The big news last weekend was the movement of Hurricane Irene up the east coast of America. Some places took a pounding (North & South Carolina, Virginia, Long Island region of New York) but by the time it had reached Massachusetts it had downgraded from Hurricane to Tropical Storm status. As you can see from this sign outside Marguerite and Jude's local corner shop folk got themselves prepared nonetheless.
With Irene due to hit on Saturday everyone got their last minute things out of the way on Friday evening, but after a long hard week of work and play Marguerite and Jude took themselves to the Beacon Street Tavern for dinner.
Did I say folk were getting prepared? Well yes, I did, and sure the shopkeepers did exactly the same by boarding up their premises. The owner of this shop in Coolidge Corner was taking no chances and followed Jude's usual motto - Fail to prepare - prepare to fail!!!!!
Another shop, another big board up to keep it safe from harm. Ever wondered how a hurricane gets it's name? Cutting a long story short - there is a 6 year cycle of 21 names. These names range from beginning with letter A and run through the alphabet leaving out (u, v, x, y, z). So the first big storm or hurricane in a new year will begin with A, e.g. Andrew, then B, e.g. Ben and so on. Only when a storm is considered so huge /destructive is it retired and replaced by another name, e.g. hurricane Katrina in 2006 was replaced with Katia (which ironically arrived one week after Irene this year).
Check out the sign outside the local corner shop. It shows a 'Hurricane Checklist'. Class.............wha?
And check out yer man with the InvestNI umbrella. With Marguerite's Mum & Dad's imminent arrival in Boston Jude decided to nip down there to get in some Guinness for Michael when he came across the sign. the list read: Beer, Wine, Liqour, Water, Battries, Bread/Chips, Milk. I wouldn't say they were all essentials................well not the batteries anyway!!!!
Meanwhile back at the ranch Marguerite is calling everyone on skype in case it's a case of 'whipe-out' with the hurricane. Actually things got to the stage were it was wise to be in doors, locked up, windows closed and settled down as the weather outside began to detereriate.
Jude, as always, has his priorities right in check as he settled down with a beer and got up-to-date with the latest rock news in Rolling Stone!!!
Oh yeah, he also started organising the itinery for Marguerite's Mum & Dad's up-coming holiday.
But what of the hurricane?
Well as previously mentioned it had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Massachusetts but it still left it's mark. This is the sight outside Jude and Marguerite's apartment on Winchester St the next morning. Half a tree had landed on the street.
Max was glued to the window goodo for fear of missing something. 'Here Jude, this is mental, check this out, Irene has made a mess of our street by up-rooting a huge tree.
Even though there was still danger from the winds Jude decided he would leave the apartment for a spot of pic taking. Here is the scene about 4 doors down the street. You can see there a huge tree has up-ended and brought a huge piece of the pavement with it. Class!!!!!
Here is a close up of the scene.
Question: How many men does it take to cut down a tree?
Answer: Six. One to cut it and fiveto watch.
Irene left a trail of destruction all the way up up the east coast and left 30 folk dead (2 in Massachusetts). In Winchester Street things were not so bad (but could have been worse had those trees fell on people) but the street was still closed for most of the day as the damage was cleaned up.
'Hey Marguerite, Jude's away out there taking pics of the damage in thon wind, should he not be in doors? He says he's played hurling in worse....he's either mad, very brave or just stupid.....hey Marguerite, wha?
A few doors down Winchester Street on the other side and another house got a close escape when this large branch just missed it's wooden structure by inches.
'That was the best hurricane ever, loads of damage and stuff, trees all over the place, big puddles of water and all, it was class, just magic, pass me me wellies Marguerite!!!'
Meanwhile Marguerite sat and watched all the excitement going on on the street below. She was now concerned that the Stevie Nicks concert she and Jude had planned to attend the next night would be called off. She asked, 'if the trees on Winchester Street were falling how could the Boston Pavillion possibly remain undamaged for tomorrow's concert?'
But the concert went ahead as planned the next evening in beautiful warm weather. Stevie Nicks was, as you would expect, just brilliant.
While at the Stevie Nicks concert someone nearby dropped one (a smelly one like) and Ally and Marguerite thought it was hilarious. Pure stinking it was too!!
Marguerite and Ally in an attempt to escape the smell even thought about taking this cool bike home.
So........all is well that ends well and that was the case with Hurricane / Tropical Storm Irene and fortunately Marguerite and Jude were just fine...............and their wee apartment was too.
And check out yer man with the InvestNI umbrella. With Marguerite's Mum & Dad's imminent arrival in Boston Jude decided to nip down there to get in some Guinness for Michael when he came across the sign. the list read: Beer, Wine, Liqour, Water, Battries, Bread/Chips, Milk. I wouldn't say they were all essentials................well not the batteries anyway!!!!
Meanwhile back at the ranch Marguerite is calling everyone on skype in case it's a case of 'whipe-out' with the hurricane. Actually things got to the stage were it was wise to be in doors, locked up, windows closed and settled down as the weather outside began to detereriate.
Jude, as always, has his priorities right in check as he settled down with a beer and got up-to-date with the latest rock news in Rolling Stone!!!
Oh yeah, he also started organising the itinery for Marguerite's Mum & Dad's up-coming holiday.
But what of the hurricane?
Well as previously mentioned it had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Massachusetts but it still left it's mark. This is the sight outside Jude and Marguerite's apartment on Winchester St the next morning. Half a tree had landed on the street.
Max was glued to the window goodo for fear of missing something. 'Here Jude, this is mental, check this out, Irene has made a mess of our street by up-rooting a huge tree.
Even though there was still danger from the winds Jude decided he would leave the apartment for a spot of pic taking. Here is the scene about 4 doors down the street. You can see there a huge tree has up-ended and brought a huge piece of the pavement with it. Class!!!!!
Here is a close up of the scene.
Question: How many men does it take to cut down a tree?
Answer: Six. One to cut it and fiveto watch.
Irene left a trail of destruction all the way up up the east coast and left 30 folk dead (2 in Massachusetts). In Winchester Street things were not so bad (but could have been worse had those trees fell on people) but the street was still closed for most of the day as the damage was cleaned up.
'Hey Marguerite, Jude's away out there taking pics of the damage in thon wind, should he not be in doors? He says he's played hurling in worse....he's either mad, very brave or just stupid.....hey Marguerite, wha?
A few doors down Winchester Street on the other side and another house got a close escape when this large branch just missed it's wooden structure by inches.
'That was the best hurricane ever, loads of damage and stuff, trees all over the place, big puddles of water and all, it was class, just magic, pass me me wellies Marguerite!!!'
Meanwhile Marguerite sat and watched all the excitement going on on the street below. She was now concerned that the Stevie Nicks concert she and Jude had planned to attend the next night would be called off. She asked, 'if the trees on Winchester Street were falling how could the Boston Pavillion possibly remain undamaged for tomorrow's concert?'
But the concert went ahead as planned the next evening in beautiful warm weather. Stevie Nicks was, as you would expect, just brilliant.
While at the Stevie Nicks concert someone nearby dropped one (a smelly one like) and Ally and Marguerite thought it was hilarious. Pure stinking it was too!!
Marguerite and Ally in an attempt to escape the smell even thought about taking this cool bike home.
So........all is well that ends well and that was the case with Hurricane / Tropical Storm Irene and fortunately Marguerite and Jude were just fine...............and their wee apartment was too.
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