Come on, Irene...

As I write this post, Irene's upper arms are grazing Long Island but she is still dancing around the coast of North Carolina. we've finalized plans to stay at the house in Port Jeff. rather than stay at the studios in Stony Brook. Both locales have their pluses and minuses. At the house we are concerned about the wind and surrounding trees. The studios are in a one story building, therefore low to the ground, but on a downward slope and the roof is liable to leak. So we've gathered provisions and are staying put. We're taking advantage of having electricity by cooking, updating blogs / websites, and wrapping stuff up for the first days of classes that are scheduled to begin on Monday. I also brought my sewing machine and studio things to be working on while I can.

The track of the storm is right through Long Island, but the timing of it reaching us is still to be determined. We are anticipating tropical storm conditions around midnight into early Sunday morning, and hurricane winds later in the morning. Kathryn and I have been joking that this is one heck of a way to begin our last year in the MFA program. Prophetic?

Saturday morning I ran into the studio to do some last minute artwork protecting. I'm not expecting the building to have structural damage but I wouldn't be surprised if we get some water leaking through the roof. Drawings and prints came off the walls and into the flat files, sculptures, plaster, alginate off the floors, and the large drawings on canvas covered with plastic. I hope that all this proves to be unnecessary.

To all of those within the path of Irene, be safe.