So Glad That's Over.

Next time a Category 1 hurricane hits my area, I think I'll go somewhere else for a day or two.

That was seriously scary. The wind gusts actually shook my house, and I'm in the middle rowhouse in a string of seven. I thought it was another earthquake.

Some trees were hit pretty hard, but the tornado that hit this area a month ago took out a lot of trees and limbs, which means that the debris from Irene wasn't so bad this morning. There were a lot of little limbs down, stuff you could pick up and pile up with no trouble. If there hadn't been that tornado last month, though, this morning would be a whole different story. The wind gusted over 80 mph. Sustained winds on the bay reached at least 62 mph, which is when they closed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The power went out at 11:15 PM in my neighborhood, and didn't come on again till 8:00 this morning. It went off again for about a half hour. I could hear the transformers booming all around the neighborhood while the most excellent and much appreciated BG&E repairmen were working.

I did not sleep at all last night. I am a light sleeper anyway, but with a hurricane raging ... every time the windows or the tarp I'd put up in front of the patio rattled, I'd be wide awake again. There were some scary strong gusts of wind.

The sunflowers look awful this morning. 

So all Saturday night, I watched the weather channel and the local news incessantly, and crocheted and knitted, till the power went out.

Kool-Aid blanket: 

Socks from "Socks a la Carte Toes Up." I'll take better pictures outside, when there isn't an inch of mud on everything.



So, that was Irene.


It was much windier than TS Isabel in 2003, when I was without power for four days, but also a lot rainier. I don't think we got so much rain with Isabel. Some areas around Baltimore got 10 inches. We've already gotten so much rain, there are mushrooms all over the place. I wish I could send some rain to my Dad in Texas.

I don't want to go through that again. It wasn't exciting or thrilling or exhilarating, it was just plain old scary!