Another November has arrived.  Didn’t the last one just end?

November is National Solo Album Month, as I say every year, and like every year I am thinking about taking a crack at it.  Also like every year I will probably half ass work on it for a day or two and then cave in and stop. 

As of right now, I want to do it.  I have not, however, actually signed up.  We’ll see.  I felt really great when I finished last February’s RPM and I would very much like to do that again (as always) and maybe the new challenge this year for RPM is to make it a follow up to a project from just a few months prior.  Can I empty the creative well in November and have it full again come February?

Maybe that will be the challenge.  Whatever happens, I will use my iPad again as that worked really well on the last RPM.  Maybe I’ll do more editing and try to get songs into the 10 minute  range this time.  Prog it up, all the way!  Maybe one big 30 minute long suite.

Maybe nothing.  Who knows.  Who cares.

Give it a shot, you might surprise yourself.

It’s Halloween.

I’m on call.

We aren’t trick or treating.

That’s okay.

The city has moved the Halloween festivities to Saturday.  I am not pleased that we got our asses kicked by a massive hurricane, but it’s nice that one of the results was that trick or treating will take place at a time when I am not driving home, and I am not on call, and Nana and Papa can come and see the kids in their costumes, and maybe we might have a shot at carving up a pumpkin.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

BOO!

This road was open yesterday. Today it’s a mile long backup.

I saw quite a few of these on the drive home. Many a neighborhood I travelled through had no power.

The cleanup has just begun.

Taking a back roads route home. Look at all the downed trees.

This is the only obstruction I encountered on my whole drive to work.

This one is still hanging there, caught on another branch, right over the driveway.

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone.  In our house it ended up being more stressful than painful.  Our power flashed out once yesterday afternoon, but only for a second or two.  Other than that we were fine.  I took a drive around the block this morning to make sure we could at least get to the highway.  The roads had a lot of debris, but were otherwise fine.  There was one spot where a large bush had uprooted and was blocking one lane, but there were no trees, branches, or power lines down.

We were lucky.  The Methuen Police Department used Facebook to keep us up to date yesterday.  All road closures, downed trees and lines, and flood spots were immediately reported.  It was far and away the best news source available yesterday and I thank them most sincerely.

I said we were lucky. Last night I spent a couple of hours on twitter and listening to police scanners to follow what was happening in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.  By the sound of it, things were unbelievably awful.  The subways and bridges and roads were all flooded out.  One description mentioned cars floating down the street.  My heart goes out to the people of New York.  Be safe, you Yankee loving pukes.

It seems our neighbors received a gift from Sandy. A very large, partially deflated beach ball.

Yup.