And so it was this when Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana. Reporters were being blown from hither to yon and I was mesmerized.
As much as I like this stuff, I live in Los Angeles where weather is virtually non-existent. Oh sure, we have recently had a bout of usually hot and New York-humid weather that actually propelled me to put on the central air. And, yes, that prompts fires. And, yes, that kind of sultry weather is frequently a harbinger for earthquakes.
There can be weather calamities in Southern California. But it's not the same for this kid who grew up in the rainy, windy, and snowy New York metropolitan area.
In fact, my very first day in kindergarten at Grimes Schools was upended by a monster of a hurricane. I think the name was Donna. This was back in the day when hurricane names were easy to remember unlike that unpronounceable storm that hit New York a few weeks back.
Despite the impending doom of Donna, school started for us all. And, within an hour, our folks were told to come and get us. My grandfather was charged somehow with this rescue.
He made the five block drive to my school and fetched me off the street corner. As we made the harrowing trip home, there were all sorts of things being caught up in the gale force winds. Was that Dorothy and Toto in their bedroom? We probably were in a lot more danger than we knew at the time.
I remember my grandfather peering out the windshield.
"This sure is a hurricane."
For usually stoic Grandpa, that was an amazing amount of words for him to say.
The power of the storm later that day would hit home...almost literally. A huge tree in the back of our yard toppled over. It took some power lines with it, but narrowly missed our roof.
For me, this was just like a movie.
I don't remember many hurricanes for a while after that. When I was older, there was one in the middle of the summer called Belle. Her big challenge was that she was going to scoot through New York City right when I had tickets for a Neil Simon play.
I called the theater box office and got the very curt response.
"We are having a performance and there are no refunds or exchanges."
And, unbelievably, there wasn't. Nowadays, theaters shut down at the drop of a coronavirus.
I recall some other hurricanes that flirted with New York while I was there. Once I had my own apartment, it was my responsibility to tape up the windows and get the provisions needed to ride out the storm. But, generally, I never really was impacted greatly.
When Sandy hit in 2012, I was safely living in Los Angeles but I felt the pain of many of my friends who bore the brunt of that. For one time, I wasn't watching a hurricane from afar and longing to be there.
I chose to be in a state like California because of the weather. Well, really the lack of it. But, in my heart, I am still a New Yorker. Eager to meet the challenge and share the uneasiness with my fellow citizens.
Let's see how I feel when the expected 7.5 finally hits Los Angeles.
Dinner last night: Tangerine beef from Chin Chin.
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