There's hurricanes, then there's HURRICANES

We wait. We hide patio furniture.

Hurricane.. um Tropical Storm.. um maybe Tropical Cyclone Lee approaches. He’s turned north, and as of this afternoon looks like he’ll hit hardest to the west, in New Brunswick and Maine.

Meanwhile in Western Head we’ve been fogged in pretty much every day for a week.

As new comers to the east coast the whole hurricane season is a big learning curve. Part of that is appreciating just how much damage can happen in a short time, but equally fascinating is that you’re constantly guessing just where, and when, and how strong the storm will be.

It’s telling that as much people joke about the hurricane, they also take it seriously. That, I think was our cue.

Well, that, and the observation that weather everywhere this year is bigger, and badder, and less predictable than anyone can recall. The sense is that this year - and probably going forward - you just need to anticipate the worst, and plan accordingly. Whether it’s been floods, or wild fires, or earthquakes, it feels like every corner of the globe is getting hammered by Mother Nature.

So we did it. We broke down and bought a generator. Now honestly that has less to do with weather than it has to do with the phenomenally profitable, but honestly pathetic monopoly known as Nova Scotia Power.

It’s claimed that during last year’s Hurricane Fiona there were “about 415,000 customers without power at Fiona's peak.” Nova Scotia’s population is just more than 1 million people, so you can say that 40% of the province lost electricity.

Restoring power to those people took a long, long time - in Antigonish they hit 16 days without power.

So we now own a shiny red Benchmark generator. It honestly won’t run the whole house, but the water pump and fridge will keep working, and we can make coffee.

The other big question is whether we would be stuck at home if the road to town gets washed out. Neither we, nor the roads, are very high above sea level, so one big storm could cut us off entirely. In the middle of a hurricane, with an elderly roof that might blow off, and the extreme likelihood of no power?

Maybe next year, but right now we’re happy to take the safe route and book a couple of nights at the Liverpool Best Western.

Meanwhile our outdoors areas have been stripped of anything that wind could grab at: childrens’ swings, patio furniture, garbage and recycling cans, garden tools - anything likely. And we have three big bottles of water in the kitchen just in case.

At this moment it feels as if the worst of the storm will miss us, but we’re really not trusting that until we absolutely know for sure.