when some looter got our mangos.

At least the local Publices are stocking strike-anywhere matches now. I bought a whole bunch.