"It's the Standard Grandpa Drill"

In a way, I was very lucky to grow up without television. When the weather was bad, I could be blissfully oblivious to how much everybody was freaking out and just take it as it came. So right now I'm having a hard time telling if this hurricane's really going to be THAT BAD, or if I'm just so unused to crazyweatherhype that it seems scarier than it really is. I mean, the weather channel made the rain last week look crazy scary, and I only encountered slightly more puddling than usual. Know that they're truly whipped up into a full fever pitch frenzy, I'm having a hard time deciding just how hysterical I should be. Television has me wanting to evacuate the whole damn state and write it off as a loss, but my girlfriend assures me (as she stockpiles giant jugs of water and canned goods and tarp) that the worst her house is going to get is maybe some flooding in the basement and a power outage. Oh, and I should maybe move my electrical stuff away from the windows. Y'know, just in case they shatter. No big deal.

Still and all, it could be worse. My school has already canceled classes for Monday, so I don't have to worry about missing another day (I already missed Wednesday and Thursday due to severe vertigo and then severe exhaustion from the medicine I was put on for the vertigo). My team is playing the Championship game in Rochester instead of on their home turf, so it shouldn't be canceled due to flooding. Plus Amanda and I won't be so tempted to go and end up getting stranded in Philly in a hurricane. And if the storm is really as bad as the hype, I've got valium now! Yes, apparently they can treat vertigo with valium. Who knew?

On a down(er?) note, my mom has informed me that apparently our surviving cat, Gracie, went out early Wednesday morning and has yet to return. She's pulled stunts like that before, though not often and not recently, so I'm trying not to panic yet. But if she doesn't return before the storm, I don't like her odds. She's a scrawny little thing, nineteen years old, arthritic... Very spry still, but I don't like her chances against hurricane force winds. Even if nothing bad's happened to her yet, I doubt she'll make it through the storm without someone taking her in, and I doubt she'll let herself be taken in. So here's hoping she's okay and that she comes home before the storm hits.