AFTER THE STORM (HURRICANE IRENE)

It almost seems dumb to post pictures about Hurricane Irene’s visit to the shore, or at least my little corner of the Shore, in view of what has happened and is still happening in Vermont and is still happening in Paterson, NJ. Who would have thought? Days after Irene rolled thru NY and Vermont, my cousins in NY are still without power, and friends in Vermont are cut off from the rest of the state as roads washed out on either side of their farm. So showing a few leaves and twigs on the yard and sidewalk is almost embarrassing. I lost a 12 foot maple that was growing off the stump of the old maple I lost in Ernesto(?) I think. And a gum tree came down over the road out front across the street from me, but it was small enough the town cop was able to get it off the road and keep the road open. He lost his cell phone in the process. But I helped him find it the next day when we moved the tree again. He said it would dry out! So, there is not much to see. Others lost power for considerable amounts of time. Then, again, how does one show a power outage? It has been so dry here that the 6 ½ inches of rain that fell in my yard was soaked up in a heart beat.

Friends with houses on the water had water in their yards, but almost no one got water in their houses. One friend got 2 inches in the house. Floyd gave them 18 inches, I think she said. So who would have figured NY, NJ, and Vermont would have had all that flooding?

Remember the potting bench I built? I did take the top shelf off when they told us we were to prepare for 100 mph or higher winds… the bottom with its ugly 4x4 legs never moved a centimeter, nor did the trash can filled with potting soil from the potato bags.

As many of you know, earlier in the week, we were being warned of a Cat 3 hurricane, so we almost evacuated to our place in the Poconos… that would have been a disaster. They lost power for a day or more. Roads were washed out, a bridge or two, but nothing like NY and VT. Nothing like the flooding in Paterson, NJ.

But, best of all, dumb as it sounds, the little cats were only mildly inconvenienced during the storm. No cages… no scary ride in the van… no scary new house, new smells, and then no power anyway! True, Punkin was on “guard duty” and probably did not get much sleep, just a cat nap every now and then, but he protected the back door with all his might, bless his heart. Spook hid out under the picnic table in a big waterproof bed out of the wind.

Yes, staying home was the best plan – this time. And there was this little present blooming after the storm… Now we are watching Katia………