Hurricane Sandy Update In Lewes Delaware

It's bad folks. Here are some pictures that I took from the Cape Gazette.  I'm sure the hotel where I work at in Lewes is flooded as I type this.  I was supposed to go into work today.  Looks like I won't be going in this week and maybe next week.

Cedar Street, Lewes, DE

The Lewes-Rehoboth Canal near the Rehoboth Beach drawbridge:

The sandpipers wait out the storm on the beach.  No flying today.

Some funsters in Dewey Beach, DE.

We're getting a direct hit in about seven hours!

This one I call "Idiots on the beach" - Lewes Style

Where do seagulls go during a Frankenstorm?  Nowhere.

I expect the power to go out any moment.  I wanted to post these pictures from the Cape Gazette before I lost power.  Isn't this exciting?

Hurricane Sandy Update - Monday Morning

AT 8:25 pm last the the lights blinked off and on three times before they went off.  Yes folks, we were without power for about two hours.  Why?  The winds had hardly began, Hurricane Sandy was still a day away, 580 miles away, slowly creeping up the Atlantic coast.  Unlike right now at 7:29 am this Monday morning.  Wind gusts are whipping around Casa Tipton-Kelly, the skies are an ominous fifty shades of gray, and rain is falling down, sideways and straight up.  Bill says the barometer is the lowest he's ever seen it.  Yes folks, were in for IT.

I just finished my Three "S's" this morning.  You all know what that is don't you folks?  Blankety-blank, shower and a shave.  I put Monday morning's wash in the first thing this morning.  No need to dispense with our regular "Monday" routine as long as we have power. I just heard Bill put those now wet, clean clothes (Monday's we wash "the whites") in the dryer.  With any luck we'll be able to finish our laundry.

Back to the loss of power last night.  I was on the computer working on my latest iMovie (which was about me of course) when "blink! blink!" the lights flickered, went off, came back on, went off, came back on then went off for good.  Darkness descended on our humble abode.  I looked out the window and yep, medieval times had descended on our little upscale neighborhood.  I could see a lone light snaking it's way through my neighbor's house across the street.  At least there was some solace in knowing that our house wasn't the ONLY house without power.  When we lived in Pennsylvania, in the middle of the woods with LOTS of trees, our power went out almost once a week.  It is so frustrating to be without power and yet see your neighbor's houses all lite up with festive gaiety and them going about their business as usual.  We don't lose power often down here in Slower Lower (aka Sussex County, Delaware) but when we do EVERYONE in the neighborhood loses power.  Such was the case last night.

I texted my friend Bill B. in PA.  Yep, he still had power.  I texted my co-worker Robert at the hotel.  Yep, he still had power.  Shit.  I got my little hand light that I keep for such emergencies and headed to my bedroom.  Nothing to do but to go to bed AT 8:30!  And I wasn't even sleepy.  I know I wasn't going to go to sleep because I need white noise to go to sleep and without power I wasn't getting any of my sleep inducing air filtration machine noise.

I lay on my bed, feeling sorry for myself and thinking how much I hate going through yet another weather induced inconvenience.  I finally drifted off to a half-sleep when I hear a "blink! blink!" The power was back on!  Quickly I reset the digital clocks on the microwave and oven stoves (such an annoyance when the power goes out).  Bill said not to bother resetting them because the power will eventually go out again but I can't stand that blinking digital light. I have enough things around this house (including Mother Hen Bill) to annoy me when we have one of these annual "Storms of the Century" pass through our way

So I did all my necessities this morning, including this latest blog update for by blog audience.  I took a short video of the TV coverage on the Weather channel with my iPhone and uploaded it to my YouTube account.  If I don't lose power I'll take another video of the wind and rain outside and upload that video later.

Fun times folks.  It's another "just get through this" time.

"Déjà Vu All Over Again"

Yep, that's me in the path of Hurricane Sandy.  I live in the middle of the Delmarva peninsula.

We're still here.  Our house is still intact.  Still have power.  So far anyway.  One can only hope.

I called into work a while ago.  My co-worker Robert told me that everything is cleared off of the first floor, including the lobby.  Deep cleaning time!  He's staying there overnight with his cat...on the second floor.  Our hotel is located right next to the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and about a half a mile from Rehoboth Bay.  Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall tomorrow night just at high tide.  Lovely, just lovely.  I can see all those canal jelly fish floating around the hotel lobby now.

I was scheduled to work tomorrow evening but I decided not to go in, with not a "little help" from Bill.  Bill goes bonkers every time one of these "storms of the century" rolls around, which seems like every year.  Didn't we just go through this last year?  And the year before?

As a matter of fact I won my all expense paid, four day, trip for two to Disneyword in 1999 because I risked life and limb to go to my job at the Hampton Inn in Lionville PA.  I really did risk life and limb.  I tried several different routes to the Hampton Inn only to find five of them flooded.  Finally I wound my way up through a heavily wooded housing development to Rt. 113, past several downed power lines that were dancing sparks on the highway!  At one point I was even racing my car ahead of flood waters that I saw rapidly approaching the bypass I was trying to make an escape.  Thank goodness the Hampton Inn was on high ground.

As soon as I got to the hotel the power went out.  The hotel lobby was full of panicked travelers who detoured off of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  My co-workers didn't know what to do when the power went out.  "How do we check in the guests?" Without hesitation I said "By paper.  Just write their name and credit card numbers on the form and we'll update it when the power comes back on." Now mind you, my co-workers were in their late teens and early twenties.  I was fifty-nine years old.  I remembered the old fashioned way to check in hotel guests.  We got everyone checked in and even had guests sleeping in the lobby because all the rooms were full.  No doubling up on the rooms either.

Imagine my surprise four months later when I received an award for "Best Guest Service Representative".  The president of the Hampton Inn called me personally to congratulate me.  I told him "I was only doing my job" which is what I thought I was doing.  Still, I was glad to win the award because I WAS GOING TO DISNEYWORLD for the first time in my life!

Me and "The Mouse" (Mickey is on the right)

I won't be going into work this time.  Robert is taking care of the guests (of which there are none in the hotel as I write this).  Hey, maybe the owner of the hotel will send Robert to Disneyworld for his over and above dedication to his job.  Thanks Robert!

Getting Out Of Dodge

We await Frankenstorm.  The wind is picking up, the rain is spotty but coming.  It is inevitable, this is the:

END OF TIMES!  

I am SOOO tired of the latest STORM OF THE CENTURY warnings.

Our governor has issued a mandatory evacuation for everyone here living in coastal Delaware who lives within 3/4 mile of a body of water.  Here at Casa Tipton-Kelly we're TWO MILES from the water.  We are exempt!  

My first inclination is not to evacuate but if we did live right next to the ocean I guess I would evacuate.  Just like the shower scene in "Psycho", I will never get those images out of my mind of those people in New Orleans stranded on the rooftops of their homes after the levees broke.  OMG!  NOT ME!

New York City mayor Bloomberg on on TV now giving a status report on New York's preparation for Hurricane Sandy, aka "Frankenstorm."  Gee, I guess he's taking time off from issuing orders on 7-11 Big Gulp container size restrictions.

Looking out my home office window here as I type this Sunday morning blog I see where the rain has begun.  Ah yes, here we go again.  

Bill and I have filled buckets of water just in case our electric goes out so we can flush our toilets.  I just got of FaceTime with Dr. Spo who lives in Arizona.  I had to explain to him why the need for water - TO FLUSH THE TOILETS WHEN THE ELECTRIC GOES OUT.  Of course my friend Dr. Spo just had to show me his sunny, blue skies.  Thanks Dr. Spo!

So here's the deal, I'm supposed to go to work tomorrow.  We have an event scheduled, a fund raiser for Governor Markel.  I assume that fund raiser is off.  I talked to Robert, my fellow front desk person at the hotel.  He's staying at the hotel overnight with his cat.  He said he would take my shift and I could take his shift later on in the week.  Sounds good to me!  

We do what we have to do here folks.  I just hope our power doesn't go out.  If it does, this may be the last blog posting you get from me for a while, especially since there are many predictions of being without power for A WEEK!  

This is really getting old folks, real old.  

This just in, Mitt Romney PROMISED that if he's elected president there will be no more Frankenstorms!  

Skin Cancer Redux

Another week, and another visit to my dermatologist.  Seems like these days I can't go a week without visiting my dermatologist for yet another "procedure." Yesterday's procedure was to take a bigger chunk of flesh from my left forearm.

A few weeks ago a wart-like growth appeared on my left forearm, almost overnight.  During one of my regular visits to my dermatologist I ask them to check it out.  They determined it was actinite keratosis, which a precancerous skin anomaly.

Two weeks ago they removed the growth and sent it out of a biopsy.  Last week I got the news, the actinite keratosis was "medium" which meant it was "moving."  "Moving" meant that it could change into real skin cancer.  Thus I had to schedule yet another visit to my dermatologist for have a larger chunk of meat taken out of my forearm.

My doctor came in with a student (why do I almost always have a student observer?)  Injected my forearm four times with a needle (it hurt) to numb up the area designated for surgery.  He left, giving time for the anesthetic to take hold.  He returns, puts a towel on my lap, and paper over the top of the area to be cut, with a hole cut out in the paper for surgery.

He begins his incision. I look away because I cannot abide the sight of blood (I faint).  I feel the pressure of his cutting into the flesh of my arm.  He continues to cut, and cut.  Finally he finishes.  He tells me his assistant will be in to "clean up" and bandage my arm.  They (the doctor and the observer) leave).  I wait for the assistant, feeling no pain but woozy just the same.  I get that way when I am cut upon.

The assistant comes in.  She removes the paper towels and clothes and discovers I have blood on my pants (near the crotch area...of course) and on my shirt.  She complains that the doctor didn't place the surgery papers properly.  I got the feeling he's done this before.  I don't care.  I just want out of there.

She cleans me up, bandages my arm.  She gives me instructions how to bath (showers are all right but don't soak my arm in water).  Before I leave I make an appointment for next Friday to have the stitches removed.  Yet another weekly visit to my friendly dermatologist.  I notice the now drying blood on my pants, near the crotch (naturally).  I don't care.

I leave and meet Bill, who was waiting for me in the lobby.  He looks at my pants and says "It looks like you peed yourself."  I don't care.

On the way home I stop at the thrift store looking to check out any new books.  I know my crotch looks bloody.  Again, I don't care.

I then stop at the grocery store to stock up to prepare for Frankenstorm (the subject of my next blog post).  With my bloody crotch in full view, I must have looked like a deranged escape from the local prison.

I returned home and removed those bloody pants.  I sprayed the bloody area with "Spray and Wash."  I'm washing those pants (and shirt) now.

My arm didn't hurt yesterday but it is hurting now.  Yep, it's hurting and I'm feeling a bit woozy.  I don't know if my wooziness is from my bloody episode yesterday or the knowledge that Frankenstorm is on it's way to cause major disruption here on the east coast of Delaware.  Yes Virginia, we are the entry point of this Storm of the Century.  Oh joy.

"Frankenstorm" on its way