That Time A Hurricane Came To Town

So a hurricane came through these neck of the woods in August. I wrote a post just before it came through, but the event warranted a post in and of itself. Just before the storm everyone went crazy stocking their shelves, but all in all it was a lot calmer than I expected. We're not on the coast, but we were told to brace for the storm.

As we waited for the storm Lori and I both prepped for the chance that our electricity would go out. Lori pre-popped popcorn, I roasted some corn and made corn and black been salsa in anticipation of a lazy day at home.

For the record - we were brilliant.

We hung out on our balcony watching the storm pass through. It was an excellent storm - lots of wind and rain. There wasn't much damage in immediate view other than some signs damaged and some railing. We mocked our neighbors who kept going out in the storm and generally enjoyed laughing and just being home for once.

As the sun went down and we couldn't see anything we lit some candles and decided this was the right time to do a puzzle. Perhaps it wasn't the best visibility to see differentiation in colors, but it was fun. We had regular updates all day and night from my blackberry. Twitter really is a gem - it kept me in touch with family during the earthquake the week before and kept me in touch with the emergency preparedness folks from state government. Thank

Our power went out mid-day and stayed out until sometime late on Saturday night. With the majority of folks out of power in Richmond we set out on Sunday to help folks... this turned into a chance to catch up with Bishop and Susie. We really did want to serve, but it was great to just chat with friends.

There were tons of trees down all over the place. When I drove down to Isle of Wight a little over a week later it was even worse down in the peninsula.

We were warned of another hurricane about a little over a week later and I was really hoping we'd get another weekend at home to relax.

All in all, we loved it. Yes it was probably dangerous and yes folks were truly put into hardship that had permanent damage or didn't have a place to stay, but we were happy. We slept. We laughed. We got to shut ourselves off from the outside world.