Hurricanes

This was the post I was planning to publish on Friday, when other things happened.

Because of the support I've received, both publicly and privately, I've decided to continue to blog.

Thank you for your comments.

We live inland. We do not live anywhere close to a coast, unless you count a big man-made lake as having a coast. Yet we have been impacted by both hurricanes that have devastated the areas where they made landfall.

I don't want to minimize the tragedy caused by either storm. The loss of life, of homes and businesses, of ways of life enjoyed by generations cannot be understated.

But we've been hit by both in varying ways.

Florence was like the old college friend, or the Army buddy, or the elderly relative who comes for a visit and just doesn't know when to go home. She settled herself down on top of the state and rained and rained and rained. So we had trees falling over because the saturated ground couldn't hold onto the roots any longer, and we had localized flooding. Here, it wasn't horrible, but it was unpleasant.

Michael came from a different direction and still barreled through. He was more like a big bully, hitting and kicking and stomping everything in his way. We had periodic heavy rain and high, gusty winds, and we were multiple states away from where he came ashore. Trees were falling everywhere and taking down the power lines with them.

So I was sitting at work on Thursday,  composing a diplomatic response to a question on my laptop, when the lights went off. And came on. And went off. And came on. And went off.

Well, it was fairly close to the end of the work day, so we were told to pack up and leave while the batteries on the security lights in the stairwells still worked. To be honest, even though I was upset by losing my eloquent and convincing response, I was delighted. Any time there's an additional hour to stitch available, I'm all in.

So I trotted on home.

To discover that our power was out, too.

Well.

Phooey.

Dearly Beloved had been to the grocery store and bought forty bazillion chicken breasts that were on sale. When he got home and found the power was off, he got himself to the nearest convenience store and bought ice--the man has flashes of brilliance--and threw two bags into the frig with the chicken.
(although the chicken was cold when the power came back on, he spent Friday cooking all forty bazillion chicken breasts, then putting them in the freezer. We're going to have a lot of chicken in the next few weeks)

And then the mail came.  And the light was too dim to enjoy any of it.

I got the latest Frostings Box from Thistle Threads. The colors are divine and the twists and textures fascinating.

I really wanted to sit down and read every word on every page, but it was getting darker by the moment. Yes, we have candles and flashlights, but since we didn't know how long the power would be out, we wanted to conserve resources.

So I went to bed at 7:30.

I haven't done that since I was about four years old.

That was a very long time ago.