No hay luz, no hay agua

Well, there are now, but hurricane Dean will be moving just to the south of us (we hope) in about eight hours. At that point, it will be a category 4 storm, with 5 being the strongest. While it will miss us, we are still in for some nasty weather. We will almost certainly be without power for a day or two, and our water is delivered via electric pump: when there's no power, there's no water.

This is George, which passed us to the north in September 2003. We were without power and water for more than a week.

So we do what we always do: stock up on batteries, water, and ice, and charge our iPods. We get the lanterns and candles ready, and make sure plenty of good reading material is easy to get to.

We will secure the perimeter, bringing all the outdoor furniture indoors. We will close the windows, which are louvered aluminum: there's no glass to worry about. We will fill five-gallon pails with water so we can flush the toilets. We will make sure we have a full propane tank so we can use the stove (but not the oven, which is electronically controlled).

I write this now because when the storm comes, long before we lose power, I will lose my Internet connection. I will also lose my TV signal. Both come from a satellite, and both disappear when it's very overcast.

I leave to your imagination what else we do when there's no power, water, Internet, or TV.