So far, so good. But of course the storm hasn't reached us yet here in inland Connecticut.

I am worried, but I think it will be much worse along the Connecticut shoreline where they say there will be winds to 85 mph. Up where I am, just up to 55; still, that's enough to bring trees down around here. It's very wooded.

I'm more concerned for my father, who lives on the Jersey shore, just 2 short blocks of the Tom's River, which feeds into Barnegat Bay. I spoke with him last night. They are doing mandatory evacuations in Cape May, which is south of him, but he said he wanted to stay put and "keep an eye on things." Dad, dear dad, what could you do if things blew around or got flooded? Not much! At least the police know he's there. They called him already to check on him.. I actually wrote them a letter a few years ago to thank them becus that's what they do.

I've battened down the hatches here as best I can. I turned the heat up a few notches to a balmy 65 so there's a bit more heat inside if I lose power. The fridge/freezer are now at their coldest settings. Not much food left in the fridge, and last night I had a big bowl of ice cream since I rarely eat it and I would like to enjoy it!

The winds are picking up now but nothing serious. Sort of ominous portent of things to come. They say the rain will arrive around mid-day and the worst parts of the storm will be today, tonight and all day Tuesday. Worst flooding in 70 years, the governor warned. Be prepared to go at least 36 hours without power.

Although I have a sump pump and French drains in the basement, I decided it would be a good idea to protect the 10 44 lb boxes of cat litter I bought at Costco a year ago right before i cancelled my membership. So I found some pieces of wood, got some bricks and put all of the boxes on makeshift platforms about 2 or 3 inches up.

I didn't bother going out to get more groceries and perhaps wrongly figured I can go to Subway or somewhere if I need food, although the roads might not be passable. I just got caught up in all kinds of other storm prep stuff yesterday, and even managed to finish editing the Second Author's manuscript, since I'm under contract to finish that by a certain time and I didn't want lost power to be an issue.

I also heard from the proofreader job that their offices will be closed Monday for sure, maybe Tuesday and we'll regroup for my start day post-storm. I also told J. I didn't feel comfortable driving him and anyway, I'm sure they will close the schools in his town, if not his job. He was fine with that and made other arrangements to get to work (!) Monday and is taking Tuesday off.

Good. I don't have to go anywhere til Wednesday earliest.

I think there's at least a 50/50 chance I'll lose power, but I will post again later today; if you don't hear from me, you'll know what happened!

9:45 am update
Winds picking up but still not much rain. I decided to have an early lunch (yeah, I just had breakfast around 7:30) to try to use up food. So I had a full package of frozen Trader Joe's shrimp wontons, delicisous. Also a half an acorn squash that was already cooked, plus the rest of a jar of opened pickled beets. I'm stuffed.

10 am:
Cracked open 9 eggs in fridge and froze them. They'll last longer there and I could at least use them in baking/cooking.

1:12 pm
Light rain falling. Wind gusts picking up in intensity. My town's emergency sirens have been wailing throughout the day. Some bad s*** must be going on; I'm guessing tree limbs down.

I'm feeling tired and would like to nap; I think it's my anxiety. Every time I hear the wind gust, I feel myself physically bracing for it. They already ordered evacuations of certain low-lying portions of New York City, like the Wall Street area.

Trying not to look outside too much. There's something about seeing 75-foot tall white pines waving around like grass that gets me a little freaked out.

2:55 pm. They just closed all highways in the state. I'm surprised I still have power, but again expect to lose it at any time. I have actually lost power five times already, for just a second, then regained it and was able to reboot computer. Very strong wind gusts. Wind-driven rain pelting windows.

3:27 pm. After viewing alarming photos of flooding in Atlantic City, I called my dad to see how he's doing and got his answering machine. So then I called my half-brother, who lives in Rutherford, NJ. I wanted to see if my dad had chosen to go there. My half-brother told me my dad, who had planned on staying at home, was ordered to do a mandatory evacuation by the police, and he left about an hour ago to head to my brother's, which I believe is an hour and a half drive.

I'm feeling pretty angry at my dad right now for foolishly choosing to stay, and then having to leave at the height of the storm...with his macular degeneration! He can't see at night, I know that, and now he's got to drive in these conditions? Now I'm sick with worry something will happen on the road somewhere.

I am going to call the police down there. My dad probably neglected to mention his vision problems to them.

3:43 pm The police said all they can really do is send an officer by my dad's house to see if he actually left. I described the car, etc. I'm pretty sure he did since that's what my brother told me. The officer described the weather situation down there as being "out of control," and said the drive to my brother's would probably take 3 hours in this weather. I'm hoping my dad might have the good sense to find a restaurant (if there's one open?) and hunker down.