Pearl of an Earl

We’re back just enough from the ocean so Earl didn't touch us but still, it had its effect: Amtrak service from New York to Boston was suspended and the Sox got postponed – and just about every window on the Cape and the Islands had a sheet of plywood nailed over its eyes. My wind chimes started banging around in early afternoon and were still at it when I went to bed at midnight. Also the cooler that I left upended on the screened-in porch 'til I could give it a good scrubbing began talking to itself, meaning its lid kept opening and shutting, banging in ghostly fashion. The birds really shut up too I noticed and where do birds go when a hurricane is due? Have they got school gyms and cafeterias and relatives in other counties?What I really noticed though is that I was as restless as a caged tiger. I couldn't sit still. I sorted nails, pencils, packets of lemonade tossed in the drawer. I tried on clothes that haven't been out of the closet since the year 2000 because I was afraid of how I’d look like in them. (Not so bad as it turned out - kind of like Roseanne Barr would look if she’d done an episode where she couldn’t get any of her zippers to zip.)The big question is why we don't feel an antsy apprehension all the time living as we do on this wobbly planet with its wild winds and rains and Nature sending comets and asteroids whizzing past day and night, just biding Her time ‘til she can give us a good smack.