The lawn furniture is in, the plants are covered, the gutters are clean, the house is stocked with non-perishables and water, the firewood has been gathered, the Scout is battened down, and we have one full tank of gas. Except for a generator, we’re as ready as we’re going to be for Sandy’s arrival.

I inspected the gutter guards on the back of the house and liked what I saw. Hopefully I’ll never have to get up there and clean that thing out, and we can start growing grass under the eaves again.

In the morning we had brunch with Dan and Elena one last time before they leave town. Jen and Finn went to the Baltimore Zoo for a Halloween event with the neighbors while I put some band-aids on our yard before the storm. Our crab salesman from across the street showed up a little after lunchtime with a bag of mediums and two handfuls of claws; not having made dinner plans it worked out very well and tasted great with a couple of glasses of IPA.