Hunker Down, My Friends
I married a man from Louisiana. Translation(s) = I married a man who can cook amazing dishes – and introduces me to things such as turduckens. I am learning to appreciate bourbon. I now own seersucker clothes and know not to wear them before Easter and after Labor Day.
Also, I married a man who knows a lot about hurricanes. Actually, we kind of started dating during Hurricane Gustav, now that I come to think of it. We split our weekends between New Orleans and D.C.
And of course, as luck would have it, this weekend my husband flew from New Orleans (where hurricane season is over), to D.C., only to be greeted by Sandy. He is stuck here for a couple extra days, which makes this entire “hunkering down” experience a lot more fun – and has been teaching me all kinds of things about hurricanes. Here is his top 10 to-dos to prepare for, and during, a big storm.
1. To be always fully and correctly informed, forget about the TV. There’s an app for that, specifically, Hurricane by KittyCode. Don’t trust any other source of information.
2. Have spare cash. As he tells me, “who knows when you will need to buy siphoned gas or produce from a guy off his truck.” (Me: “What?”)
3. On that note, make sure your tank is full of gas. Since we prepared so late, this means I had to gas up at the (expensive) Exxon on Q and Wisconsin. I’ll plan better next time.
4. Have bottles of water to spare. (Me: “What?” Him: “In case the sewage system backs up and you can’t drink the tap water.” Me: “Let’s go to Safeway.” Sold out. Conclusion: we have cases of Perrier in the house.)
5. Make sure you have plenty of flashlights. His favorite one is a fluorescent Coleman lantern. (Me: “What? Let’s go to Safeway.” Sold out. “Let’s go to the hardware store.” Sold out.)
6. Conclusion: plan B. I have plenty of candles and matches. Less effective, but so much more romantic … (my favorite: Aveda Shampure candles and tea lights).
7. Make a pot of jambalaya. For the sixth time this weekend, Me: “What”. He explains, make a big pot of stew, so you have something cooked to eat for a few days if need be. The alternative: make sure you have lots of canned goods. (I now know he loves Campbell's Chunky Sirloin the best).
8. Pick up the lawn furniture. I don’t have any. Now I know why.
9. Make sure your car doesn’t flood. Meaning don’t park in an underground garage on K street (see photo). I was thinking that was a great idea since then no tree would fall on my car. I forgot about the flooding risk … maybe the sand bags should have given it away.
10. Make sure all of your electrical devices are charged: phones, iPods, iPads, laptops, Wifi cards, Kindles, back-up batteries, portable DVD players, and anything else you can think of.
And my favorite of all, have a (or a few) bottle(s) of Jameson's to play the “hunker down drinking game.” Whenever anyone says, texts, or facebooks “hunker down” (including the news channel), take a shot. Be safe, stay dry, stay warm, and “hunker down” my friends!