Irene came rolling into town on the east coast on Saturday. When it hit down in North Carolina, the pictures were scary. And the dumb weatherman was standing outside. On the beach. With huge waves behind him. It freaked me out. Couple that with the fact that we were in "Category 1 Hurricane" red area on the maps that kept popping up and the meteorologist saying that this would be a VERY DANGEROUS storm and I was hiding in the basement. Well, not quiiiite the basement. But let's back up.
On Friday my wonderful parents came to visit. We were all supposed to do a 5k on Saturday morning, so we had a slumber party. 5K was cancelled. Not shocking. But before they left, they helped us secure a few things. We bungy corded our hot tub cover down (our hot tub is broken; I wish it would have flown away). We cleaned up the backyard and moved the furniture inside. We boarded up the little basement window that vents the dryer because water can go right into it. Then I pulled a crazy and made J and my dad tarp the front window. They were showing me DISASTERS on tv, and I figured if something was going to crash through our window
and wipe out the entire population of our house and cause a bit of glass damage, we'd be covered. And then we did what all smart people do before a hurricane comes... we went out to eat italian food.
And that baked ziti served me through the weekend because of course that is a photo when I was finished eating. That bowl was huge. And delish. Mmm maybe I'll have the last of it tonight.
Saturday morning we prepared. And then our house looked like an aquarium. We took blue tarps and hung them across our huge picture window in the front room. Because, as previously stated, I was nervous.
With his arms out like that.... doesn't this remind you of a hammerhead shark floating above the camera when it takes a picture in the ocean and/or aquarium? Here's one for reference:
Eerily similar, right? I'll call J "hammer" from now on maybe. But either way, he's a very very good sport and an excellent husband who just was trying to make me feel safe. It worked, this brought a lot of (likely false if something drastic happened) security.
We also had plenty of flashlights, candles, water, and food. Tons of food. Enough for for like 2 weeks. I think we got over excited at the chance to buy unhealthy snacks and camp out. Oh, and we took out the PB lanterns. I was envisioning they'd be romantic. We never used them. Or anything else in this picture except water. But we were ready!
I thought maybe our pets would totally freak out when it all started. But when the rain was pounding sideways on the roof and walls and the wind howled, they slept. Oh did I mention we slept downstairs on our couch because it's the safest room in the house by far? Okay and maybe because I saw on the news that a tree crashed through someone's roof and killed them....
They were not fazed. At least not much. But we also followed the suggestion to have water to "flush toilets" if needed. So in our bathtub were two buckets from outside filled with water. The cat drank said water. Cats usually drink purified water. Cat vomit circa 5pm during the storms. Thanks cats. Thanks, dumb weather man, we never needed that water. We could have skipped that.
So the storms definitely swirled by us. As did a few tornados and tornado warnings. We were really lucky and didn't get hit. We're thankful because other areas in our state got torn up by them- including total destruction of houses. But here, it was just a lot of rain. A lot of wind. And a lot of me watching Lifetime movies when the power came back on late night. Because I couldn't sleep. It was so loud! J slept right through it. When there is a tornado warning - not watch - warning- until 11 pm it is hard to relax. But aside from the power going on and off multiple times, our house is in good shape. The back yard needs some branch clean up... our roads are okay, but about 1 mile down the street, this is the scene.
One mile is a lot during these things though, and our road is completely dry at this point. Hopefully J and I can both get out of the house and drive around tomorrow. We were really lucky in the scheme of things.
This was our biggest tragedy:
NO MORE SOUR PATCH WATERMELONS!!! Ahhh. NOW it is officially time to PANIC.
Thanks for a weekend of being hunkered down and cozy, Irene. Next time let's skip the destruction to people's homes and businesses and just call it a day. Hope everyone is hurricane safe!! xo
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