Welcome to the land of the Hurricane Watch... or more accurately, the Tropical Storm watch. I got a message from a technician in May's Landing (near Atlantic City) this morning stating that the rain hadn't started but the winds were really picking up. I could imagine, because that's how the weather was here. Then at 1 PM, I got another message stating "Here comes the rain". I've seen the aftermath of hurricanes in the shore area, and it's likely to be a mess before the weather calms down... I messaged back, "Drive carefully. Arks full of pairs of animals have the right of way. ;)".

So far in this area, we still have heavily overcast skies and brisk wind, but no rain... yet. There is a tropical storm watch throughout this region, because by the time what's left of isabel reaches here, that's what strength they expect the winds to have. We're told we will have heavy rain with gusts up to 65 mph. I'm not looking forward to it.

Across the street from the building where I work are a couple of structures that I hope withstand the coming storm. One is a greenhouse (that already had several broken panes prior to the hurricane), and another is a garage attached to a house which appears to be empty. The garage's roof is noticeably sagging. There's a truck and a dumpster parked in the driveway of the empty-looking house, so maybe the owner is taking some precautions in advance of the oncoming severe weather.