Post Factum: August

While others were off frolicking at Rhinebeck this weekend, I spent my time catching up!



In August, I made an unplanned visit to Hawai'i. It was a very stressful time, not least because while I was there Hurricane Iselle and Hurricane Julio roared by the islands only a few days apart. It wasn't a pleasure trip for me, so the rough weather merely added to the stress and didn't spoil my trip, but I felt bad for vacationers who rushed to the airport in advance of the storms to try to book flights home. (Among other inconveniences, the beaches were all closed, so my Hanauma Bay singleton couldn't visit Hanauma Bay. It posed with the newspaper instead, which was not very satisfactory at all.)



In Hawai'i, full emergency preparations means rushing out and stocking up on necessities like Spam, bottled water, batteries, prescription medication, toilet paper, and gasoline. The stores were stripped! But... notice that preposition. The hurricanes roared by. Except for a rural section on the Big Island of Hawai'i that sustained some heavy damage (and now is threatened by lava), everyone else was fine. Apparently the five tall summits on the Big Island sheared off the bottom of the first storm, causing it to become disorganized, and the second storm missed the islands altogether. It rained a bit more than usual. After days of urgent exhortations to prepare, the anti-climax led to a proliferation of memes mocking a local weatherman, Guy Hagi.

There's new Guy Hagi memes now that Hurricane Ana was another near-miss. It's been an exceptionally busy hurricane season in the Pacific; by contrast, after starting with a bang, the Atlantic season has been relatively quiet. Thankfully so!

Also in August, DH and I went to the U.S. Open. It was perhaps the nicest weather and the most interesting tennis I've ever been privileged to experience. We made a point of watching Caroline Wozniacki again.



Wozniacki has been having a tumultuous year off the courts, so it was great to see her playing so well – winning this match against Andrea Petkovic, and going on to upset Maria Sharapova, to defeat Sara Errani, and advancing to the final when Peng Shuai collapsed. In the final she lost to Serena Williams. Next month she's running in the NYC Marathon to raise money for Team for Kids. Some experts say tennis players shouldn't do marathons, it messes up their primary conditioning or somesuch. However that may be, I'm looking forward to seeing Wozniacki run.