Irene

Hurricane Irene passed through Saturday night into Sunday and though the winds were not as damaging as we had expected, the rain was ferocious and our street experienced flooding, though not our house.  The creek that runs through our backyard did an admirable job of taking the water away from us, but unfortunately, our neighbors 3 and 4 doors down were not so lucky.  You see, they've been doing sewer improvements on our road and the road behind us and they covered up the little ditch in those yards.  Of course, the water had no where to go and so several neighbors had water in their houses.
But that is nothing compared to the town of Fairfield, where Miguel works.  That town has banned anyone who is not a resident from entering; all major and minor roads into town are flooded except for two, and they check licenses for residency.  He hasn't been to work all week and we're on vacation next week.  That is, if the Jersey Shore still exists.

And we're on a boil water advisory in my town as well.  Any water that will be consumed must be boiled and cooled first to kill any micro-organisms.  The plant that services our town was flooded and so water quality cannot be assured.  So we boil water several times a day in order to wash dishes, brush teeth and prepare food.  It's tedious, but I've learned that I'm capable of washing dishes with 2 gallons of water.  Perhaps I'll try to keep that up once the water's safe again.