Carnies are more reliable than weather experts

One of my favorite stories to tell is about the time when me and my friends went to the Davis County Fair when I was in high school. We went to enjoy the fair food, the carnival, and more specifically: the carnies. We were about to learn that carnies are very wise and intuitive. When the storm clouds started to hover above the fair, one carnie warned us:

"Take cover! There's a storm a comin'!"

I believed him, but I don't think my friend Mark did, because he started laughing in front of him (yeah, Mark needs to learn a little respect toward carnies). The carnie replied, "You think I don't know what I'm talkin' about? I've been doing this for years!!" Sure enough, the thunderstorm hit, and it was a good thing we heeded the carnie's advice and "took cover."

The point of this story is: when the carnies warned us, the storm didn't disappoint. When the meteorologists warned us about the hurricane Irene that was sure to destroy the east coast, they greatly exaggerated, and to be honest, left a lot of people disappointed. Here in northern Virginia, hardly anyone lost power and we only a had a few fallen branches for proof of damage. Our friends in Annapolis got hit a little harder. And our family in New York reported a power outage that lasted only an hour and a fallen tree in their neighborhood.

I should be glad, I know. There were places that actually did get hit pretty hard. But you see, I went and bought water, batteries, candles and food. We made sure our cars had gas, I brought in our patio furniture, and I even made sure that our bathtubs were full of water. We took our last hot showers Saturday evening, not knowing when would be our next.

And what did we get? A car still full of gas because we didn't go anywhere most of the weekend, and a waste of water in the bathtubs. And while there was wind and rain, it wouldn't have been strong enough to move my patio furniture even an inch.

I think there is something romantic about power outages. I was actually looking forward to have the house lit up only by candles and I was excited to read a book by candle light. Didn't happen, though.

And one more thing: why did the hurricane have to conveniently hit only over the weekend? Not cool.

So basically, while I am grateful that we are all safe and sound with no damage whatsoever, my first hurricane experience was disappointing to say the least. The storm that the carnie warned us about was better than the storm I experienced this weekend.