Sandy in the Back Yard

Molly Walsh (my cuz), me, Beth Wagner, Kristen Eaton, and Rachel Oblak at Phoenix Books, Burlington, VT, October 26, 2012.

First, a photo from my happy book event at Phoenix Books in Burlington, VT last Friday.  I had the greatest time talking books with fellow writers and book lovers.  Thanks to Billy, Kristen, Rachel, and Beth for having me in!

And now, today.  I admit it’s scary here.  When the wind blows hard, the howling is fierce enough to distract me from writing, and then I stare out the window, watching the trees work sideways and feeling the house batten itself down against a new sort of pressure.

It’s a matter of time before the flickering power goes off for good, and then we’ll be waiting in limbo with everyone else, wondering when it will come back on so normal life will resume.  This is already not normal.  It’s a holiday with the schools, the freeway, and the university closed, closed and closed.  But it’s also the opposite of a holiday, with doomsday voices on the radio and colored bands of cloud swirls on every TV broadcast, moving in slow-mo towards our part of the country.

Preparing only takes a person so far.  Readiness as a state of mind must give way to other distractions or those hours will be lost to anticipation and dread.  We know we’ll be fine in the end.  We have enough food, we have wood for the fireplace, and candles and water and batteries.  We’re together.  This is what counts, after all.  Being together is always what counts.