We survived Hurricane Irma....

Well, this Hurricane had the whole town of Moultrie on edge when on Friday, 8th, the weather forecast had it coming directly over Moultrie as a Cat 1 Hurricane!!!  So, everyone all week had been talking about buying all this water and hurricane snack foods and getting prepared.  Well, me - had nothing! Prepared for nothing!  I had to go pick up some medicine, so while I waited I decided to pick up some emergency food in case the power does go out for several days.  Well, I walked the isles, and walked the isles and ended up with this:

Cheese Nips, Wheat Thins, and peanuts FOLKS that's my survival plan😮

After leaving there, I had to go to Publix and pick up some creamer (hello, never run out of creamer). I got a bit smarter and thought to pick up some bananas too, and bread.  Well, this is when things got real - barely any bread! had to grab one of the last 5 remaining before things got ugly- like panic fighting in the bread isle ugly (people are crazy).  Then I realized I needed some Peanut Butter for my banana survival sandwich, and lawdy, that was about gone too (had to buy the off brand😕) and I got some pimento cheese.  So all was good in my world - I can live on this for days!  But seeing the grocery stores bare - I mean bare, was unnerving!  

Saturday was a super pleasant day, only 63 degrees!!! We had a pre-hurricane Low Country Boil/UGA game party and enjoyed the calm before the storm.

So, as y'all know a Cat 1 Hurricane has wind speeds from 74-95 mph!!! How do you prepare for that!?!  Church was cancelled Sunday morning and we spent the morning filling everything that can hold water with - well... water.

Oh, we flushin our toilets! for days

We then went down to Gerry's to help her get her house prepared.  Then we had to go into town, because I had to go to WORK and send out an emergency letter (something I wanted to do Friday, but the boss didn't think this was going to be a big deal- and by the way, he lost power at his house and the office until Tuesday late- so it was a big deal).  As we drove thru town we saw windows boarded up, mail boxes covered and taped up, temporary Stop signs and all traffic light intersections, and sand bags at doorways.  It was really crazy, and barely any people out and about.  After work, we swung by my parents to check on them - who were fine and looking forward to the storm (who by the way slept with their windows open and kept the doors all open all day!) My dad loves a good storm, so does my sister for that matter.  We stopped at one more grocery store to throw something on the grill, and man was it bare to the bones!  By the time we got home, there wasn't much else to do but wait.  We had moved all plants, chairs, all things loose.  So we waited - which by now Landry was worried and had put himself in his kennel and did not come out until late Monday!

Bless....

I had a thousand things I could be doing during this inside entrapment- but NO, I was paralyzed. I couldn't rest to watch a good movie, read a book or any of that sort of thing.  I just roamed from room to room, window to window, I roamed...

Tim, preparing, and slightly bored out of his mind! Ha

And when its 63 degrees outside - you need a blanket 💜💜💜

And for some humor:  My cousin suggested to us cousins (we have a group on whatsapp) that it may be a good idea to take pictures of your house for insurance purposes.  So my brother posted this:

"Got mine"

 😅😅 (hope you get it) this AIN'T his house!!  Cracks me up still 😅  and he was so quick to respond, like a second flat.  Nice job Adam :) 

Storm came and went, slept great with all that wind (like being at the beach!) Oh yes, I must share this story and pic.  I woke up Monday thinking of the beach and remembered us being at Crescent Beach during Hurricane Erin in 1995.  Me and Anna Ashley and kids were staying a few days with Mary and Gramma.  It also hit in the middle of the night (to add to the excitement), and our condo was the best condo in the complex, and on the end, and closest to the beach (we had stayed in that same condo since I was about 10).  Well those big seaside windows and sliding glass door were shaking like crazy, then things started leaking, we lost power, you couldn't flush the toilet- it was exciting, scary, crazy and fun!  And to top it off, my lips were bigger than Angelina Jolie's, which cracked me up all night (some crazy reaction to the sun).  Memories..... So I had to go hunt down the picture:

Are they not adorable!!!  This is a foot in front of our door (see how close) and they could hardly stand up. 

Back to the present,  Sept 11, 2017, a Monday, the eye come over Moultrie around 5:00 (I think), it was suddenly so calm.  I went out to access the damage and let wild man Landry out- he ran around like a nut!  We had 2 major pecan limbs to break, many small ones, and tons of tiny ones, and just maybe all the pecans😭.  My cousin drove up with his chainsaw and said he was there to help us clean up!!!  WOW! What a blessing - thank you John!!

Notice Landry running like a wild dog

Clean up pile when John left.

Good news is that we didn't loose power nor dish tv or internet.  So we were very fortunate.  Many people lost power until Wednesday!  School ended up being cancelled all week.  Did I mention the National Guard were in our little town to help- yikes, they were expecting it to be bad!  But it was down graded to a tropical storm so no structural damage was done to anything from what I saw and heard.  And thank you Lord, the barn is still standing and only missing a few more boards (we were sweating it).