Big Sandy

Bloody Hurricane warnings. I know it's better to be safe than sorry but after Hurricane Irene's non-appearance last year it's hard not to be a little sceptical.
I had booked a day trip to Philadelphia today (Sunday) to see Charles Busch's new musical STARS OF DAVID. I was going to arrive around midday, take in the sights then see the 3pm performance and return to NYC on the 7pm train. Then, when the storm warning was announced, suddenly the schedule for my last day on the movie was changed from next Wednesday to tomorrow, so I had to book an earlier train back to NYC at 4.45pm (which meant I would probably have to miss the end of Charles' play) to connect with another train to Connecticut at 7.30 pm. Then the 7.30 pm train to Connecticut was cancelled because of the storm warning and the only other train I could catch from New York was at 1pm so I had to cancel the trip to Philly entirely, losing the price of my non-refundable theatre ticket and spending close to an hour on the phone to Amtrack changing all the arrangements. SO... today at midday my bag is packed for Connecticut with a few extra socks and shorts in case I get stranded there in the storm and I'm literally walking out the door when my phone rings and it's the production manager telling me filming in Connecticut is cancelled due to the storm. Now, I have other commitments all this week, auditions, etc. which will cause problems with rescheduling BUT I called my old friends at Amtrack and cancelled my ticket to Connecticut and realised I am now stuck in Manhattan completely unprepared for any emergency. I can't continue moving my stuff to Inwood because all public transport ceases at sundown. So I ventured out into the street only to be greeted by a scene from WAR OF THE WORLDS.

 The storm isn't even due for another 24 hours but the stores are packed with people buying armloads of batteries and bottled water and tinned soups and wondering how many candles they have left from their last religious holiday and how they're going to keep the dogs out of the bathtub which they've filled with water so they can flush the toilet.

 I bought a pint of milk and some Fuji apples. At least there's a lot of good stuff on the telly.