Last edited Fri Aug 20, 2021, 08:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Got cat food, got people food, persuaded a reluctant Mr. Femmedem to let the local community cat spend the storm in our bathroom.

We have an inland relative who has offered to take us in, but she's also in Henri's path. It will likely be a tropical storm when it hits her but she's in a rural area with a ton of trees, and the ground is already saturated.

But my little house withstood the hurricane of '38, and we're far enough up so that the storm surge won't affect us. Downtown is going to be a mess, though.

Googling things like whether I should shut off the gas to the house.

Landfall, where? My sister said they keep moving it west. She and family inland too.

Geez, from afar, I am just glad it's not freezing cold for you guys.

Take care

And that is further west than they were forecasting yesterday. But the risk of significant property or life where we are, to the east, has gone up.

Funny you should mention that about the cold. On the other side of the hurricane is the worst heatwave we've had this summer, and I'm concerned about vulnerable folks who aren't going to have air conditioning when the power goes out.

Being on edge. Once when it moves north then again when it turns east.

BYW,. Still looking for house in CT. Should have bought 9 mos.ago. Still zeroing in on Deep River and Chester but also more in New London. Also like Niantic but there are never houses for sale there. Didn't realize there were so many good restaurants in NL now. We are both major foodies. What do you think about that area down near the beach where the lighthouse is?

It's beautiful, and in the summer it is cooler than the rest of the city because there are more trees, less asphalt. It's more expensive than other areas, and also more politically conservative--although no part of New London is conservative relative to most of the country. There is a lot of beach traffic in the summer. When I worked in municipal government, that is the area where people would call from the most with their complaints, always prefacing their calls with, "I'm a taxpayer" and usually telling me exactly how much they pay in property taxes. Not that they had more to complain about than anyone else. They would complain in the middle of an ongoing blizzard that their road wasn't adequately plowed yet. I'll never forget the woman I spoke with when I was volunteering for a political candidate who complained about school funding, saying, "No one sends their children to New London schools." In her circle of friends, everyone's kids went to private schools.

Of course, there are jerks everywhere, and good people, too. You'd find a great community in New London wherever you choose to live; you just might have to work a little harder in that end of town. I never wanted to live there, at least not Neptune Park or Pequot Ave, because it is low-lying and is most at risk for storm surges and hurricane damage. Those threats will only increase in the coming decades. But consider Belleview Ave and Thames Street! They are midway between Ocean Beach and downtown--quieter and cooler than the area where I live, but only a twenty-minute walk to downtown and close to a bus line.

The restaurants are indeed really good here. There's also a great food co-op, lots of artists, lots of progressive activists, great organizations like FRESH which uses community gardens to help with food security and to teach entrepreneurial skills to youth gardeners. We have more diversity than I believe you'll find in Chester or Deep River--a big plus in my book--but Chester is charming, with a sweet, walkable downtown.

Lighthouse. Ugh thanks for warning on conservative nature of Neptune area. Besides I want to be able to easily walk to restaurants on water. Guess yolk cafe considered "lower New London Neptune"?. Like the looks of that... There was a cool old Victorian house for sale across the street from the yolk Cafe. Needed work but it was cool. Off market for some reason.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/810-Montauk-Ave_New-London_CT_06320_M38744-88482

I'm sure he'd be happy to sell it. He told me just a couple of days ago that he was discouraged that no one made an offer because they didn't like the kitchen.

I should add that I do know a couple of wonderful people who live in the Neptune Park area: a college professor who serves on the board of directors where I work and the city's social services director.

But that doesn't solve the low elevation/proximity to the coast problem. Montauk Avenue is higher elevation.
And next time you're in the area, if it's a nice day, check out Harkness Memorial Park not far over the line in Waterford. It's a beautiful coastal park.

I mean the way I look at it is that it needed freshening up. And since I love to cook maybe some kitchen work. But we just assumed that any house ( we like old houses) in Connecticut will have to be worked on a little bit at least. The house next door is like a mansion.

I think the first thing I would do would be to paint it white. Haha sounds so easy. I think it used to be. Now to hire somebody to paint a house you probably have to rob a bank.

New London is such a small city--28,000 people or so and less than six square miles--that it's pretty easy to know a lot of people. It's one of the things I love about it.

old neighborhood with a sprinkling of liberal Baylor profs. Need more I have just been dreaming for so long to have my next door neighbor scream and run around the neighborhood when a Dem wins the presidency!!! I had to live vicariously and watch live feeds from various cities when Biden was eventually declared the winner.

I was just talking to a friend of mine in Boston about working on a website where we match precinct result colors to a search engine for people looking for a place to relocate.

Sorry to others I know I've hijacked this thread. I certainly hope everyone in Connecticut does okay tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

I heard it will be a catagory 1