Dodged a Bullet

The Gods smiled on us here in Coastal North Carolina. The rain started about one o'clock yesterday afternoon. We had the bands of rain thing going on. This is where it pours for twenty or thirty minutes in sheets of rain and then stops for awhile then starts up again.

Around 8 p.m. the wind picked up and the rain started continuously. It was sort of like a song building and building. I actually went to bed during the storm - and slept. A first for me. About 4 a.m. I woke up to things moving around outside on the porch and in the backyard. I secured everything. Did a yard check through the window and went back to bed. About 6 a.m. the quiet woke me up. The storm had passed.

I decided to get up and go to the beach and check things out first. I live less than a mile from the beach. The first thing I noticed when I went outside was the smell. Pine with almost a smoky after smell to it. The coast has lots of pine trees. That is why we are called the Tar Heel State. All the tar and pitch for boats came from here. We also have lots of lumber, pulp and paper plants. Think Weyerhauser.

My neighborhood had lots of debris, mostly small limbs and leaves. The closer to the beach I got the cleaner the roads and yards were. The beach looked great, some erosion, a lot of blowing, pinpricking sand, and some very tired sea gulls. You could walk right up to them and they would just sit in small groups. Sometimes after these storms the sand will be littered with shells. Today everything was swept clean. The next few days will be the time to go shelling.

So things are back to normal. The yard is raked, the debris is waiting for the garbage men, and the pool is clean. I left the outdoor furniture put up, thought we should play the wait and see with Ike. I want to thank all of you who sent me such positive thoughts and prayers. Obviously they worked and most of all they kept my spirit up. Thank You..............