The Number Field

Hurricane Irene has passed us by with barely a scratch. Although there are still lots of people without power in this vicinity, ours has been uninterrupted. We're slowly drinking all the water from various containers that we filled up in anticipation of trouble--there's no need to let it go to waste now.

Long before Irene threatened, we had planned for me to go on a Saturday morning grocery run. The only thing I added to the list was extra water, but I did try to go as early as possible to beat the crowds. At Wegmans, my first stop, I had just taken my place at the end of the register line when a store employee came up to me, took a look at my basket and invited me to skip the line by checking out in the catering section. The line I had been in was only six people long, but some of them had full carts so I appreciated his help.

I wasn't sure that getting out of Wegmans so quickly would reduce my total trip time because it meant I would be at Costco before their scheduled opening time. That turned out not to matter, because the parking lot was already partially full and the doors were open. I breezed through my shopping list--it's amazing how much quicker it is without a toddler in tow--and made it home before the first drops of rain fell.

Before hunkering down at home to ride out the storm, we did make one more trip: a birthday lunch for my father. My parents and Leisa and Sam were kind enough to converge on a location near us, both because of Roman and because we live almost equidistant from their homes. The restaurant wasn't very full and appeared to be well-staffed, but slow service was almost unacceptable. Couldn't they see that we had a tired toddler in addition to our sleeping newborn? It was good that Roman slept peacefully through the whole meal, because Elena and I had to take several breaks by walking around the restaurant to look at the decor. She did like looking at the mounted fish, deer heads, armadillos, and antelopes. On the other hand, my food tasted great. Happy birthday, Dad!

We returned home and didn't go back outside until the weather cleared this morning. We watched lots of TV, cleaned up the house, and waited for something exciting to happen. It never did. Even Roman's late-night feeding was uneventful. This morning, after the rain was gone and the wind died down, I moved all the plants and toys from the kitchen back to their regular spots on the back porch, and it's almost like the storm never happened.

We've been here for a year now. I didn't expect it to end with a new baby, an earthquake and a hurricane. Moreover, my best estimates indicate that the upcoming year will be equally exciting and unpredictable.