tropical storm hanna is supposed to hit us tomorrow; the rain's already started.

i've never been in a tropical storm, so i don't really know what to do.  i charged everything that's on a battery; i have flashlights, candles, and water. and nobody around here seems too nervous, although everyone's expecting to lose power. see, there's lots and lots of trees here, which in high winds (such as those associated with tropical storms) those limbs tend to break off and to find their ways into power lines.

the weird thing about hurricanes and tropical storms is that you know they're coming.  and you know for days and days in advance. i'm used to california disasters (not that this counts as one, but they get real hurricanes here every once in a while).  i'm used to stuff just suddenly happening (earthquakes),  or things piling on top of each other (wet winter leads to lots of growth, ensuing dry summer leads to fire threat, fire leads to lack of groundcover, loss of ground cover leads to mudslides in ensuing wet winter. rinse, repeat).

so it's strange just sitting around and preparing to be shut in and cut off tomorrow between 8 am and 6 pm.  convenient for planning purposes, i suppose, but weird nonetheless.