Lucky

I just took a few pictures of our community post-Irma.  No one's home was badly damaged, thank goodness.  Mom's roof lost some shingles, so she's one of the very few around here with a blue-tarped roof.  We'll get it fixed in the next few weeks.  So many people along the coast are still in bad shape, flood and power-wise.

Slowly getting my home back in order -- I had emptied the china cabinet and put all breakable treasures in the dishwasher; cherished books (ha! aren't they all??) and photo albums went into plastic bags-into suitcases-into plastic bags; frames and mirrors were taken down from walls; and since I've been trucking them around with me for nearly 60 years.....

Barbie, Barbie and Ken rode out Irma packed safely away in a suitcase.  Lest you think your Family Curator has not been taking her job seriously of late, rest assured that the dollhouse and other ancestry notes, ephemera and photos were safely packed and bubbled wrapped inside our shower stall surrounded by quilts and pillows.

So I'll be back at the unpacking job later today.  But first, a swim, then a smoothie.  Hooray for normalcy.  --cds

Power!

Just popping in briefly -- after five sweltering days and nights, our power is back on.  Many many thanks to every lineman working out there in this awful heat and humidity on our behalf.  All else is all good here in our little sphere.  No real structural damage, no hurt neighbors, we have food and good water.  And now, coolness.  Think I'll google the inventor of air conditioning and set up a little shrine or something.

Back soon, I pinky-promise, because I have Vermont pictures to share.  --cds

Gimme Shelter

Oh, of course this song has been running through my head the past few days.  So here is our updated, final, not-changing-our-minds, let's do this, hurricane plan.  For the past six days we have had various ideas on how to survive this nasty-looking storm, including hotel reservations just north of Atlanta (the closest I could find along the routes North, no lie).  That was Tuesday.  After a long week of careful consideration (panic, yelling, endless supply gathering, drama -- literal drama, too: Evie desperately wanted us to drive to Utah and after gently explaining that could not happen, she composed an interpretative dance for us via Skype that involved much shouting of "Death"  "Destruction" and falling gracefully to the floor), we agreed to stay in town, but head to the public shelter, our local high school around the corner.  But......, I kept visualizing ourselves spending two days in a high school gym with a thousand other people, waiting in a bathroom line for God knows what sort of facility.  Big ugh.  I have real trouble as it is just walking around our very odoriferous local flea market.

Therefore, in true Claudi-style, yesterday I tried making a last ditch reservation at a Disney resort and managed to snag two nights at one of their value hotels -- around a hundred bucks a night and so totally worth it to me!  Just one visit to a clean bathroom of one's own is something I would definitely pay for.

I realize I sound very shallow and persnickety, but I figure I'm quite willing to pay and get out and leave my space in a shelter for someone who really needs it.  And so, this morning we will head up I-4 through the already visible bands of showers and breeze and be safe and sound in a block building that hopefully will not blow down.

I'll be back tomorrow with an update on our encounter with Irma.  --cds