My Sandbox: Being thankful

We are very very fortunate. Hurricane Matthew is one to remember, but not nearly so memorable for us as for those who are still suffering from major losses. Lives, homes, crops, businesses, power, access to the outside world, clean water (or any water) are just some of the losses in North Carolina alone. Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have lost much too. And the Caribbean! :-( The major rivers in North Carolina have not yet crested and are way above flood stage already. Dams are compromised and collective breaths are being held. Not a good situation.....which is a masterful understatement.

Though not even near hurricane force, the winds compounded by the rain made sure a large number of us were without power for hours or days. Trees came down everywhere and flooding damaged power facilities. Many don't have power yet.

While keeping a wary eye on the rain and wind, I managed to get one and a half placemats quilted before the power went out Saturday afternoon.

The dogs were not happy with being sent out into the backyard in the driving rain to do their "business" so The Tramp took the uncooperative ones out on the leash each time he went out to check on the level of the pond. I took photos from the safety of the front doorway and here it is starting to cover the road.

Now the road is completely covered at this end of the pond. The house built below the water level, out of sight to the right, is the one that suffers the most. A house should never have been built there. The water flows under the house and on both sides of it down to the creek behind. There is a "dip" in the road to guide the water down a swale, but volumes of water such as this can't be contained.

If you click on the photo to make it larger I'm sure you'll see the heron. It's fishing on the road!

The day was very dark, and we sat in the semi-darkness with our phones to check the news and outage maps, and flashlights for reading, and watched the craziness out the front window.

A branch came down and porch chairs were blown around a bit. I didn't bring anything inside as the forecast kept pushing Matthew further away from us. I probably should have anyway.

Dogs were bored.

And evening meant eating and reading by candlelight and flashlight.

Sunday proved to be breezy and gorgeous and the first thing we did was rush out to buy another cooler and some bags of ice.

Once we had done all the chores we could, it was back to relaxing in front of the view. :-)

Food was safe in bins.

And the little camp stove was ready for cooking and making tea and coffee.

After dinner I dug out the Scrabble for a quick game before the light faded.

Wasn't as quick a game as we thought! lol

The Viking's family didn't have power either, and since they are on a well also no water! Mom and Dad had been without power just on Sunday. So Monday morning we gathered up all of the meat in our freezer and took it over to their apartment in the retirement community to stash it in their empty freezer. We took hot showers (lovely!). The Tramp was able to have some lunch and sit with his laptop and connect with his office and the outside world while the rest of us ate in the (non-gluten-free) cafe. The Viking's hair was still damp. :-)

I took The Vking to the park to run off some energy and there were many more people than we had ever encountered there before. I think cabin fever had set in, as well as lack of power for some and the schools being closed. I'll bet all the parks were just as busy. (The Viking is to the left of center.)

Monday evening.....just after The Tramp returned home with another load of ice.....the power clicked on! Yay! So today The Viking and I went back to retrieve our food.

And spent the rest of the lovely autumn afternoon on wheels. He is finally big enough to ride this bike. With the smooth new road and nice cool weather there is no reason not to!

It was all about the brakes at first. :-) "I'm just practice-ting," he declared. "I have to train myself." He is too funny.

In this photo you can see the debris line across the road from the flooding. The water was all the way around to the house opposite ours. The channel for the overflow is just past that mailbox post. My new worry is the bank of the pond continuing to wear away and our very expensive new road being undermined. I guess that's a discussion for the next HOA meeing.