Weathering the Storm

Irene didn't hit us nearly as hard as I expected and for that I am grateful.  I had us prepared to be without electricity/water for 1-2 weeks.  We lost power for about two seconds at the worst part of the storm, so we were very very lucky.  Many of my friends down in Richmond are still without power and I know it is not easy for them.  I think it is especially difficult for those with young children.  I have heard of/seen pictures of several homes there that have trees that have fallen on them and it is heartbreaking.  I pray that those families are all safe.

W and I went down there yesterday to visit with some friends and it was painful to see the damage that was done by this storm, but I am grateful for the things that were not damaged.  Our old neighborhood, was without power, but, none of the trees in the neighborhood sustained damage.  I am grateful for that.  I was so worried that the trees we played under almost every day when we lived there would have fallen over, and so happy to see them.  The beautiful old oak trees in the parking lot of our old church did not fair so well.  All three had fallen down.  So sad.  Leaving yesterday, W told me that he was sad about the trees and about leaving his friends.  For all of his wild boyish enthusiasm, he is also such a sweet sensitive child.

Somehow, during the daylight hours of the storm, Irene ended up being a largely outdoor event for us.  After sorting some things out on the phone with W's lovely, wonderful teacher from the Waldorf school Saturday morning, we took her advice and got him outside before the wind and rain got too rough.  We walked through the neighborhood, splashed in puddles and then played on the neighborhood tennis court which was one big puddle at that time.  We had such a wonderful time.  W did not want to come back inside, but I decided we needed to since the wind was picking up a bit and it was becoming more and more difficult to keep our hoods up on our heads.  Of course W's rain boots were lost in our move so we had to make do with his water shoes, but it wasn't that cold out so it worked okay.  (Must find or get new rain boots asap)!

During the rest of the day on Saturday, our balcony seemed to be the place to be.  Luckily we live on the side of our building that is a bit more sheltered from these types of storms.  W spent a very long time standing on a chair reaching over the balcony trying to soak in some of the wind and rain.  He loved it!  We stayed out there till it was time to come in for his bedtime.  After that the storm did get a good bit stronger, but I was grateful that it wasn't that bad during daylight hours and that we had a protected place to get some fresh air.

On Sunday after the rain stopped we hung out on our balcony shelling and eating peanuts (which I had planned to have as something that would be fun and a good way to get some protein if we lost power.)  W thought this was a real treat.

We also took a nature walk around the neighborhood and checked out the damage.  The worst of it was the tree that fell on the slide at the playground where we usually play.

W loved rebuilding his stick collection which had been picked up by the lawn service last week.

  We also were able to find lots of leaves, acorns and other items that had blown off the trees.  I had both pockets full of acorns by the time we got home.  And so the yearly case of acornitis begins!

This could have been so, so much worse than it was.  As it was we didn't even really end up being cooped up by the storm.  We are very blessed and lucky that we had so little damage in our area and that we were able to keep electricity.  I have heard from so many friends up and down the eastern seaboard who fared much much worse than we did.  Many are without power or face flooding conditions or trees down on their property.  They continue to be in my thoughts and prayers as folks work to clean up from Irene.