Irene Goodnight Leadbelly Song No Irene Go Away!

So here I am trying to figure out our plan for dealing with yet another Hurricane. Been trying to count how many times in my life I have done this? The first one I remember was in 38. I was working for Packard Motor Car. Owned a 1929 Packard Touring car. It was great for driving through water because of its large wheels. Boss at the garage said “here kid take a couple of batteries and some either and for 50 cents go start up stalled cars. You should make a few bucks.” Driving around the Bronx all the way to City Island made about $20 dollars. A lot of money back when gas was .20 cents a gallon and a hot dog a nickel.

Living in New York City you didn’t pay much attention to hurricanes. We didn’t own our own homes and besides the very structures in the City tended to break up the wind patterns. It wasn’t until the fifties when I started going to Fire Island that hurricanes became a familiar experience. Back then, there was no “Weather Channel” or even radio didn’t endlessly scream warnings at us that our world will soon be destroyed via the wind or flood or both. Today I am scared to death of what awaits me comes Saturday Night. Part of my trepidation is my age insecurity. I no longer feel like I “can take on anything and survive.” I’m not sure when I past that point but I have. I am now dependent on others. The other part is the Media scaring the daylights out of us by its ceaseless bombardment.

In the 1950s I bought a little “fixer upper” bungalow on Fire Island. I was spending a weekend underneath the house putting in new posts. Went to sleep and the next morning looked out and there was water up to the porch. Coast Guard guy comes by in a boat, “what the hell you doing here this place was evacuated.?” I don’t know I was sleeping. “You wanna leave now?” No why, it’s a beautiful day?” Well okay but be careful on the beach, it’s a really heavy surf.

Went down to the beach and lo and behold there were all the local yokels with their Jeeps. They were pulling stuff out of the surf deposited by the houses that were being tossed into the sea. That was an amazing site. Whole house being picked up and dumped into the ocean like pancakes on a grill. As I walked along what was left of the beach Poseidon favored me with the gift of a large Dutch frying pan that I treasure to this day. (Have to rescue it from Kate who thinks it’s pretty useless.) Taught me that some things we own have value only for the person who experienced the point of sentimental creation. They're precious memories.

Okay so here we are living halfway out on Long Island. We are sweating out our preparations for Hurricane Irene. Everything that might become airborne has to be put away or anchored. Sixteen feet of a glass wall facing the bay has to be shuddered up with corrugated aluminum shutters from Florida. Everything from the woodworking shop has to be raised up out of the flood that will certainly encircle us. Kate’s got her waist high wading boots ready. The night of the storm we will go stay with some very kind neighbors who live on higher ground. That’s essential as I could easily have a medical emergency. Our home could be in two feet of water and no Emergence vehicle is going to come near it. I hate to leave but we just have to go.

Wow, if anyone can’t see the changing climate patterns they must be totally blocked by their refusal to accept reality. Talk about a “state of denial.”

I recently came upon an interesting study that correlates El Nino with increasing war and social unrest. It goes something like this. The more the presence of El Nino ie. the warming of the Pacific ocean the greater the increase in wars and social unrest around the world. El Nino produces increased drought, intense storms, tornadoes, and flooding. .In other word extreme weather. That's what Climate Change is all about. Why can’t people see that?

So what we are now observing weather wise is a dress rehearsal of more to come. The droughts and hunger in Africa are already putting the migratory pressure on Europe as the African natives run from the drought parched land. (See my blog on 7/10 on Immigration and Climate change.)

The so called“Arab Spring” has yet to produce a single country that has seriously moved to a democracy. I doubt that any will. That's because none of these countries have the raw materials or any tradition of a what democracy even means. Most important no Industrial Revolution to create some surplus. It was Fredrick Engels who suggested that the production of surplus allows a society to create a educated class essential to a democracy or socialism.

In the Arab lands there is a tragedy unfolding as people become disillusioned with the so called revolutions. They are not revolutions precisely because there was no clear vision of what would replace the old with the new. Without that vision the old just comes back decked up in some new clothes and take up where they left off. In Egypt the army ran the country with Mubarack and they still do. Sad, but so true.

Anyhow for me the biggest immediate threat is Hurricane Irene. I promise to stay focused on the wind, the rain, the flooding, the survival of our home and us. Wish us good luck as we may need it. Yet there is a part of natures fury that continues to fascinate me. Not sure why?