hatch battening in shiny things

Word on the street is we're getting a massive snowstorm tomorrow. Well, word not so much on the street as word on the interwebs. There is much speculating and debating and estimating going on, but it appears we will get at least 8 inches of snow. Maybe 12. Maybe 14. Weirdly enough, despite this winter being just miserable, we really haven't had much snow. It's been miserable because of the !!Polar Blast!! and the below 0 temperatures. But very little snow. This is quite backwards.

It felt really strange all day. It was really still, and that "something's going to happen* feeling was in the air when I went out at lunch. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the constant Facebook Weather Panic Updates. I kept hearing Mycroft in my head saying "An east wind is blowing!" Despite there being no wind at all and an east wind having nothing to do with anything. Except my serious Sherlock addiction, but that's neither here nor there.

We're prepared for the blizzard, though. We've been to the store, we've stocked up on catfood and beer and coffee. We filled the 5 gallon container up with kerosene tonight in case the power goes off and we have to use the kerosene heater. We've got backup water somewhere (I hope... I'm actually kind of assuming this) - we're on a well, so if the power goes off the water goes away. I'm washing dishes right now so we won't be stuck with nasty dishes for days.(And by I'm washing dishes, of course I mean the dishwasher is washing dishes, and I'm listening to it work.)

We've got kerosene for the lamps, and I actually know where the big fancy flashlight that stands up by itself and has several bright-light settings is. I have charged up my phone and my iPad and my computer and my Kindle and my cute little portable charger thing that I bought not long ago because we don't have a land line and it made me a little nervous that my shiny new iPhone needs to be charged up every day or two, and what if our power goes out for, like, EVER, and we are phoneless?!? And need to phone somebody??!! (Our power never goes out for more than a few hours, except during The Ice Storm From Hell when it was out for days but so was the entire town's power, because it was The Ice Storm From Hell and it knocked all the power lines down). There's no use in thinking we can use Baker B's phone because it certainly won't be charged. So I bought this cool little lime green portable charger from Amazon on sale for something like $30 and have already found it very handy when I wanted to use my iPad in Starbucks but it was nearly dead.

Anyhow. I think we're about as prepared as we ever get for anything. Which is never all that prepared, but hey, at least we're making a little effort! This massive snow is supposed to start sometime tomorrow morning, and I am SO SO SO hoping it will get here BEFORE I have to leave for work. So I can just say forget it, I'm staying home! With a clear conscious. Especially since it's 11:00 now and apparently I believe I am getting to sleep in tomorrow. I keep hoping they'll just cancel classes. If they cancel classes I don't feel like a wimp for not going in. We're not "essential personnel" and I certainly have plenty of vacation days, but I work with people who drive in from other counties in all sorts of horrible weather, so I hate calling in saying, "Yeah, I KNOW I live 12 minutes away... but it's SNOWING!! And I'm up a BIG HILL!!! And I hate winter and I don't want to DIE!!!"

So. Send GET MOVING thoughts to our snowstorm to make it arrive before 7:45 in the morning.