Home Stinky Home

We're home! We have electricity! We have water! Nothing fell on our house! Yippee!

The most exciting part of our trip home occurred when a black bear ran across the road in front of us. We've always noticed the "watch out for bears" signs but had never actually seen one. So that was pretty fun.

We saw a good bit of evidence that a strong wind had been through here in our absence--huge trees laid over with the roots out of the ground, fences blown over, trees broken in half, billboards damaged, limbs in yards and on the streets. And yet it could have been so much worse. We are grateful.

I guess the low light of the day would have to be getting home, stepping into the house and realizing that in our hurry to leave, we had forgotten to empty the kitchen garbage. Which was full. (I had just cleaned out the fridge and freezer.) Eecckk.

But if stinky garbage is the worst of our problems, I'd say we have plenty to be thankful for.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and comments over the past couple of days. Nice to know we have friends who care about us from many places around the nation--and the world!

Back To Hurricane Land We Go

We're heading out for home in about an hour. From what we understand, it's still pretty windy out there with some flooding and power outages. Part of Roanoke Island has power right now and part of it doesn't. Guess we'll find out which part our house is in when we arrive home.

The road coming off the island yesterday was bumper to bumper traffic but it was still running pretty fast. Don't know how slow it will be getting back on today. We may be in for a long day on the road with no electricity at the end of it but hey, we're islanders! We're cool! We can cope! (I hope!)

Thanks to a couple of you who answered the question about why we fill our bathtubs before a hurricane. (I forgot to answer it last night.) As you said, it's because a power outage would mean no water and so having water in the bathtub allows us to flush toilets and take sponge baths. (Or bird baths, as a friend of mine calls them.) Toilet flushing and bath taking are two very good, highly underrated things!

Last night before our Hotel Movie and Pajama Extravaganza, we went to Blockbuster to try to find a video that would be enjoyed a 15-year old girl, a 48-year old woman, and a 53-year old man. Quite a spectrum of ages, tastes and interests to contend with.

After half an hour of wandering around mournfully about and finding nothing, Steve stumbled upon a treasure. A treasure from the olden days. (Or at least twenty-five years ago.) He found a used, for-sale copy of "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

Oh my.

I flung myself upon it with a cry of joy and asked, requested, and even demanded that we purchase it. And watch it. And introduce Sarah to it. (Steve and I watched it numerous times about twenty-five years ago and haven't seen it anywhere since.)

I'll warn you that the movie is slightly cheesy. And it's low budget. And the first ten minutes make you feel like you're watching a National Geographic documentary. But it's one of those movies whose charm sneaks up on you and by the time the ending credits roll, you're a fan.

It's basically a comedy with a collision of three separate stories—the journey of an African bushman to the end of the earth to get rid of a Coca-Cola bottle (the bottle was dropped from a small plane and he and his little tribe think "the gods" sent it), the romance between a bumbling scientist and a schoolteacher, and a band of guerrillas on the run.

There are a couple fleeting bad words, a small amount of National Geographic nudity, a brief glimpse of a woman changing clothes in the wilds, and about 15 seconds of non-gory violence when a band of guerrillas fires machine guns at a government meeting. Otherwise, it's quite family friendly.

The movie is really quite difficult to sum up; let me just say that you've never seen a movie quite like it. (And it's one of the rare movies on the planet that actually makes me laugh out loud.)

And now we own it! Yippee! Y'all want to come over one night and watch it with us? It would be fun!

Safe and Happy. Inland.

Here we are! Inland! In Greensboro, NC! At a hotel! Just ordered pizza! About to watch a DVD! Stocked up on chocolate! Using too many exclamation points!

We're about five hours from home but are checking in frequently with our old stompin' grounds to see how things are going there. I think the worst of it is supposed to hit around midnight. I'm thankful that at that particular time, I'll be in my comfy, safe bed here in Greensboro rather than at home waiting for a tree to crash through the roof.

We're planning on getting back home tomorrow afternoon. It will be interesting to see how things look upon our arrival; I have no idea what to expect. I've heard there's a good chance that there could be widespread power outages which means we'd all better shower and prettify ourselves in the morning before we leave because who knows when our next shower might be?

In the meantime, we have declared this to an Official Smith Pajama tonight--even though it's only 6:30. We're all (Snowy included) getting ready to pile onto the king bed in the hotel room and watch a movie, eat our pizza, munch on our popcorn and enjoy our stash of chocolate. (I think I will blithely ignore any calorie counting for the night.)

I'll check in again tomorrow . . .

Leaving . . .

We're headed out. Or actually headed in. (Inland, that is.)

There is a mandatory evacuation of visitors to the Outer Banks in effect right now. (But not for residents.) However, Steve has been planning for several months to attend the graduation from drug/alcohol rehab of a young man in our church. He didn't want to go and leave us behind and he didn't want to cancel attending that big occasion.

So as a compromise, all of us are packing up and heading out the door. Since we don't know what things will be like when we get back, we've filled our bathtubs, have extra water, food, etc. on hand. And we're taking important papers and important "stuff" with us. (including chocolate)

So looks like we'll be watching this one on TV from afar after all.

Oh well. We'll have plenty of hurricanes to weather down the road!

Revisiting Cameras and Hurricanes.

Hello again!

A couple of you have offered some helpful, thoughtful advice about things to try in an attempt to get my camera to work again. I guess I should have been more specific about what's wrong with it. The button that allows you to switch back and forth between "view the pictures" mode and "take the pictures" mode fell off. And disappeared completely. So the camera is stuck in "view the pictures" mode and there's no way to get it to switch back over.

I think it could probably be fixed by ordering a new switch but that will probably take several weeks, at least. And it may not even be fixable. I'm going to call Canon in just a minute and see what they say about it.

In the meantime, I've run to the grocery store yet again for a few more emergency supplies. (Is chocolate considered an emergency supply? I sure hope so.)

Still haven't made a decision if we're going or staying tomorrow but we do know that Sarah's school has been cancelled till next Tuesday. With strong winds coming our way and a lot of high bridges, buses aren't really the safest vehicles to be traveling in.

I really hate it for the businesspeople in the area; Labor Day is a huge weekend for them and is a time when they make a lot of their money for the season. Tough thing for them.

Steve and I are still discussing whether or not we need to leave or stay; we'll wait till the storm gets closer to get a better handle on just how severe it might be and make our final decision from there.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for us and all the other people in this area of the country.

Cameras and Hurricanes

Sunday night, Steve, Sarah and I went out for a bike ride. Cool evening, low humidity, lovely scenery.

We ended up at a spot where Sarah had never been--an old cemetery overlooking the sound with grand oak trees standing silent watch. We happened to get there right at the golden hour, which is a time of day that photographers highly prize for its, well, goldenness.

Sadly, though, I didn’t have my camera. And as I walked around the cemetery and gazed out across the sound, I noticed at least 536 fabulous shots I was longing to capture. I immediately vowed to get back there as soon as possible with camera in hand.

And so last night, Steve and I rode back to the site, arriving at exactly the same time as on Sunday so that I could take my long anticipated pictures when the light was at its most golden.

I was so excited! I was so pumped! I leapt off my bike, grabbed my camera from its case, and got ready to start capturing every single one of the 536 shots I had noticed earlier.

But alas. It was not to be. My camera was (it pains me to even write these words) broken! As in, not working!

I stood there in a moment of pitiful disbelief with the water, the trees, the cemetery, the sunset, stretched out before me in the golden light. The only pictures I was able to take were pictures in my mind--which for some strange reason I’m having a hard time getting loaded onto my computer!

So. I’m feeling just a bit adrift today, a bit cut off from my heart, not having that little piece of precious machinery that accompanies me just about everywhere. In fact, going through withdrawal would not be too strong to describe how I currently feel.

Sigh. Again.

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And now on to Hurricane Earl. A few of you have asked how much we will be affected by it. I do know that the islands south of us are undergoing a mandatory evacuation today, but there has been no indication yet that Roanoke Island will have to evacuate.

Since we’re newbies on the island and have never been through a hurricane while living at the ocean, we’re asking a lot of questions and doing whatever we can to prepare. (Getting extra water, candles, flashlights, moving/securing porch/deck furniture, etc.)

It’s interesting the variety of opinions that we’ve heard in regards to evacuation; there are some people who have lived on the island for their whole lives and have never even once left during a hurricane. There are others who will leave at the very first sign of a big storm.

I’m not sure I’m quite brave enough to throw my lot in with the former group who stays put; if a mandatory evacuation is given, we will be outa here!

What’s really distressing to me is that I am going to have to go through my first Island- Residing Hurricane without my camera! Is that sad, or what?

There’s a chance the three of us may head out to Greensboro tomorrow, which is about 4-5 hours inland. Steve was planning on going there anyway on Friday for an appointment but he’s reluctant to leave without us. And so whether there is an evacuation order or not, Sarah, Snowy and I may just go along with him. We’ll see how things progress.

Keep your eyes on the weather and think of us whenever you hear anything about the Outer Banks. I’ve watched the weather for years and heard the Banks mentioned often, but it’s rather a different feeling to watch the weather and actually be living right in the place they’re talking about.

I’ll keep you posted!