Irma 9-12 Update

Whew!

I tried to stay in touch with family

via text and facebook

throughout the day.

But decided we should really keep a record

here, since this is kind of my journal.

First off.

All is well.

I am at the office this morning.

(Blogging is SO much easier on my ergonomic

"wave" keyboard on my one computer

where I know where everything is!)

Driving in to work this morning was

actually nice!

I left a little early and the roads were

nice and clear with light traffic.

South bound was getting heavier, but

nobody was heading north!

My normal country music radio station

was coming in and out, so I switched

to the oldies station I use as my

mid-way station on my way down south to school.

They were completely off the air.

So then it was to my oldies rock station here in town.

They were coming in strong.

Listened to the end of an Elton John song,

then they put on another song which had a big

skip right at the beginning.

I thought CDs couldn't skip!

Nostalgia!!!!!

They quickly switched to another song.

Singing along, buzzing up the highway.

Suddenly the CD lost it's mind and the song

moved to 78 rpm!

Aaaaaand the chipmunks are singing!

And the engineer / DJ  went to get coffee

or something.

Brought a smile to my face.

Once at the office, our brand new building is

all open and operating well.  The front door

is not opening, so we are using the back door,

but everything else is good.

However, our other building (which they refurbished

after building ours... all the people moved into our

building for 6 months and then they moved back again

and we moved in... logistic NIGHTMARE I'm sure!)

Anyhow - the other building didn't fare as well.

They have no power.

We are running GIANT (noisy) generators out back

but I guess only enough to run our building.

So all the people from the other building are 

squished in here, working on laptops and sitting

at counters and just making do.

They seem in good spirits and friendly.

So it's all good.

(And I have headphones)

********************************************

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (farm)

all is well.

There was some minor puddling in the front yard.

Lots of branches down from the oaks.

We spent some time gathering the big stuff

and carried it out to a big pile by the street.

(I forgot to take a picture - as we finished,

it started to rain again, so I put my phone away

and we went inside.)

My oaks won't need trimming for a couple of years.

The hurricane really cleaned out all the dead stuff.

You can DEFINITELY see the sky through them now.

Nothing fell on the house though.

Didn't even lose a single shingle!

Yea for strong roofs!

There were 3 small-ish pines that fell on the

back fence, so the guys took those down.

And another pine along the side where

we are putting the new chicken yard they were 

planning to take down anyway,

so while they were out there with the tractor

and the chain saw, they took it down.

Sniff Sniff.

I hate taking down trees.

I love shade.

But it was kind of in the way and pretty close

to the fence, so I understand.

Sniff Sniff.

The barn lost one piece of trim.

(Well, it's not lost, it was right there...)

We have Scott's OLD Jeep (that was junk

years ago when he was keeping it at the shop.

Kyle loaded it up and put it in the back of

our property because Scott was going to work

on it and maybe sell it.)

Anyhow - the engine hood blew up and backwards

taking out the windshield (but the glass landed in the

front seat so not a problem for horses, etc walking

back there) and landed near the fence (instead of

floating in the neighbor's pond like I kind of expected).

And the back door of the old shop trailer

(where we stashed the kayaks) 

blew open and bent a little,

but we fixed it and all is ok with that as well.

So over all, we had about 2% damage and

98% A-OK.

We'll take it!

Lots of my coworkers had rain / water damage

coming in through / around windows and under

doors.  Several of them still have no power.

Jim had a couple of trees down, but the guys

went over and took care of that yesterday.

We forgot to ask if he had power yet

(his went early) but since he didn't ask to use

a generator, either they still don't but are ok

or they have it and are ok.

LOL

Kyle is going to take one over this morning

if they need it.

So, thanks for stopping by Irma.

Glad to see you GO!

Thank you everyone for the prayers on our behalf.

Keep praying for those not so lucky.

And of course, Montana, Idaho, Texas, etc etc etc

who are still dealing with so many problems.