1. I’m glad that Hurricane Hilary wasn’t at all terrifying in Poway, CA.
2. It’s prudent to make precautionary measures in advance of a hurricane.
3. Not driving during a huricane is prudent. So is making plans to stay inside. Closing your windows to keep your carpets and furniture from being soaked from possible rain that comes down in sheets.
3A. However, it is prudent to drive away from your home if you live in valley subject to flash floods.
4. Buying up all the toilet paper, water, and canned food goods the day before the expected hurricane is just plain hysteria. Did none of you read about the expected severity of the hurricane? Did you look at any forecasts? Well did you? Did you think ravioli, cleanly wiped butts, and water were all that stood between you and a looming Southern California apocalypse?
5. Full disclosure here. Yesterday, I was at the supermarket gathering fresh ingredients for the tonight’s homemade ravioli. Also, I completely ran out of distilled water for my CPAP machine during the height of the COVID crisis. All drinking water was bought up. None left. All distilled water disappeared from the shelves. I woke up one morning with no distilled water for my CPAP machine.(Fortunately, a friend of a friend 30 miles away scored some for me. If I can’t run my CPAP machine, I will get much less sleep and the sleep I will get is much shallower. And there is always a small, if unknown, chance that I could simply stop breathing without the CPAP. So, I am incredibly dismissive and angry toward panic buyers.
6. You can follow the path and severity of the hurricane by television, radio, and internet. They are quite good at that, really.
7. The hurricane was not bad at all in Poway. Honestly, I went through many much worse rains in Wisconsin.
8. What did I do today? I stayed inside and worked on getting better at making homemade ravioli.
9. News alert: The wind just knocked down a neighbor’s garbage can. Not to worry, Poway will rebuild.
10. I want to thank all of you who worried about me today. I realize that conditions here are often not clear thousands, or even hundreds, of miles away. I feel quite humbled and touched by your concern.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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