Post-Gustav Musings

Hurricane Gustav has come and gone and hopefully Ike will stay away. I think the last hurricane that affected me personally this much was Andrew back when I was fresh out of college and living in Baton Rouge. Katrina and Rita were huge for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but not horrible for me.

Gustav made sure we would never forget him. It sounded like the wind was going to blow the house down, John M's swingset collapsed, my mom's pool looked like a swamp and our yards looked like doomsday had struck. It took A LOT of cleanup and it was baking hot, we were without power for 8 days, and groceries were hard to come by. Oh yeah, and Mark's barn blew away. In the end, our house had no major damage and everyone was safe.

The funny thing is, most of our time after the storm (we were off of work for a week) was good. Why? I'll make a short list.

1.) We spent it together, with my mom, and my sister and her family. The kids played in the puddles, made lots of play dough art, and laughed a lot.

2.) We got back to basics. I cooked 3 meals a day (well, for a while, until McDonald's reopened!) We hung clothes out on the line to dry. I think I'm gonna leave my clothesline up; I found that I loved having one.

3.) The storm brought a little cool weather for a couple of days. There was a nice breeze blowing off the lake and for 2 nights, we slept with the windows open and had to cover up with 2 blankets. Amazing, when the usual September weather is in the 90s.

4.) When things started to get back to normal we appreciated things we usually take for granted. Mostly air conditioning!

Now, let's all cross our fingers that Gustav's friends leave us alone and I can use my clothesline because I want to, not out of necessity. I'm off to buy some clothespins . . .

Stormy

Gustav is on his way.

Thank goodness for Mark otherwise I'd be totally unprepared. I'm more the 'It's not gonna be that bad' type. We're pretty far inland so we usually get some wind and rain, but nothing really bad. That's the way to jinx us, huh? Knocking on my head right now.

I'm also Mrs. Last Minute and went to the store in my hometown today at 1:00, only to find that had closed up shop at 12:00. You snooze, you lose.

We do have a few batteries, a couple of working flashlights, a generator, and lots of junk food. Isn't that all you need?

I'll check in after Gustav leaves town.

Oh, and the book giveaway. The lucky winner is Cheryl! And it's her birthday weekend too! Cheryl, send your mailing address to me (frogola69@yahoo.com) and the book will be coming your way.