All Is Well

The Frankenstorm has passed us and now the clean-up begins.  Linda is so thankful that we never lost power.  There are millions and millions of families not so thankful this morning.  There have been deaths, devastating flooding north of us in NY, NJ, blizzards in WV (up to 3'), downed trees crushing homes and cars, people losing everything they have due to their homes being underwater.  Our town got about 5" of rain and it's still raining a little.  Linda thinks she sees wet snow coming down, but it's probably just fat raindrops.  In a few minutes, she is going to get dressed (yes, she's still in her robe at 9:00 a.m.) and do a complete check outside and inside our house.  During the worst of the wind overnight, it sounded like a piece of siding was flapping against the house near her bedroom window. Once, our gutter pulled lose from the house and a contractor came and fixed it, so it could be it came off again. She was totally at peace and not afraid once.  Even Chim and I slept like a puppy and never made a peep all night.

"I'm ready for the cold weather"

Chim finally broke his resolve and used the wee wee pad during the night.  I never forgot what I learned when I was just a tiny 22 oz. puppy.  Using the pad was the only way I could go since the grass was over my head and the steps were 3 times my size.  Linda had to show Chim the mop again this morning to get him to go down the deck steps.  (Don't worry animal lovers, she just has to pick it two inches off the deck and shake it a little for him to obey her.  She does not even pretend to go after him with it.  Chim is afraid of a roll of paper towels and a grocery bag too, so you can imagine what happens when he sees the vacuum or swiffer mop.) He never dropped his woobie yesterday.  Every time the wind would pick up, he'd suck it like the end of the world was coming.

Baby Chim's first woobie

Linda has the whole day open since her morning classes were canceled.  She is thinking it would be a great time to start organizing the two downstairs bedrooms and second family room.  She'll probably just think about it though. 

p.s.  I can't believe it.  The same boy who has been riding his bike up and down the street all day yesterday, just rode past again.  He looks to be about 10 or 11.  Even when it was pouring and winds were whipping, the kid was riding his bike.  Every 15 minutes or so he would pass, so he must have been doing the neighborhood loop that we walk everyday.  At first Linda thought his parents were emergency workers or something and had to leave him alone and they had no idea he was outside. Who lets their kid ride a bike in a hurricane?  But seeing him again this AM, very weird. 

This boy seems to enjoy biking in the rain too.