Monitoring "Minute by Minuet"

The same site that tells me to drive with a tarp over my car says that the observatory is going to be monitoring this situation "minute by minuet". It's good that their on-air show is better than the articles on the web site. (Well, I suppose the articles are fine, they're just not very clear...)

We're still at the Orange Alert for volcanic eruption of Mount Redoubt. The last time this one went was 20 years ago. Apparently then they got about 23 hours of notice before it started. So far, we're finishing up day 2 without the "big" action. So we shut down and covered the equipment at work again. I took pictures today. Note the Christmas tree, don't mind the mess. My desks are always in some state of chaos - sometimes they're just more organized than other times, but they're always chaotic.

So on the way home I went to the store. We've got plenty of food at home - non-perishable and in the freezer. Greg is going to pick up more propane - we can use it for the grill and we have a couple propane heaters (from camping), in case the power goes out. We've got candles & batteries. Greg is going to pick up air filters for the cars. I got water tonight, and filled my tank with gas - not sure why on the gas, it just sounded good. I think we're just about ready.

If it does blow, my main concern is driving. I don't want to damage the car, but I know I'm going to have to go into work for at least a bit. Or if I'm at work, I'm going to have to get home. Wonder if auto insurance covers damage due to volcanic ash being sucked into the engine? I might have to check. According to the news, if you have to drive it shouldn't be over 30 mph and you should change your oil every 50-100 miles. Damn!

To top it off, we're slated for more snow over the next few days. They say we can have snow & ash fall at the same time. Greg says that's concrete. =) We'll see how it goes...