We've been tuned into the pending approach of Hurricane Sandy, which appears that it could be just massive, though right now the brunt of the storm is projected to come ashore in New Jersey.

Friday I cleared off the rest of the deck stuff that the karate students had helped with Thursday evening. When Sue got home from work, we drove over to the Dover Public Library to troll through the books for their Fall sale. I wasn't feeling totally up to speed, so when we got home we just had a glass of wine and played some backgammon. For dinner, we just had spaghetti and meatballs, and watched some mindless tv before turning into bed around 9:30pm.

Colin had called late Friday afternoon to see if Sue and I wanted to meet up with him and Ren for breakfast Saturday morning, and then take a short trip up the river by boat. But not only was I not feeling up to that, Sue and I cancelled our plans to drive up to Portland, ME Saturday afternoon to see the Winslow Homer exhibit at the Portland Museum of Arts and then dinner at the Greek restaurant Emilitsa.

By early afternoon on Saturday, I was at least feeling like going for a fall foliage drive. So, we jumped into the car and spent several hours wandering the back roads. On the way home, we stopped and did food shopping for the week, laying in some supplies for the pending storm, i.e. wine anyway!

We played some backgammon and sipped wine until about 5:30pm when Sue created a great salsa infused spaghetti squash and vegatable meal. Neither of us were up for much, so we just relaxed to the marvelous movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and turned into bed around 9:30pm.

We were up Sunday morning at 8:00am. Though both of us still not fully up to par, we headed out to McDonalds for coffee and breakfast biskets, which we took down to Wallis Sands State Beach. It was pretty windy when we got there, and few were out. We grabbed a bench and ate our sandwiches as the waves crashed around on the rocks below us. It wasn't a storm yet, but you could just feel things building. After finishing the sandwiches, we drove down to Odiorne Point State Park and walked along the shore, Sue stopping every so often to capture a picture of some of the spectacularly beautiful late fall leaf colors. We kicked through the leaves off the path and had a great time listening to the waves surging against the beach. We took the long way back home, coming over Rt. 111 through Greenland just to experience it all.

When we got back home, Sue carved one of the pumpkins we had bought a couple of weeks ago for Halloween, while I cleaned out the fireplace and dragged a couple of loads of wood in. We wanted to have a fire tonight and then also when the power goes out from the storm - an almost certainty here where we live, unless Public Service crews who have been trimming trees for the last couple of weeks are successful. But amazing: the power never did go out!

Monday was the worst of the storm, and Sue had to work up in Freeport, ME. By the time she got back, we decided to preheat some dinner, have some wine, and just watch a movie.

By Tuesday morning, the brunt of the storm had seemed to pass, so Sue and I drove into Portsmouth to run some errands, and then took a long drive out through Newcastle, down to Odiorne Point State Park, Wallis Sands State Beach, back up via Rt. 111 and Rt. 151 and to the Great Bay Wildlife Refuge where we took the short half mile pond trail back into the woods. Both pictures here are from Great Bay and Odiorne.

We got home, poured out some wine, and played way too much backgammon (I ended up down 1 point overall - about 30 or 40 games - from Saturday so far). After dinner, we watched the really entertaining 1994 movie, Guarding Tess and then turned in for the night just as a huge downpour hit. It rained lightly all night, and cloudy all day Wednesday, but for the most part I think the storm for us has passed. But NJ has been deciminated by it; the pictures of distruction are just awful.