Jim Dalrymple.com

1:55 am

Okay, it’s bad out there now. I just went out with the dog and the wind nearly blew me over. Seriously, it’s strong.

10:30 pm

It’s calming down again. Rain has pretty much stopped—the wind is still high, but certainly not as high as they said it would be by now.

8:55 pm

Lots of lightning and the rain is picking up again.

8:25 pm

The wind has really picked up, but not that strong.

6:35 pm

Lunenberg, a town on the South Shore, has lost two grids of power. No idea how many people that affects. The storm hasn’t even hit yet—not a good sign.

6:30 pm

Noel is off the coast and has sustained winds of 90km an hour. They said winds could hit 150km later tonight.

6:25 pm

The news just came on and said Noel is no longer a hurricane. However, we are going to have hurricane force winds and rain consistent with what we would see in a hurricane.

What the fuck does that mean? Jesus, I hate stupid people.

6:00 pm

It’s bizarre—we talked to our niece this afternoon and she works in one of the local malls; they are not closing. The mayor is telling people to stay home, but I guess if you want to go out, you can always go shopping.

5:45 pm

The storm started a couple of hours ago and it was pouring really hard. Then the winds picked up, so we thought things were starting early.

Now things have calmed right down. The winds have dropped (relative to what it was, it’s still windy) and the rain is half of what it was.

Monique is making us some supper as we finish up the last of the preparations.

They say it should hit between 7-9 pm now. I’m hoping it just blows on by.

The remnants of Hurricane Noel are heading straight for Nova Scotia. Weather forecasters predict the storm will hit Halifax around 7:00 pm tonight with all its fury.

The problem is nobody seems to know just how furious it will be by the time it gets here. They said it’s not going to be a hurricane anymore—which is a good thing, but they just don’t know.

The mayor and Atlantic Canada Hurricane Weather Tracking Service has warned residents to be prepared. Get extra water, canned food, backup generators and whatever other nonperishable items you can think of.

It’s obvious they expect us to be without power for a little bit at the very least. The Red Cross said to be prepared for 72 hours, but I can’t see that happening. Although during the last Hurricane we had here some people were without power for a week or more.

So far Noel killed 124 people during its trek through the Caribbean.

Monique and I are doing what we can to be ready.

Update: The Weather Channel just said we should be prepared for Hurricane force winds and 100 mm of rain. Oh, and the storm hits during high tide—that’s just great.

Yes, it has been a long time—about seven months to be more specific. Despite all of the comments I got at Macworld Expo earlier this month, I am still alive, I have not abandoned the site and … well, nothing else happened. I was just busy.

So a lot has happened in the last seven months, but there’s been so much I can’t even begin to start listing it all.

Bottom line, the kids are doing good, Monique is great and Twiggy is her usual crazy self. All in all life is good.

I woke up this morning with a slight problem with my sinuses. I took some Advil and didn’t think about it too much for the rest of the day. The way I’m feeling now, I guess the Advil has worn off.

I’ve never had much trouble with sinus colds—usually that mess has been for Monique. Today, though, I got hit and it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

I was sitting at the kitchen table doing some work this afternoon and I could feel it getting worse by the minute. I took some more medicine, but I fear it’s not going to help.

I’m sitting in my favorite chair right now feeling like shit. I hope the medicine kicks in soon.

You may remember back in June Michael had a bad accident on his bike that knocked out or broke nine of his teeth. For a few weeks it was good news/bad news about whether he would keep his teeth or not. Now we are starting to worry a little again.

When I was in San Francisco last week Monique called and said two of the teeth were showing discoloration. If this means the teeth died, Michael will need to start on his root canals.

We don’t know for sure, but he has an appointment with the dentist on Thursday. We’re hoping it’s just some minor thing that can be dealt with easily without putting him through any more pain.

It was about 25 years ago when my uncle John, and cousins Donny, Dennis and Terry left for an evening of drinking to celebrate the holidays. In the wee hours of the morning Terry’s T-top car left the road and slammed into a large tree—roof first—killing everyone but Dennis.

The boys were all in their late teens or early 20s—such an incredible tragedy. Donny and Dennis were brothers and all of them lived within a few miles of each other.

I remember my Mother waking me up very early in the morning and told me to get dressed. When I asked her why, she said John had been killed in a car accident. I didn’t realize until later that Donny and Terry had been killed as well.

I was young then and nobody expected me to deal with it. I don’t know if anyone even asked me how I felt about it. I’m sure my mother and father did—they are good like that. I was too young for it to really bother me anyway.

Every year since then, my Mother’s family gets together to light a tree on my Grandmother’s yard in memory of John. My Mother has 13 brothers and sisters and they all have an average of three kids, so it’s quite a gathering.

It always makes me think how lucky I am and how quickly things can change.

I’m home one day from San Francisco’s warmth and sunshine and what happens? We get hammered with a winter storm. Not just any first of the year winter storm, this was a dandy.

Nicole and Michael came out to help shovel the side deck, which helped out a lot. Actually, Nicole did most of the work and seemed to have a good time doing it.

Twiggy had a blast. She has a habit of jumping in front of you when shoveling snow getting a face—and mouth—full of snow every time you try to clear the walk.

I hate snow. I hate winter.