Yankee's First Hurricane

This week is entitled "Eyes on Hanna." It had to happen sometime, so why not when life is already stressful? Emotionally it's been a roller coaster so far, and that's all in the anticipation. We really have NO idea what to expect, and no one telling us anything can really give us the correct impressions... not to mention that everyone's handling it in different ways, which adds to our stress. We ask people what to do, and one person says the world is ending and get out of town, the next person shrugs and says "Eh, it's rain. I plan to read a book." Flipping endlessly between panic and relief for days on end really unsettles the stomach!

Someone needs to come up with one of these:



but for hurricanes. Put a few tropical islands in there, maybe, and definitely some airborne livestock. Title it "Yankee's First Hurricane". I think it'd sell.

Lanse added some things to our calendar to help us prepare:



He also mentioned that at his office, which is a dotcom made of almost entirely recent Northern transplants, they're comparing notes on preparedness kits, how many gallons of water and batteries they have, what the evac routes are, and a guy was going around with a video camera recording all the company property for insurance purposes. It sounded rather like this:



On the other hand, this is basically what our neighbors, who have all grown up in the area, are doing to prepare:



On the third hand, (which I'd love to borrow if anyone's got extra third hands,) Walmart was entirely cleaned out of two aisles of water last night. And Spaghetti-Os, for whatever reason. I mean really, maybe you're just not a real Southerner if you're willing to sit out a hurricane without a can of Spaghetti-Os...

Tying it together

For the curious, my first attempt at putting two images together with Gimp:

Blowing wind

We might be in the line for Ms. Hurricane Hanna. Around 2:00 I checked the weather news and it said landfall on Friday, anywhere between Miami and the Outer Banks of NC, as a Cat 1. A straight line course puts it landing at Hilton Head, which is just a bit off from us. A bit later we saw our backyard neighbors scurrying around the yard, so Lanse went out to do the Yankee bit of "Is this dangerous? What do we need to do?", and they said they had just seen an updated report landing it on Wednesday... so if it sped up, it'd be stronger.

Needless to say, we're a bit in a panic. Per Michael's directions, we've taken down and stored the slide and swings, cleared all the stuff off the back porch, we'll bring the front garden in when the wind picks up. He said to expect power outages (that around here get fixed pretty quickly because most of it's underground), downed trees, and really scary sounds... for a Cat 1. He also said to have tarp to put on the roof if it leaks, some charcoal for the grill so we can eat, food (ice and a cooler for when the power goes out to save as much from the fridge as we can), and bottled water, and a few dollar store flashlights and batteries. He rides out all the storms, and said he'd totally help us with anything, just to signal across the yard with the flashlight if the phones are out. *heh*

It sounds like everything he suggested is for after the storm, though of course useful during it as well. But we haven't decided if we're going to ride it out or flee like Northern chickens to my parent's house... though Michael did say that if anything happened that's a small problem (like loosened shingles) if we weren't here it could become a BIG problem (leaking roof for a few days). So we may actually try to ride it out, though we haven't discussed it. I'm going to be a wreck though if we do.

Collapse

Mom and Dad left about an hour ago. We are tired and ache all over. Dad and Lanse pressure washed the house, driveway, and sidewalk; cleaned/pressure washed the gutter; moved furniture; Dad ran the carpet shampooer on all the carpets, strung and painted our TV cable to the 15 ft livingroom ceiling, reinstalled the front windowsill and edgings, replaced (and taught us about, cuz we're kinda house-stoopid) our AC filter; climbed up into the attic to investigate air conditioning, fan venting, and beam supports; they went shopping for groceries three separate times, and made a run to Home Depot; Dad cooked us a burger dinner last night. We also fit in a movie!

Mom and I spent Saturday shopping and planning colors; found some carpets, and bought all our curtain supplies (and the carpets) on clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Each panel/scarf was listed at $70 and we got them for $20 each, except the one panel that was marked at $10. We spent the weekend cutting them apart and putting them back together and making curtains. We also hung a couple of pictures that had been propped up and moved a lot of furniture.

The walls still need to be painted; we're aiming at a very light yellow. The red we currently have clashes with what we just did, but that'll be more incentive to get our paint groove on.

Pictures really don't do it justice; firstly, the curtains are crushed voile, floaty white stuff that don't photograph very well. Secondly, it's a 15 ft ceiling in a room where it's hard to stand back far enough for the camera to get it all in. So I've done my best. Enjoy!

Living Room Before


Living Room After


Dining Room Before


Dining Room After