Saturday, August 22, 2009

Bill edges closer



I'm having fun watching Bill, I admit it. I'm a weather "anorak" of sorts (anorak, from the item of clothing, is the British term for a geeky amateur at some activity, like a birdwatcher or trainspotter). I measure the wind for community wind turbines in my academic job, and I like seeing what the weather here in Maine, which is often extreme, can do.

Anyway, Bill's prediction swathe once again shifted to the northwest, and the probability of storm force winds went up yet again.

Usually a strong, dry, cooler Canadian high is pulled in to this region after a hurricane passes. This will make for a pleasant start to next week, the first week of college work for Aimee and I, although we have both been hard at work on college stuff for quite a while.

I for one am looking forward to a dryer air mass, which will give me the energy I need to get through the hectic first days of term. Assuming I'm not still picking up the pieces, that is.

It looks like Nova Scotia will bear the real brunt. Nova Scotia's southern peninsula lies east of us, and comprises the eastern bounds of the northern arm of the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf itself will see the worst of it, and hopefully all mariners are already in port or getting there.

Of course, someone will have missed the warnings. I expect the Coastguards of both nations are running around pulling in the odd yachtsman and fisherman who lacks modern comms. Hopefully we get them all. I have several students and ex-students who are part-time or full-time coasties and marine patrol officers. With that and as an SAR team member in Maine, when there's a weather emergency, it's people I know that re risking their lives.

Even lapsed Anglicans, and likewise any former British ex-serviceman, "Soldiers of the Queen," will have a hymn for every occasion.

I expect the Nova Scotians know it well.


Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.

After getting tired of spam comments (up to a dozen or more per day), I required commentators to be Google "registered users". You can write me at mwomersley@unity.edu if you have a serious comment or question and are not a registered user.

Spammers -- don't bother writing -- there's no way I will post your spam to my blog. Just go away.