A Very Blustery Day

Or "The Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down". Or some other reference to "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh".

I've got a little catching up to do. I need to post about Sweetpea's birthday weekend and about the first day of school, but at this point all of that has been overshadowed by Fay.

Tropical Storm Fay, that is. She has been called the most unpredictable tropical storm in history. One meteorologist called her the laziest tropical storm ever. Unpredictable and lazy.....sounds a little like some kids I know. The beginning of Fay, for me at least, was a lot of waiting. She parked herself off the coast and just decided to hang out for a while. I guess she was enjoying the view. When she finally made her move inland, she took her sweet time, which meant wind for a long period of time, and rain for even longer.

We had sustained winds of 49 mph with gusts to 60 mph. Sixty mile per hour wind gusts sound like they are ripping my roof off. It's rather difficult to get good pictures of wind. The aftermath of wind is a different story:

Luckily, that one didn't do any damage.

This on the other hand caused much distress:

Our satellite went out. Much drama ensued because that was the night of the Cheetah Girls: One World premier on Disney Channel. I braved the wind and rain and the memory of the snake I saw slither in that general direction a month ago, and used the broom to remove the stick from the dish. After I re-set the box inside the house, we could still only get one local channel. A channel that was running coverage of Fay all day. The fact that Disney will re-run the Cheetah girls until each and every member of most households in the world know the words to all the songs didn't seem to comfort the drama queens who live in my house.

The only thing that distracted them was the tornado warning. There is only one room in our house that doesn't have a window. That's the closet in our toyroom. While there are no windows, there are shelves with stuff on them. Lots of stuff. Stuff that needs to go away. Stuff that, if it fell on your head in a tornado, would knock you unconscious. So we built a bunker in the corner of our toyroom. We propped a mattress in the corner, put pillows and blankets behind it and made plans to hide behind it in case of an impending tornado. The Princess was a bit disappointed that we didn't have a tornado. She said, "I would have liked to experience that." I think she really just wanted to experience hiding behind a mattress.

The winds have finally subsided, the threat of tornadoes seems to have passed, but the rain is still here.

We are so thankful that God protected us through this storm. Over 100,000 people in our area lost power. We never did. At least 10 deaths in the state of Florida have been attributed to Fay. Everyone we know is safe and sound. We are thrilled that Fay has finally left us alone. Unfortunately, she has moved on toward Georgia where our family and friends are. We are still praying for their safety.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,

and he brought them out of their distress.

He stilled the storm to a whisper;

the waves of the sea were hushed.

They were glad when it grew calm,

and he guided them to their desired haven.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love

and his wonderful deeds for men.

Pslam 107:28-31