Look What Flew in Ahead of Hurricane Irene!

One of my friends, Deb in upstate NY, located the pink, plastic flamingos I so desperately wanted for my yard, so she sent them to me!  They arrived the day before Hurricane Irene lashed the east coast.

The box was wrapped in plain brown paper and when I unwrapped it, I laughed heartily at what was written on the box.

When my squeeze got in off the road that night, I eagerly pointed to the box on the table when he got home.  He was exhausted. He glanced at them and said, "What?" I held up the box so he could read what it said.  He  just groaned exasperatedly (not unlike the way he used to do in study hall), then suggested we put them outside that night, before the storm, and perhaps they'd blow away. Needless to say, they stayed safely in the house till the day after the hurricane when I proudly displayed them in the front yard.  He hasn't said anything about them....yet. The poor man is resigned to the fact that his girlfriend is definitely different.  

So the hurricane was at first expected to hit us very hard, with Buzzards Bay taking a punch.  The day before the storm was stinkin' hot and humid, and so, so still.  Earthquake weather.  Which is funny because we'd had that earthquake earlier in the week.  On Sunday the wind started picking up steadily all morning with quite a few huge gusts.  Lost power fairly early on, probably around 10:00 a.m.  Found out that the solar panels on the roof provided just enough juice to keep the fridge fairly cool/cold. And we were able to get one fan to limply push the warm, stuffy air around a little bit.  It rained off and on, but it was mostly just very windy.  I was curious enough to want to go out and take pictures, but also sane enough to stay put.  Pepper was very, very scared and had to have her anxiety pill.  My sweetie spent the day napping.  I do envy his ability to fall asleep so quickly and nap for hours.  I spent most of the day working on beaded cross stitch and reading, and when it got dark, I read by flashlight.  It was horrible to be without my beloved a/c.  The house got so stuffy and hot that we cracked all the windows and let the hurricane winds cool it off.  Everything died down by midnight and the stars even came out.  

The next day, Monday, was clear and cool.  A really beautiful day.  We went out to breakfast in Sandwich, and came home to a still-powerless house.  We put all the rapidly defrosting food into the cooler with ice bags. The squeeze offered to take me beachcombing but I didn't feel like being out in the sun when we couldn't come home to an air conditioned house. So I worked on, and finished, my beaded cross stitch project called "Mrs. Bones".  I have to start Mr. Bones next.

The love of my life spent the time asleep, and/or half asleep, in his recliner.  

We went out for an early dinner and the power was out through Buzzards Bay and Wareham.  The Evil Empire and Stop & Shop were closed, which means both stores lost thens of thousands of dollars in spoiled food and revenue.  Ended up at the Longhorn Steakhouse out in West Wareham, practically in Middleboro.  Power finally came back on at 11:00 p.m. that night, so we were out for about 30 hours.  It was such a relief to wake up to the a/c back on and blasting on me!! 

I have almost finished reading "The Help" By Kathryn Stockett.  I just saw the movie with my mom and I LOVED it.  She'd read the book first and said she preferred it to the movie.  I am loving both.  I highly recommend both book and movie.  It's a chick flick though, so I don't think many guys would think it as good as a woman would. It's very To Kill a Mockingbird-esque.  The movie was brilliantly cast and acted.  I found out later on that the actress who plays Miss Hilly, a character that you really love to hate, is the daughter of Ron Howard.  Clearly she inherited her father's talent.  The actress who plays the maid Aibileen, Viola Davis, has played a defense attorney in LO:SVU and played crooked cop Terry Randolph in the LOCI episode "Badge".  And Octavia Spencer is brilliant as Minny.

So I've been back less than 2 months and have already experienced a rare east coast earthquake and hurricane in the the same week.  I really have had MORE than my share of natural disasters in my life.  I can live without any further weather drama.  Still, it probably wouldn't hurt to pick up a generator this fall.