Saturday, August 15

Tropical Storm Ana

Hurricane Season must be underway...a named tropical storm in the eastern Atlantic. Monday and Monday night we should anticipate Tropical Storm Ana possibly hitting us. I'm not too concerned; I've experienced worse winds and more rainfall in Virginia than amounts typically considered a “tropical storm.” Hopefully it will just remain a tropical storm or tropical depression. I've heard that some of the glass windows don't quite keep out the rain when it comes blowing in horizontally... so I'll be careful to pack any electronics away into trash bags or stow them away from the windows.

Should things get ugly, I guess I'll hunker down in one of the park hurricane shelters or at Keith's place down in Cinnamon bay. The park has a pretty clear Hurricane Plan, and if followed, life will be quite exciting for at least a few days in preparation and afterward.

I'm spending some time working today from home. Looks like I've hit 400 hours so far for the internship. The minimum is 450 hours of service, for Americorps. In three weeks, I think another 50 hours is more than likely. I suspect I'll finish the internship well over the minimum requirement, logging something closer to at least 500 or 520 hours of service. Woohoo!

Tropical Depression Three! Ack! After much deliberating I chose running over the beach. I will see how that goes. My goal is to run into town and then run back. I hope it goes well!

Update: I ran 4 miles in just under an hour! Considering most of it was rocky and steep trails with plenty of hill climbing, I'd say it was a good run. I drained my small 16oz. water botttle by the time I returned home. A few people saw me running (around 4pm) and looked at me like I was crazy. Perhaps, in this heat, it is crazy to run outside. I figured it would better prepare me for the weather, whatever it may be, on race day during the Army Ten Miler. I nearly forgot I should be training for the event, and should already be in pretty decent shape. I've been running a few times on the island and swimming plenty of times. I'm hoping my overall fitness will be just right come race day.

After the run, I played a few games of Uno with my roommates and some friends. Although I did win the first two hands quickly, I lost horribly in the end. After cards, pizza, popcorn and a few more laughs, we popped in Watchmen on DVD. We watched the movie on a laptop hooked up to iPod speakers. It wasn't the world's greatest entertainment system but it was awesome to see a movie and at that, a newer one that I hadn't seen yet. On the whole, I'm not quite sure how I feel about the Watchmen. It wasn't a movie I'd jump at the chance to see again. There was a lot of gore and violence without a whole lot of happy. I guess it's a little dark for my tastes.

Tropical Storms Ana (pronounced Ah-na) and Bill (formerly tropical depression three) are back-to-back and should be hitting us Monday through Thursday. I suspect it will be a week with lots of rain and plenty of thunder. I'm interested to see how full the cistern gets with the rain and storms. If the storms upgrade to hurricane status, I will be ready to pack up my essentials and get to a shelter, stat.