Today started HOT, sunny and steamy. McD and I had our usual Saturday planned,
plus a hurricane watch. 'Irma' is headed
this way and picking up speed. I really
don't think we will get a direct hit, but we will get buckets of unending rain
and high, angry seas for a good 36 hours.
But you never know with these things.
By the time we were ready to leave Portsmouth and go to
Picard it had become overcast. We
decided to go to Jack's Chinese Restaurant for lunch. Jack's is a little hole in the wall, mostly
out of doors, great food and family
run. I play with the 4 year old while
mom cooks, dad (Jack) delivers orders on his scooter, Grandma feeds the baby
and grandpa is around to do whatever needs doing. It started to pour rain, people, locals,
students came and went and got their fried rice and Coke and left. We had spicy beef and broccoli and kung pao
chicken and lots of rice.
A couple came by on
their rented scooter. It was still
raining hard. They hesitated. I called them in and they came. Actually I had passed them on the Indian
River Bridge on my way into Portsmouth in the morning and exchanged a greeting
them then. They are a very friendly, youngish, couple from France visiting Dominica via
Martinique and Marie Gallant (Island). They had come over with a fisherman in his boat and
landed in Anse Soldat, in the dark, last night.
They gave their order, vegetable
fried rice, fried Tofu and something else.
Since there is only one table they sat with us and of course we talked.
They wanted a place to stay.
I called Irma, my landlady, as the apartment right next to me that Anthony
and Imelda had stayed in, was now empty.
Irma said, sure, she would meet them in half an hour at the apartment.
It was still raining hard so Jack, the young restaurant owner, offered to drive
us all home and to take McDowell back to work in Portsmouth. They will stay there for a few days and wait
to see what the weather does by Monday. Daniel,
the 4 year old cried when we left so I told him to go tell his mother he was
going with dad and to hop in the car.
When we got to the apartment the rain suddenly stopped and
the sun came out full force. I called Martin at the
Yellow Cab to pick the couple and their luggage up in Anse Soldat, (they were
going on their scooter), and bring them back. OK. No problem.
About hurricane Irma - the people don't seem in the least
worried in spite of the disaster in Houston, bygone hurricanes and dire
warnings. The Americans are going to
evacuate the 15 Peace Corps workers on the Island. It seems like it is headed toward
Antigua. If it gets into the Guadeloupe
Channel though it will cause damage to the banana and plantain trees in Destiny (McD's farm) take the beach
away and wash away my meager garden. We
expect the roof to badly leak in the Little Old House so we will do our best to
secure that. McD will fill Anthony's big
blue plastic barrel with water. We will
know everything by Monday - maybe! The weather shifts radically and suddenly
here in the tropics. The sun is so hot
and the Ocean is so warm and the air so still and humid. Perfect conditions for a fierce storm - but
what do I know?
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