So I got a birthday visit from Ike Friday night. I had to go into work on Thursday (which was technically my day off) because I was on "B" team and I had to work til noon on Friday when we were relieved by "A" team. "A" team, of which my mom was a member, stayed at the hospital to ride out the storm. I got home at about 1:30 pm and Matt had pretty much gotten the house ready to go. He had done the shopping for canned goods and water, taped all the windows (we would have boarded the windows except that Home Depot was sold out), cleaned out the garage to make room for our cars, brought in the porch furniture, filled the bathtubs with water (in case the water got shut off), bought batteries, and managed to keep the cats inside despite all the crazy confusion.
The wind started picking up around 3 or 4 PM and continued to get stronger as the afternoon/evening wore one. Around 7:30 or so everyone in the neighboorhood went outside to experience the high winds and gawk at the sky, which was no longer blue, but an ominous dark gray color. Around 8:00 the wind was starting to knock us off our feet and attack us with dirt so we all went inside to "hunker down" and ride out the storm. Me and Matto and our lovely kitties sat down on the couch and started watching Star Wars (the original, before it became "A New Hope"). (All this time various family members were calling and texting to check in and see how were were doing.) Just before Luke and the Rebel fleet were about to attack the Death Star we heard a big ole gust of wind that sounded like it was trying to tear the house down so we decided to "hunder down" in the hallway without windows for the duration of the hurricane. At this point we still had electricity so we plugged in the portable DVD player and finished up Star Wars. Right around midnight all the lights went out so we subsisted on batteries for the DVD player and watched "The Empire Strikes Back." Around 2:00AM the winds and rain were stronger and louder than ever (or maybe it just seemed that way because the laser fire from the movie kinda drowned out the noise), but we decided to try to get some sleep anyway. Around 4, 4:30, or 5 am the wind got the loudest. I remember sitting up and thinking "Is that still hurricane or is that a Tornadoe? Should we get into the bathroom or go back to sleep?" After listening for a bit I decided to go back to sleep. I woke up around 7:15 with the sounds of an arriving text message on my phone asking us if we were still there. "Yup. An so is God." The wind had subsided somewhat, but the rain was still pretty heavy. We risked looking out our windows and saw a lovely river running down the middle of our street and up to our sidewalk. Neat! Looking out from the second story on our back yard we saw another river running down the street behind us and lo and behold 2 of our fences were having some issues standing up straight. Poor things. In all the excitement we must have forgotten to give them their V8 for the day. One of the fences was on the side of a house that has not been sold yet so we are hoping that the realtor will fix that one. The other one just needs a couple of nails to put it back to rights.
Over all we faired pretty well. I was a little worried at first, but in the end God was in control and protected us all. My sisters and their families escaped without harm and very little damage occured at the hospital. God is good and as always, was faithful.
