Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl was a beauty.  Nicely formed, tightly compacted
and barreling along as a Category 3.  We have been

here before and followed it closely.  As it approached it picked up on the wind velocity and ended up walloping the north shore of St. Croix(where we live) more forcefully than anticipated. 

We had expected winds of maybe 40mph but by the time we were finished with Earl he had left us reeling.  After an early morning flooding in the living room we decided more panels were needed to protect the western side of the house; storms don't usually come in from that side but with Earl he did.  Up the panels went around 9:00am and we settled in to wait out the storm.  

Have any of you noticed that some of the names for storms this year are cartoon characters?  Fiona from Shrek, Hermine from Harry Potter, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Igor from Frankenstein...hmmmmm.

i've always been concerned about a tree in our front yard that if it fell could do serious damage to the cars.  i suggested moving my car but we decided anywhere we put it was dangerous.  So i suggested cramming it up against the patio just in case the tree came down.  We literally only moved the car about six feet but wouldn't you know it was exactly where the tree wanted to go.  That sweet tree didn't come crashing down it just gently leaned over during the course of the storm, finally breaking at the end.

i would have posted last Wednesday like i usually do but wouldn't you know the power was out.  We spent days cleaning debris, scooping leaves out of the pool and general cleanup.  We still have the panels up because we anticipate more storms this season and don't want to have to do it all again. 

The power went out about 1:15pm Monday and we had it restored Saturday night around 10:00pm.  We had gotten used to the oil lamps, the hand crank radio and a really nifty IKEA goose neck solar lamp i bought in San Diego.  i wish i had more of those for all my friends, they work great.  Its a wonderful feeling to get light from the sun, and its free.

We have a generator but the noise drives you mad so we only run it in the morning and evening for showers, the refrigerator, and ugh the washing.  i'm glad to have that noise silenced.

Hurricanes are stressful.  No matter how much you prepare there is always something. The most positive thing about hurricanes is the aftermath, when everyone kicks in to help each other.  Every hurricane season i remark about how wonderful it is to see so many helping others only to watch it all fizzle out once things are more normal.  i wish there was some magic elixir we could all take that kept us so communally oriented.

This is just a quickie blog, hopefully Wednesday i'll be back to normal, stay tuned.  And thank you for the lovely dish towel, you know who you are.