This year I turned 59! … so next year will be the big “Six O”. It’s an amazing thing to see life go by, and even more amazing is that it seems to pick up speed the older you get … remember that younger ones, you’ll be there soon enough.

I have been doing and feeling reasonably well (although these winters get harder to get through) and my last trip to Boston went as well as can be expected. No major changes and the doctors for the first time seem to be satisfied with their work. I know I am.

When I think back two years to where I was at … it wasn’t a pretty scene, and I still consider myself extremely lucky to be sitting here writing this … and I mean that.

Where’ve I been? What’ve I been doing?
Busy, … really, really busy, trying to not only survive physically, but financially too. In these poor economic times it has become a challenge just keeping our heads above water.

I’ve been trying to record some of my music (which I’ll be posting some of shortly after the holidays hopefully), very busy at work, and busy keeping our web hosting and services business afloat.

Of course that’s not counting the fun things I try to fit into life too .

One of my goals for this coming year is to start writing regularly again. Now to be honest, I have tried on FaceBook several times … but there’s just something about FaceBook I just can’t stand. I just can’t get comfortable on that site and I can’t put my finger on why. But don’t expect to see much of on it.

Anyways, the purpose of this post was to thank everyone for their birthday wishes and to return a Happy Holiday wish to all.

Thank you … will write more soon.

The rains have slowed, and they are forecasting a windy evening which could knock out power tonight … but still, we are very fortunate. Others around us were not so lucky.

I’m hoping my place of employment is in reasonable shape, I beleive the rains and winds were much heavier in that area of the state.

As far as I can tell, it appears that our area took a direct hit from this storm and hopefully it’ll be a long time before we have another like this.

Had it been winter, and all this rain was snow, we’d have about 14 ft!

Our rain gauge says 12-14 inches of rain.

More to come …

Just beginning to feel the heavier rains of Irene. The storm is still hours away and moving slowly but steadily towards us. So far so good, I was surprised we even had electrical power this morning. I can see light bursts of wind outside, but no heavy steady wind …. yet.

We are both safe and dry at the moment.

New York and New Jersey appear to be getting hit hard at the moment and although the storm has been lightly downgraded again, it is still packing lots of rain and wind.

I’ll be posting again later in the day .

… IRENE TO BRING SEVERE FLOODING AND WIND IMPACTS TO THE NORTH COUNTRY…

NEW INFORMATION… UPDATED STORM LOCATION INFORMATION. A WIND ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHERN NEW YORK.

.AREAS AFFECTED… THIS LOCAL STATEMENT PROVIDES IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDED ACTIONS FOR PEOPLE IN LOCATIONS ACROSS NORTHERN NEW YORK AND VERMONT, ALONG WITH MARINE INTERESTS ALONG LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

.WATCHES/WARNINGS… A HIGH WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR VERMONT AND THE EASTERN SLOPES OF THE EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ADIRONDACKS IN NORTHERN NEW YORK FROM SUNDAY MORNING UNTIL MONDAY MORNING.

A WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR THE SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY AND THE WESTERN SLOPES OF THE ADIRONDACKS IN NORTHERN NEW YORK FROM SUNDAY MORNING TO SUNDAY NIGHT.

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTHERN ADIRONDACKS AND CHAMPLAIN VALLEY OF NEW YORK AND ALL OF VERMONT FROM SUNDAY MORNING UNTIL MONDAY MORNING.

.STORM INFORMATION… AT 5 PM, HURRICANE IRENE WAS LOCATED ABOUT 50 MILES SOUTH- SOUTHEAST OF NORFOLK VIRGINIA. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS WERE 80 MPH. IRENE WILL MOVE NORTHWARD ALONG THE EAST COAST AND THEN ACROSS NEW ENGLAND ON SUNDAY.

.RAINFALL… WIDESPREAD HEAVY RAINS WILL DEVELOP EARLY SUNDAY AND CONTINUE ALL DAY BEFORE TAPERING OFF SUNDAY NIGHT. RAINFALL TOTALS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 4 TO 7 INCHES ACROSS VERMONT AND EASTERN SECTIONS OF NEW YORK. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS WESTERN PORTIONS OF NORTHERN NEW YORK.

.FLOODING… WIDESPREAD SIGNIFICANT FLASH FLOODING AND FLOODING OF RIVERS AND STREAMS IS EXPECTED, ESPECIALLY ACROSS VERMONT. THE WORST OF THE FLASH FLOODING IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR SUNDAY EVENING AND SUNDAY NIGHT, WHILE RIVER FLOODING WILL CONTINUE INTO MONDAY. THE FLOODING WILL RESULT IN A SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO PROPERTY AND LIFE. EVERYONE IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS NEED TO MAKE FINAL PREPARATIONS NOW. FLOODING AT NIGHT IS ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS AS IT IS MUCH HARDER TO RECOGNIZE HOW DEEP WATER IS OR REALIZE THAT A ROAD OR BRIDGE IS WASHED OUT UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE.

.WINDS… FOR VERMONT AND EASTERN NEW YORK, NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL STRENGTHEN DURING THE DAY SUNDAY, PEAKING SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO FREQUENTLY GUST OVER 50 MPH, AND MAY REACH 70 MPH, ESPECIALLY ACROSS HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND SOUTHEASTERN PORTIONS OF VERMONT. SUNDAY NIGHT THE WINDS WILL TURN NORTHWEST AND CONTINUE GUSTING OVER 40 MPH BEFORE FINALLY DIMINISHING MONDAY MORNING.

ACROSS THE SAINT LAWRENCE VALLEY AND WESTERN AREAS OF THE ADIRONDACKS, THE WINDS WILL BE SLIGHTLY WEAKER, HOWEVER GUSTS OF 45 TO 55 MPH ARE EXPECTED.

WINDS OF THIS STRENGTH WILL DOWN NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES. LARGE SCALE AND LONG LASTING POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE. DRIVING LARGE VEHICLES SUCH AS TRAILERS AND RECREATIONAL VEHICLES WILL BE DIFFICULT. NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE CARE OF ANY OBJECTS THAT MAY BE BLOWN AROUND BY STRONG WINDS SUCH AS TENTS AND DECK FURNITURE.

.MARINE… ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, VERY STRONG NORTHERLY WINDS WILL DEVELOP SUNDAY, PEAKING DURING THE EVENING HOURS. SEVERAL HOURS OF WINDS SUSTAINED IN THE 40 TO 55 MPH RANGE ARE ANTICIPATED, WITH GUSTS APPROACHING 65 MPH. AFTER MIDNIGHT, WINDS WILL TURN NORTHWEST TO WEST AND BE IN THE 25 TO 40 MPH RANGE. WINDS THIS STRONG WILL PRODUCE VERY LARGE WAVES, WHICH MAY EXCEED 8 FEET IN THE BROAD PORTION OF THE LAKE. THE WAVES WILL RESULT IN EROSION ON NORTH AND WEST FACING LAKE SHORES. ALL PRECAUTIONS NEED TO BE MADE TO SECURE BOATS AND OTHER PROPERTY ON THE LAKE.

.NEXT UPDATE… THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BURLINGTON BY MIDNIGHT SUNDAY, OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

I was just outside taking a last look around the house and noticed that the clouds were on the move, along with a breeze that feels like it was beginning to pick. My guess is the very outer bands of the storm are about to reach us. Actually, it’s quite lovely outside at the moment and it I didn’t know what was coming I’d have to say it was one of the nicer evenings we’ve had all summer … but of course we know that’ll end soon enough.

The forecast isn’t any better then earlier predictions were today and it appears that we’re directly in the path of the storm. The last time table I heard was that the worst of it will be reaching our area by early Sunday morning … we’ll be waking up to full fledged storm in progress.

I gotten several emails from friends today wishing us the best of luck .. thank you all. Let’s hope all of the north-eastern US is lucky. We’re pretty far inland luckily … I wouldn’t want to be along the coast in this storm.

I’ll post again once it starts up .

We spent a good part of our day getting ready for hurricane Irene in the event it hits us full freight. Of course there’s only so much you really do anyway. We cleared the yard and surrounding area around the house of things that may get easily tossed during high winds. Prepared the fireplace for cooking in the likely event we lose electrical power.

Stocked up a little on simple items like water and batteries etc, ect. and last but not least, we prepared a small suitcase each to quickly bring in the event we really had to evacuate the entire house. That’s about you can really do.

The storm hit the Carolinas this morning (just about as I was waking up) and has moved north to the mid Atlantic states. We are expecting our area to get hit somewhere between late tonight and early Sunday morning.

There are already half a million people without power south of us, and by the time it passes through New Jersey and New York City area I’m sure that’ll be over a million.

I can’t imagine that we won’t lose at least power.

The State of Vermont says it has already contracted with hundreds of utility workers coming in from other states as far away as Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Canada. They are already on their way to help respond to expected power outages.

All the eastern coastal states have begun to heavily prepare for Irene, clearing their shores and boarding up. Emergency shelters are opening their doors. It’s a good idea to find out where the closest one to you is … if you don’t already know call your local fire departments NON-EMERGENCY number and ask.

I realized this morning that almost every bird and backyard critter has moved on somewhere, or honkered down for the storm … not a one in sight, they know what’s coming.

Stay tuned, this isn’t over yet. Now we sit and wait

We’re getting ready to go out and prepare the yard for Hurricane Irene. Just heard that it made landfall in North Carolina. I’m thinking I have some close friends down there and am wondering how they’re preparing and holding out. We’ll know within the twenty-four hours.

We’re also getting ready for extended power outages, getting the fire-place ready for cooking, bringing in a “winters day” amount of wood, packing an emergency bag for each of us (Alberic included), and grabbing some cash in the event this is an extended thing.

I plan on giving a few friends a call and seeing how they’re handling things.

Yesterday at work we prepared as much as we could without shutting down the whole system including the servers … sometimes I’m thinking I should’ve done that. We did remove all the data backups.

OK … time to get outside and start securing things.

More to come …

No matter what your opinion is now, this is the day to acknowledge our Declaration of Independence and although it’s far from perfect in practice, it is what we have, and it has bought us the ‘right’ to bring it closer to its intent.

Interpretation of that document will be debated forever by every corporation, political group and people on the planet. Some say, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave and others say Land of the Fee and Home of the Slave … whichever way you look at it, remember this:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Have a great day!

Of course any day that involves enjoyment must involve a little humor too.
So Happy Father’s Day to all.

Happy Fathers Day