Post Matthew

Ok guys, Matthew was a dick.  But we are ok.

Started off Thursday with a quick walk with the dog to get him out before the worst of the rain hit. What most people don't understand is that, in the beginning, we were getting rain that was not related to Matthew.  We had a damned Nor'easter that hit the coast and we picked up 2-3 inches of rain just from that before the storm came in.  I thought it was funny to watch the weather channel who was doing all their reporting from Jacksonville Beach, just because it was raining there.  I mean, who wants to do reports about a tropical storm when it's beautifully sunny outside, which it was pretty much everywhere else.

Walking Luke before the storm.

 Thursday we were released early from work.  Of course, it's quarter end, my team mate and I did some work from home.  Friday all places were closed, so the hubby, my brother and I tucked in for a long couple of days.  We all of us anticipated losing power, since we live in an older part of town with lots of old oak trees.  So we took showers and filled the tub with water, did all the laundry and dishes, cranked the A/C, filled the freezer with water bottles, and brewed a couple pots of coffee.  We watched our fill of the Weather Channel and local coverage, then watched Pulp Fiction because apparently according to my brother, it's the best movie ever.  The dog was happier than a pig in slop, because all his peoples were home.

The boy and his dog surveying the storm.

As my brother says "it's wind-ing".  See much tree crap in the yard.

Luke and his favorite toy...a water bottle.

The lights flickered twice hard enough to turn off the TV and we were convinced it was coming. While standing on the porch after taking Luke to visit his favorite palm tree in the front yard, we heard a huge BOOM, after which we all turned to each other saying "that did not sound good".  We still had electric, though.

We went to bed and woke up to a cloudy but much less windy day.  The boy was called to go check out stores with his boss.  Brother and I cleaned up the debris in the front and back yard.  It's a pretty big pile, but no actual branches.  I could hear the generators kicking off, and the chain saws buzzing away in the neighborhood.  It turned into a hot, but beautiful day.

We did sustain "damage" though.  The neighbor's fence blew over.  Actually, the one in the back and the one on the side, although we have chain link in the back, so we don't really care too much.  On the side, the neighbor died about a month ago (he was very sick for years) and the woman staying there isn't really doing maintenance, so we put it back up.  And we have 4 broken shingles.  I'll get up there sometime soon and replace those myself.

Side fence down.  Luke thought he was getting a bigger yard.

Shingles.

And that was the big storm for us.  Neighbors on the street in front of and behind us both had trees down, and they are still waiting on power.  Work had no power until midday on Monday, but is fine now.

Unfortunately, other people and other areas fared far worse.  The beach was badly impacted.  St. Augustine was under 4 feet of water.  It was eerie to see water flooding areas that hubby and I walked a week before.  A1A was washed away in Flagler Beach, just south of us, and we lost a third of the Jacksonville Beach pier.  We still have 46,000+ people without power.  Schools just opened back up. And this dick of a storm hit every member of my family all up and down the coast.  Family in Charleston lost power and have lots of trees to clear, but were ok.  Family in Myrtle Beach are still without power due to trees down on power lines.  Fortunately, they are ok, though.

And the pony was absolutely fine.  Marcy kept great care of all the horses.  They had rain and lost one night of turnout, but were back to normal by the next day.  I got out there Sunday for a lesson, because, you know, only 3 weekends before the show.  Can't afford to lose another whole weekend.

Mare says "what storm?  And where's my apple?"