Nor’easters and Flotillas

I wouldn’t want readers of this blog to think that we are obsessed with the weather out here.  I do consult the forecast nearly every day, though, so that we can plan our outdoor activities around days of heavy rain or wind.  The forecast this week called for another storm carrying winds stronger than the last one, and it arrived on schedule.  Martha spoke to a woman on the walkway earlier who said, “Looks like we’re in for a nor’easter!”  So we took the furniture on the balcony in again.

I wondered if this was really a “nor’easter,” though, which I remember experiencing as a boy growing up in Connecticut, usually during the winter and often accompanied by snow.  It was too warm for any snow here, and the wind did pick up speed all day, but it was from the southwest as it had been last week.  By the time it reached New England yesterday it was producing snow, so I suppose its winds turned around in some meteorological way.  Here, it had cleared out overnight, the sky swept entirely clean, and the wind was blowing 30 mph.  I wonder if it is only a matter of time before I start measuring such a wind in knots instead of mph as a “Dingbatter” does.  Let’s just say 26 knots.

When I went down to the beach later in the morning, the surf was still high, although not as turbulent as earlier.  And see:  this blogger has finally learned how to post not just photos but videos to his blog!  I hope it plays on all the laptops and iPhones and iPads out there.

 

We wisely decided not to run in 26-knot conditions this morning (we will reschedule our long runs to tomorrow morning), so it has been a quiet afternoon.  I picked up some of that good kale salad at Blue Ocean seafood and checked out the fresh catch.

 The wind continued to die down and Martha spent some time reading a book out in the sun on the balcony, while I spent some time reading New Yorker articles and learning how to post videos to my blog.  A typical quiet Saturday afternoon, trying to avoid the news, which presses in upon our Sabbatical so forcefully.  Some 2800 people died yesterday, in a single day, of Covid-19, and it took just a little math to realize that was one every 30 seconds.  Such a heartbreaking loss. 

We haven’t gone to any events out here this year, but tonight we drove to Morehead City to watch the Crystal Coast Christmas Flotilla.  The flotilla featured boats, yachts, oars, kayaks, and commercial vessels decorated for the season, visible from the waterfront in both Morehead City and Beaufort.  They moved at a glacial pace but were quite beautiful.

The “Olde Mountain Christmas Parade” scheduled for this morning in Highlands was cancelled this year due to Covid.  But we enjoyed seeing this alternative, a parade out on the water, stately, safely-distanced, and just lovely!