Whew!!!

 

So, this is what my sunroom table looked like the last time I posted and this is what it looks like now.

I thought I would just post a quick blog to let those interested know that I was one of the incredibly lucky ones as Helene swept through the state of Florida. I live in the NE section of our county and as far as I can tell-since she swept through in the pitch black of night-I must have just gotten minimal wind and rain whereas the NW section of the county has lost power and trees are down.

The dogs and I just came in from getting almost everything back in its place and the debris in the yard picked up. I had a fair amount of branches but mostly TONS of smaller "twigs" and Spanish moss-most of it being things that would probably come down at some point or other anyway.

My family in Gainesville got hit a bit harder-lots of trees down in daughter #2's neighborhood and much loss of power elsewhere in the city but still, compared to the devastation elsewhere, we are not complaining. 

Unfortunately my daughter in St. Pete didn't fare as well. She once again lost all of her beautiful sycamore trees as well as her maple and holly trees. Several of them are still blocking the streets but none of them hit anyone or anything so she is thankful for that. Her house sits pretty high so the flooding that happens often on her street didn't come into the house and siding, windows, etc. are all fine so she was lucky. So many of her friends and clients who live closer to the gulf were not as lucky-three have completely lost everything and 4 or 5 others have homes completely flooded and don't know right now if they can be saved or not.

I have lived most of my life in Florida and lived through many hurricanes but I think this is the first one that has truly terrified so many people. It was HUGE and FIERCE and couldn't really make up its mind where it wanted to go.

I just talked to my grand daughter in Charleston and she is getting it right now. So far she only has damage to her little storage shed and she thinks she'll be good but to think that this storm is still doing damage this far away and ON LAND is kind of scary! I hope I never see another of this magnitude. The images coming in from along the coast line from all of those places-many what we think of as "old Florida"- are just so sad and things that I'm not sure they will be able to ever recover from.

And so the point of this post is that I didn't have to fall back on my "power outage crafts" and they're still sitting there waiting for me. I am giving myself today to just do what I want with my furry friends and then tomorrow I will tackle a few chores and watch Har's football game but, I am now thinking I might start my Halloween swap out on Sunday even with the dogs here and even with a dentist appointment early Monday morning. Usually I like to hit the ground running early in the mornings and just keep going but we're getting into October. I don't think I've ever been this late before but I told my sister-in-law that I love my autumn decor so much that I'm having a hard time getting motivated to take it down. She reminded me that it IS my house and I don't have to if I don't want to. Lol Believe me, that idea is running around in my head but I also know that I will be sad if I don't so....it will be coming sometime soon.

So that's it for me. I'm safe and hope everyone else in Helene's path will continue to be as well. Stay safe and stay tuned.