Our First Hurricane

"Awww, isn't that sweet?"

Isn't that what your significant other (and insignificant others, for that matter) is supposed to think or say when you make note of a "first" in your relationship? Many guys depend on accruing "points" by remembering these types of things, to make up for our inevitable episodes of spectacular stupidity.

That said, recognizing some "firsts" runs the risk of overreaching, like too narrowly focused sports stats. "He's the first left-handed batter with a last name that starts with L, born on the 4th of July in Georgia who's hit two home runs in the post-season off a cross-dressing pitcher from Albania!"

So it is I find myself this Sunday afternoon, feeling a strange sober casualness, quite literally in the calm before the storm.  Hurricane Sandy, having made a believer in the ever-present and mostly unpredictable powers of Mother Nature of quite a few in the Caribbean, is bearing down on the mid-Atlantic. We've both seen some pretty notable "weather events" - tornadoes, snowstorms, even floods - but we've never been hugely negatively affected beyond the inconvenience of living without power and maybe running water for a few days. Ironically, we noted earlier today that as backpackers we love to go out of our way to have the opportunity to filter our water, eat freeze-dried food and sleep uncomfortably. Maybe that's why we aren't quite as freaked out as the flocks of Audi- and Lexus-drivers clogging the local supermarkets to buy the distilled water, organic fruits and free-range meats they apparently believe are the key to survival in the anarchic aftermath of the "Frankenstorm".

We have our water, we have plenty of nonperishable food (even, heaven forbid, freeze-dried backpacking meals), our storm windows are shut as tightly as this old house will allow, and our heat's turned up a notch to offset the damp cold outside. Tina's cooking up what will undoubtedly become a fantastic chicken dinner while I sip a glass of Douro and tap away on my laptop as we await the arrival of our first hurricane as a couple.

Isn't that sweet?