Preparing For A Hurricane (Irene) After An Earthquake (?)

I feel bad. Bad for the earthquake that was epicentered in god-knows-where Virginia this past week. Up here on the 15^th floor in lower Manhattan, things were shaking pretty good.  And after my cat and I were done looking at each other for a good 10 seconds and thinking what the heck is going on, I realized it was a friggin’ earthquake.  That comes from 18 years of living in California, and experiencing my share of earthquakes – trust me - there isn’t anything that feels quite like a big earthquake.

So why do I feel bad?  Well, as anyone who lives on the east coast, or anyone that has CNN knows, Hurricane Irene is heading our way. Therefore, everyone has already forgotten about the damn quake. And  hurricanes get named; earthquakes don’t.  They’re just called, for instance, the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Or the Loma Prieta quake; you remember that one - it stopped a World Series game in progress - back in 1989. That was also the biggest one I’d ever been in, and it was quite a shaker. 

Now all we’ve been hearing, at least since the god-knows-where Virginia quake came and went, is Irene. Irene this and Irene that. How we need to be prepared. How we need to have potable water. How we need to have a “Go Kit.” Okay, already, I get it.

We have our water (do hurricanes make you thirsty?). Our bathtub is filled to the brim.  Enough batteries to drive a small car. Check. Candles – you bet. It’s like all Hanukkah all the time around here. The Festival of Lights –  no kidding.  Ice – geez - any bruises we might get will be iced down very quickly. Significant Eater and I have enough canned goods to survive a major shutdown of the whole city.  Canned beans. Canned pork. Canned pork and beans. Although as anyone who lives here can tell you, there is always a bodega open somewhere close by; nothing stops those guys. 

Oh -  there’s one other thing I always have enough of. Booze. But just to be on the safe side, and because I was in DC this week and happened to stop by one of the greatest liquor stores in the world, Ace Beverages, I picked up some new stuff…

There's the Bulleit (95) Rye, next to a nice bottle of Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, a sweet vermouth first produced in 1891, along with a few items I always have on hand - Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s bitters, real Maraschino cherries and some other assorted odds and ends.  The Bulleit Rye is a fairly new product, released in March of this year, and has been reviewed all over the web.  At 90 proof and 95% rye, what could be bad?   The vermouth, also released this year for the 120th anniversary of the company's founding, may well give everyone’s favorite vermouth, Carpano Antica Formula, a run for the money.

And last night, getting very ready for the next natural disaster, I mixed up a couple of classic Manhattans for Sig Eater and me...

After a few of these, there's only one thing to say...Bring it, Irene.