Frog and Goat

Prior to the Hurricane, the local rag said we should all look out for rats and snakes during the aftermath of the storm. I suppose this is something that city residents could look forward to. We only saw one snake and it was tiny and dead in our driveway. I think we killed it. Sorry, little snake. I’m still on the look out for rats.

I went out today to restock the candles–we’re burning them at night like maniacs. There isn’t any lamp oil to be found. I feel bad about running our electricity like we’re not in an emergency situation so we don’t sit around and tax our generator with lots o’ lights and things at night.

Today I walked through the woods to see about the pole that services our house. From the pole to our house the service goes underground. From the road to the pole now lays on the ground entwined in a dead pine tree. Great.

Prior to sawing up one of the hickories that fell in the backyard, I got some shots of a tree frog making him/her-self invisible. I figured I’d show you those pictures since this is an entry by the resident frog.

I will stop talking about Isabel real soon now.

One week + one day and counting…there’s a difference in our area between those who can count the hours they were without power and those that can count the days. We’re in the long-haul group.

We were pretty lucky in the no trees on our house department but we counted 14 trees down with some that will have to come down because they will eventually fall over and really piss us off. We had two that came down over our driveway thus blocking us in. You wouldn’t believe how many people asked if that was our only driveway…no, we’re the freaking Rockefeller’s of driveways—got millions of them. And, then the show-stopper stupid question as we’re standing in the driveway trying to cut our way out…did you weather the storm out at home? Dude, do you see any cars at the end of the driveway or parked on the road? Then where do you think we were? Gack, if you can’t say something intelligent then shut your yammering trap.

We hosted the MIL for 5 crazy nights and you’ve never seen two happier people when we found out her power was back on–shuttled her back over there as soon as was possible.

We’ve been pretty lucky because we have a generator. We bought it after the ice storm during Christmas 1998. My house will never be 30 degrees again. The only downside is having to baby-sit the generator and having to plan if you want hot water or a toilet flush. But, considering what other people are dealing with that’s small potatoes.

Today as we were headed to the office to restart all the equipment we saw an idiot come over the yellow line and the crane truck we were following had to swerve off the road to avoid a head-on collision. If there is one thing I complain about on a daily basis is morons who don’t stay in their lane. Anyway, as we’re watching the crane truck careen off the road I start shouting “F7ck, F7ck, F7ck” because the crane is crashing into a telephone pole so hard that he’s snapping the tops off of others and one dangles above our truck. No one was hurt and the offending driver did loop back around to face the music. It will be my fate that some torrent of potty-mouth will spew forth and my last words will be very unladylike.

Here are some storm pictures.

A Close Call

Bye to the hammock hickories

As my mother calls it “Salad”

A Resiliant Spider

A Toast to Isabel–yes that’s a Hurricane

Hey, I just remembered we have a pack of this in the booze cabinet. I think we only have minimal rum but what better time to have a Hurricane then when you’re house is about to be washed away?

Speaking of which we just spent time putting landscaping boards in our driveway. The spring and summer rains have really ruined the gravel driveway so we’re hoping we can sort of direct the flow for the storm. We’re scheduled to get between 6-10″ of rain today into tomorrow. Fun.

It is windy here now but the worst is supposed to happen later today/tonight. Last night, I heard someone say he didn’t think the storm was actually coming this way…no offense to all the grocery bag boys out there but come on what in the hell do you know about weather, weather patterns and the anatomy of a hurricane?

Last Thursday I got to babysit the Niece and I can’t believe I haven’t told this story yet. The Niece has a plastic tricycle that looks kind of like a Big Wheel but it has a long plastic handle on the back so that you can push her around. Her feet don’t reach the pedals yet so she parks them on the little foot rest and gets pushed. We were racing up and down the front porch and around the porch swing which I thought was kind of dangerous but my sister said it was ok. I should mention that there are about 10 large, steep steps leading up to their porch. They live on a hill and the porch extends over the hill…if that makes any sense. You wouldn’t want to fall off the porch.

Ok, so we’re racing about and the Niece is also holding onto her bubbles (which really are the best things in the world) and it is hard to hold onto your handlebars and bubbles at the same time, especially at the same time your aunt is pushing you at Mach 1. Guess what happened as we were skidding to a halt–the cool kind of skid that you see cars in commercials doing all the time–that’s right the little daredevil spilled off the bike. She looked back at me…I smiled and she laughed and got back on the bike. That’s my kind of girl.