Maryland. Stay Safe, Comrades.

I was just listening to "Way Back Home" and missing MD.
Old Bay seasoning on everything.
Steamed blue crab.
BWI filling up the skies.
The National Aquarium.
Fort McHenry.
The Chesapeake.
The USS Constellation.
Baltimore.
Columbia.
Rockville.
Olney.
Washington DC.

Then I hear about Hurricane Sandy.  More memories.  Where I lived, we were always on the edge of every single tropical storm.  I remember sitting on the front porch with the power out, watching the roads slowly fill with water and become rivers and canals.  The ditch at the end of the front lawn would become a stream about three feet deep.  The water would cave in at the storm drain loud enough to make Niagara Falls jealous.  Maybe it was because I was a child, but in spite of all the danger, it was the most beautiful thing in the world, having my neighborhood transformed like that.  Granted, the rain would get so thick you could barely see ten feet in front of you, but I'd try and go outside and explore, much to my parents' horror.  Some of the happiest experiences of my childhood were when I was out alone in a thunderstorm, shooting hoops in the culdesac, ignoring all my neighbors yelling at me to go inside.  The splash of the ball as it hit the ground, the icy stabs of each rain drop, the dead weight of clothes that had soaked through...I loved it all.
Crap.  This was supposed to be wishing luck to everyone on the east coast. (East coast represent!) Sorry about that tangent.
Stay safe, comrades.  Keep my homeland alive for me.