Category: Uncategorized

We were lucky, kept power the whole time and only lost Comcast for a few hours this morning. At Peter’s, they didn’t lose any of their services.
One tree on Dixon was topped, but the back yard at Edgewater has a lot of big branches. Fortunately, no damage to vehicles or to the house, aside from a slightly bent gutter. The shed and the swing set were untouched.
I left messages for a couple of arborists and bought an electric chainsaw. Tomorrow, I’ll see if Peter, who is on a plane from Rekyavik at this hour, is up for some yardwork. Patriots game with “the girls” for me later this afternoon.

The latest report from the superb Cape Cod Today blogger Tim Caldwell is that the worst remaining power outages are in Mashpee and Yarmouth.
Tim also reports that “the peak wind gust reported so far on Cape is 63 MPH in Eastham, Highest overall is 72 at Nantucket. Nantucket reported a barometer reading about 5 p.m. of 29.11 or 985 mb. The storm is expected to bottom out at 965 mb.”
According to NASA, air pressure at sea level is around 1013.25mb. In hurricanes, the pressure can drop anywhere from 30-70 mb. The pressure drop in this atmospheric event was 48.25 – well within range for a hurricane.
Based on wind speed, if this storm was slightly less than a Category 1 (74-95 mph), I’d hate like h-e-double l to be in a Category 5.
For even more excitment, we set the clocks back tonight.

Earlier today, the section of Route 151 between the Mashpee Fire Station and Old Barnstable Road was closed after winds tossed power lines and phone transmission equipment into the roadway.
From NOAA:
THE DAMAGING WINDS WILL DIMINISH BETWEEN 10 PM AND 11 PM AS THE STORM
PULLS AWAY.
NOAA’s Boston radar is currently down, but regional radar shows that the storm is definitely moving away from us. The wind gusts, though, are still terrifying.
Another hour or two to go.

Check out the plummeting barometric pressure and the wind speeds measured at Buzzards Bay: http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/buoy/BUZM3.html.
Evidently they haven’t closed the bridges, which is somewhat of a surprise.
Per NStar, 33,000 customers were without power at 5:30. By 6 p.m., most of Falmouth was without power, including huge chunks of Woods Hole, and parts of Yarmouthport, Dennis, Bourne, Harwich, Brewster, Marstons Mills, Centerville, Sandwich, and Wellfleet.
5 1/2 hours to go.
The kids called a little while ago, they’re scared, but fascinated.
A tree fell outside Emmeline’s window, but didn’t cause any damage (we’ll see tomorrow what happened to the fence). I’m not entirely surprised, was worried about that one because it’s on the North side of the house. If anything, I’m grateful that it’s down.
James is not pleased, a tree fell in the back yard, near the swing set.
I’m just glad that I had so many trees taken out a couple of years ago.

This storm is a monster – 953 MB, about the same as the “Perfect Storm”. NOAA now considers it a Category One hurricane:
THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION AND TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED IN
THIS REGION. THIS STORM SHOULD BE TREATED AS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE.
THE BRUNT OF THE DAMAGING NORTH WINDS WILL OCCUR THROUGH 10 PM WITH
SUSTAINED WINDS OF 40 TO 55 MPH AND PEAK GUSTS BETWEEN 70 AND 85
MPH. THE STRONGEST WINDS WILL OCCUR OVER THE OUTER CAPE AND
NANTUCKET.
So far, we’ve lost two trees at 11 Edgewater and one at 20 Dixon.

We were lucky, hurricane Noel is passing 75 miles to our East, but we are getting some backlash, expected to continue for another 9 hours or so.
James’s school is having their sixth annual crafters fair, which I’m happy to have attended this morning before the weather got too crazy.
I wanted to drop by the KofC today for a Wampanoag cultural event, but between the slick roads, the leaves and especially the high winds, opted to stay put.
You have to feel sorry for anyone who planned an event for today.
From NOAA:
A HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT TONIGHT.
DAMAGING NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND
EARLY EVENING. THE PERIOD OF STRONGEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO
OCCUR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING BETWEEN 3 AND 10 PM.
THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION AND TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED
IN THIS REGION!
SUSTAINED WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE INTO THE 40 TO 50 MPH
RANGE BY THIS AFTERNOON…WITH PEAK GUSTS BETWEEN 65 AND 85 MPH
POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WINDS THIS STRONG ARE
CERTAINLY CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AND WIDESPREAD
TREE DAMAGE. WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES ARE ALSO EXPECTED.
IN ADDITION…PEOPLE IN MOBILE HOMES ARE URGED TO SEEK SHELTER.
MOBILE HOMES ARE NOT SAFE WITH THESE EXPECTED WIND SPEEDS. THE
DAMAGING WINDS WILL DIMINISH BY LATE EVENING AS THE STORM PULLS
AWAY.

There’s a High Wind Watch in effect from 6 am to midnight tomorrow and possibly torrential rains as well, side effects of Hurricane Noel (as in Nole, not No-Elle).
“Power outages are likely”. Well, of course.

The famous chupacabra has turned out to be a coyote, albeit a hairless one.

A lesson for those corporate moguls who are slavering at the mouth to offshore their software development work: the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games’ online ticketing system crashed this week shortly after tickets went on sale.
So, on top of exporting dangerous toys and poison in toothpaste, the folks in China can’t seem to write a high-volume e-commerce website.
Maybe they should have farmed out the job to web developers in the US.

Had a golf lesson in the morning, did a little housework and laundry, paid bills, prepped a demo for today, drove Peter (who landed in Iceland this morning) to the Logan bus, plugged in the lights at P&B’s, then walked the grandkids around their neighborhood for trick-or-treating.
It was a mild, clear night, ideal to be out.
The kids live in a very family-friendly area, and we covered about five blocks on foot, including one “haunted” yard, with a friend of Bonnie and Peter’s and her son.
After unloading their first round of treasure, the boys hopped in the back of the truck and we finished canvassing the neighborhood. The high point was a house with a miniature phosphorescent village and train track in their garage, and a return trip to the haunted yard. We wrapped up a little after 8 pm.
The kids had a great time, and, having left a big box of SmartFood packets on the doorstep, I was very happy to see that my place hadn’t been trashed.