Getting ready

This flyer, at the venerable Green Parrot Bar (official motto: "No Snivelling!") comes to mind as Chris forms up out near Hispaniola, expected to grow into a Cat 1 overnight.

It came to mind, too, as I heard a guy with Michigan plates bellowing on Elizabeth Street: "Just board it up! Board it up now!"

A tad premature, even though half the computer models show the storm making a direct hit on us this weekend, and the Miami stations are doing breathless updates every 30 minutes.

But, hey, I'm an ex-Boy Scout, so I hied to Albertson's for six gallons of water, canned food with a great shelf life (e.g., soups I wouldn't mind eating cold), those handy little snack packs of fruit in room-temp Jell-O, granola bars, and the like. I felt like a culinary Noah as my supplies marched, two by two, down the conveyor.

Listen to the wind, and you can hear a little Thurber there:

The Get-Ready Man was a lank unkempt elderly gentleman with wild eyes and a deep voice who used to go about shouting at people through a megaphone to prepare for the end of the world. "GET READY! GET READ-Y!" he would bellow. "THE WORLLLLD IS COMING TO AN END!"

When it does, at least I'll have Jell-O.