Come on......{Irene}

It feels like forever since I've been here. I was walking around our "Hurricane Irene dirt-ified, flooded beyond use, good 'ol complex playground" tonight and thought I should check in .The morning after the storm, the playground was completely under water. Though the wind was still super strong dozens of residents were lined up just staring at our large play area. It looked like a lake, but with basketball hoops peeking out.

We've kept in touch via the phone, email, or text....so forgive me for repeating myself.

                                       {Poor fish.....Greg snapped this at work}

I'll start with Irene....then maybe go back, probably jump a little forward....but hopefully be able to update you {at least a bit}.  In a nutshell, waiting for the big hurricane was a bit nerve wracking....not sure what to expect.....and then we basically slept through it all. Which was good. We woke to our power still on and not much damage. We soon found out that Irene did more damage than we saw from our windows. We learned we were on "boil water alert", and then Greg started receiving emergency calls from work.

Just outside our complex there were big, beautiful trees down, water everywhere, and the hum of generators in use. Each day that we venture out we find more damage, more water, detours galore, and businesses with their power still out. We are so thankful that our power never went out, but we feel sad for those who are still recovering. Even our church was flooded. As the water dries up, garbage and muck is left behind....everywhere. It's amazing how things have changed so quickly. But.....there have been many sunny days, plenty of bottled water in the stores, and smiles on people's faces.

Had to end on a happy note because it was sounding a bit gloomy.....which it's not. Dirty....yes. Gloomy....not so much. But, I guess it's all in how you look at things, right?

We drove out to Staten Island on Saturday. Oh my word, the things we saw washed up on shore made us gag {we were on the boardwalk and walked on the beach}. Oops, there goes my happy ending....wait, this great little Staten Island pizza shop gave us a free pizza....that's happy....and yummy.

Ok, I have used way too many words. I was hoping to share more, but memories of Irene sort of took over my brain....I took pictures, but my camera is now broken :(   I love this song {in the video}. Kept singing it before "she" swung by......

 

{yes, the song is "Eileen" not "Irene", but it sounds close}