Sentimental Value.

Yeah. About that whole Hannah sliding by thing: This morning the track had shifted back west, and this noon it shifted a little more west, and now the fancies are saying, Yes, it's going to rain, and Oh, we don't know, maybe an inch or two, or maybe five. I've been on the phone with the good folks at Insure-You-Lots and they said OK, go ahead and nail the tarp down on your roof. So I feel (a) safe and sound and pretty sure that the tarp won't blow off, but (b) a little nervous re: the holes that I made in the roof nailing it down. The nails have these little semi-confidence-inspiring rubber washers on them. That'll be me up at three in the morning, then, checking to see if we still have a ceiling. It's an odd, odd day here at the ANYLF TropicsWatch WeatherDesk. I mean, we do love a good hurricane, but we also like knowing things for sure about the roof.

Bonus coverage: Ike'll probably be here next week, so I've got two good chances to get this wrong.

It's a pretty little rain out there in 27244, and I hope the same back home. Good for flowers, and for the okra I'm completely ignoring. Good for the colony of seven trillion black ants I found in the shed gutter this morning. Hopefully they've moved into the shed by now, where it smells like there still must be water. Fay is the gift that keeps on mouldering.

You know what, friends and fans of weather? You should all go up onto your roofs and drive a few nails in. It's fun, it's educational, and it's good for folks with paralytic fears of heights and slopes. The adjuster dude circled everywhere we had hail damage. It's a wonder he had any chalk left. We're right circly up there. I'm just hoping we're all buttoned up and mainly watertight, too. Tune in to this same spot tomorrow, then, when we might just hear ANYLF say: Gee, WeatherDog, it looks like we came through just fine. Or we'll hear him saying something else, in which case maybe don't let the kiddies near the screen. Viewer discretion is, I reckon, advised.

Finally, in other news, there's a sign at the end of a driveway right here by J. Crew U that reads PLEASE RETURN PLANT. Underneath that, it says, SENTIMENTAL VALUE. That's not the weather, I know, but it seemed like part of the forecast.