Back to Something Like Normal

One tired man, after so much driving
and stress. But back home!

Hurricane Irma passed, did her damage and is now part of weather history. My son and his family returned home, a grueling 15 hour drive with a lot of time in there searching for gas. But they are home, and all is well at their condo. So praises be! They saw much damage along the way, more than he has ever seen in his life, he said. He is going back to work today. What a week.

Sorry for the blurry photo!

 Here at home, we stayed busy. We cleaned up the cellar top, getting rid of a lot of junk in the process. I continue to sort out totes that are stored in the garage and taking a lot of things to the thrifts.I also went through the canned food in the cellar, tossing anything too old and moving older stuff to the front to be used first. Come spring, I will do it again; any green beans left over from any year except this one will be fed to the chickens. I love those little recyclers!

Larry managed an "Appalachian repair" on his riding mower--the steering shaft broke but he was able to modify one on the parts mower he keeps for replacement parts, and now the mower is fine again. He also finished rebuilding a motor for it so he will have a replacement when the current one gives out.

I finally got around to making some jam from the berries we froze over the summer when I had no time to use them. So we have 16 pints of Cherry Berry in the cellar now. Larry made cider and continues to give the old cider to his honeybees--more recycling at work.

Yesterday we worked on our Marietta booth, adding new items and doing a little rearranging. Sales are slowing down again unfortunately, but still the booth pays its way and then some. I think the hurricanes have impacted some buying as people are giving to charities and helping family. Even eBay has slowed to a complete stop for me right now. Part of that was because I had no computer so I put my store on vacation; but since I restarted the store sales have been zero. Which is okay in a way since I am covered up with other work.

And storytelling--I have a full weekend coming up that I need to prepare for, Celtic, German and American stories at the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair this weekend. So my head is in the books, researching and planning what to tell. I've also added several performances in October, two that happen almost as soon as we get off the plane from Ireland.

We have been making time each evening, though, for the firepit. That is our relax time, time to hang out with the pets and enjoy this beautiful fall weather. The calendar might not say it's fall yet, but tell that to our trees and temperatures! It's been cool and low humidity for quite a while and I am loving it.

That's a little bit of what's going on here. How about you? Were you or your family/friends impacted by the hurricanes? What have you been up to?



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

On the Move: Our Evacuees

After much deliberating, and several changes of plan, my son and his family decided to get out of Miami and head north yesterday.

I was so relieved. While they had made very good plans and had prepared to weather through the hurricane, they finally decided that it was too risky to stay. Their apartment is only 4 miles from the ocean, and on the top floor of a four-story building. With the predicted wind strength, damage to their building and particularly the roof was a real concern and the final straw on the camel's back.

So they packed almost all their clothes and shoes, important papers, food and anything of any importance to them into the car and headed north. The entire back seat and trunk was full, so the three of them were all in the front seats. They must have looked a sight, but who cared at that point?

They were lucky. I-95 was moving freely, and they got off before Orlando traffic hit, and headed west on secondary roads, with me navigating by map and phone for them, as the gps only wanted to send them to interstates. They hit very little traffic, made it to I-10 and Tallahassee by 10pm.

They found gas with no problem, but a place to sleep turned out to be impossible. I was up searching online for them until 1 a.m. when they finally decided to just sleep in the car. Can you imagine the three of them packed into the front of a compact car? They called this morning and said the night was "interesting." I bet it was :)  They were up and on the road again at 5a.m., with a destination of Panama City in the Florida panhandle where they have a room booked for the next two days as well as some friends staying there too.

They are continuing to monitor the storm, though, in case they need to go further west or north. Fortunately it looks like Miami may miss the major damage predicted earlier so perhaps they will be able to return home within a few days. If not, they are least out of the way of the worst, and for that this old granny is extremely grateful--even though it makes me feel guilty because there are so many others now facing what I feared for my son.

So prayers for Florida and especially for those who cannot evacuate for whatever reason. Let's get this hurricane over with, and then see what can be done to get things fixed. This country is incredible at jumping in and helping.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.