Wowsers!!!! Glad to read your sense of optimism Donn, and happy to hear that everyone waethered the storm safely. Just started here. Had winds all day - nothing spectacular - but around 5 pm the rain started and now the wind and rain are having a competition. Coming home you could see the waters of Prospect Bay were going to hit the roads tonight. Oooh... wash out...would I be so lucky for a day off tomorrow??? Our biggest problem is the 60+ ft spruces surrounding the property which were weakened by a hurricane 3 years ago and never really recovered. Three of them will definitely not make it through the night - one has already come down. Thank goodness they aren't aiming for the house.

Donn, I found this interesting read on our local fishing site. The article below describes competition for water between Long Island surfers and fishermen. By the way we fish for stripers in the Chesapeake Bay all year. There is a decent population of schoolies most of the year. The Delaware Bay is dead. Not as many fish in my neighborhood. I would love to see my son Patrick, age 3, hook into a nice fish. Maybe on his next mancation. Mancation = Men's Vacation! www.thebassbarn.com SURF-TURF WAR 'BOARDERS' VS. ANGLERS FOR L.I. SEAS By SELIM ALGAR (); KEEPING IT REEL: Surfers teem around the Montauk Point coast over this past weekend as an angler waits hopefully for the fish to bite. August 27, 2007 -- It's a totally gnarly dispute - pitting surfer dudes vs. surf fishermen. And the ticketing of a surfing legend's fianc for illegal wave riding on the north side of Montauk Point, L.I., has only further stoked tensions between the area's anglers and its burgeoning community of wave riders. The two groups are tussling over use of a small strip of shoreline in an area that prohibits surfing but allows surfcasting. The fishermen claim that surfers make it impossible for them to freely throw out their lines into the water and that the boarders also drive fish from the coveted fishing destination. Surfers, asserting a natural right to use the shore resource, have flouted the prohibition and benefited from lax enforcement for several years. But increased complaints from anglers have led to an increase in patrolling and ticketing of surfers in recent months. Longboarding legend Terry Simms, 48, of California, said he was hassled and trailed by a parks officer earlier this summer. His fiancée, Nancy Opitz, 38, said she had finished surfing in late July when a patrol car pulled up behind her vehicle and gave her a ticket. "Nothing like this happens in California," Opitz said of her citation, which wound up being dismissed on a technicality last week. "Montauk is not just a fishing town anymore." But the fishermen disagree. "This is really the last area we have left," said Jay Blatt of the Montauk Surfcasters Association. Blatt said that casting heavy lures and sharp hooks out into a crowd of surfers puts them in danger. "The two activities are not compatible in the same area," he said. Blatt said surfers have successfully petitioned to open up all other areas of Montauk for surfing and are gradually squeezing out fishermen. "This is a fishing town. It has been for centuries," he said. "But they think they should be able to surf any time, anywhere, anyplace. They're out to usurp us." Tom Naro, chairman of the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfriders Association, said the fishermen are being alarmist. "We're not trying to exclude anybody," he said. "But no one user group should have the spot to themselves." Naro also dismissed Blatt's claims that surfers scare away fish and that they are regularly hooked by wayward casts. "You have to want to hook a surfer if you're going to hook him," he said, saying that the two activities can co-exist safely. New York State Parks spokesman George Gorman said a meeting is planned on the issue in the coming weeks and that the surfers are actively fighting to have the prohibition lifted. He noted an increase in organization on the part of East Coast surfers. "They grew up and became attorneys," he said. selim.algar@nypost.com

This is an exciting year for me.... Before wintersowing, I used to spend so much money on geraniums (the annual geraniums) and would store them in my unheated garage for the winter. I would snip the blooms and keep them in their pots (or pot them up if they were in a huge planter) and hope for the best. I've always had pretty good luck, but worried all winter because they looked so "sad"... but would always perk up in the spring with a bit of warmth and some fertilizer. Now.... I am ready to put my geraniums away for the winter and this time I have about 25 MORE! I sowed geraniums from seed (inspired by another wintersower) and now I am not worried about them overwintering. Hey, if we get unusually cold weather and for some reason they don't last in the garage - I'LL SOW MORE next spring. Wintersowing forum... gotta love it!! Carrie

So that accounts for all Long Islanders that I know of, except for Donn. And I hate to say it, but if he is on a canal in Amityville, it is very likely that he's got his hands full with a total mess. My brother (same location)had 5.5 feet of water in the house (ground floor/only floor - a ranch)and it is a total loss. He spent the week this week dragging out furniture over runined floors and prying drawers on dressers/nighttables/cabinets open with a crow bar because the wood structures had swelled and tightened, keeping the contents hostage. When he got to the the contents - everything absolutely ruined. Papers, pictures, a 20 year collection of video tapes of family events. Every piece of furniture, every appliance, most all clothing except for things on the highest closet shelves. He has insurance and FEMA may help, but anyone who has ever gone through an emergency that called for insurance knows that it just won't cover everything. For instance, his outdoor hot tub is neither a household "content" or "structure" (thousands to replace) and all the landscaping around the property too. He is VERY lucky that our Mom still lives in the too big for her family home. He's moved back in there with wife, dog and busniess (he works from home) they all get along well, which is good, becasue he is saying he will probably have to rebuild entirely and that will take some time.