Tag: hurricane ian

Surreal

It’s almost cruel how beautiful it is here, now that Hurricane Ian has passed. The storm seems to have brought in the cooler, lovely fall weather with it, in one fell swoop. It’s sunny and beautiful and still and calm. My wind chimes aren’t even making one tiny ting-a-ling whatsoever. It’s so strange to just “go back to normal” after experiencing the build-up of fears and anxieties and destruction that big storms bring to us.

Yesterday, I had a dentist appointment, my husband worked, and my daughter drove home for the weekend, from college. We ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Life goes on. For most of us, we are relieved that the storm has passed, and not much has changed. For some us, our lives have been irrevocably changed and building a new life will take a great deal of healing and time and energy and vision and hope. Some of us will have to climb new mountains, while the rest of us just go back to our usual, comfortable lives in the valley. It’s honestly surreal. But such is life.

Once, when we were visiting Seattle, Washington, a man told us that living in Seattle is like having an intoxicatingly beautiful, brilliant girlfriend who is always depressed. (It rains a lot in Seattle.) Along the lines of this analogy, living in Florida is like having the most gorgeous, fabulous, optimistic, fun, exciting spouse/partner/lover, who on rare occasion, goes entirely bonkers and takes the house down in the process. Those of us who live where we live, do so for many reasons – climate, family, jobs, entertainment, etc. Different traits appeal to different people and everyone’s tolerance is different for various levels of high jinks and melee. Where each of us choose to place our boundaries with anything in life, is highly individualistic. Are the highs worth the lows? How much excitement does one crave? How much is reliable, stable peace worth? Again, these questions are just one small part of the pot of questions swirling around life as we live it. And living life is about either finding out the answers to our questions, or making peace with living with the mystery of the questions themselves. It’s honestly surreal.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

What a Week Friday

I hope that by reading my daily blog, you get a little taste of what it’s like to live through a hurricane. There are several days before the hurricane of anticipation, concerns, worries, preparation, tough decisions, and battening down the hatches. Then you experience the lockdown of about 2-3 days of weathering out the actual storm. Finally, the storm passes, and luckily, most of us don’t have to assess too many damages. We can now breathe out, before we take up the task of driving home in heavy traffic (for those who evacuated), and putting everything back and away that we put up and brought in, to prepare for the storm. Hurricane Ian has literally been the focus of my life for more than a week. It’s been sort of a “lost week.” And I am one of the lucky ones, who didn’t even end up losing power. My heart breaks for the many whose lives are forever changed by this horrific storm.

My main point is, I am so happy that the storm has passed and I am so grateful that it is my favorite day of the week – Friday. Friday is devoted to my favorite frivolous things, TV shows, books, products, beauty items, foodstuff etc. on the blog. Each Friday, I discuss a favorite that has made my life better. It might makes yours a little more fun, too.

My favorite for today is a little snack I discovered when purchasing a coffee at Starbucks one recent afternoon, Starbucks Bacon & Gruyère Egg Bites. These delicious little treats are only 300 calories and are full of flavor. I think I even prefer them to the coffee, dare I say it? When you need a little pick me up in the afternoon, it is worth waiting in line, at your local Starbucks, for these delicious, hot delicacies.

I think the biggest lesson for the week, is don’t take your favorites for granted. When you see how easily one act of nature can wash everything away, your favorites are all that more sweet and satisfying. Have a restful weekend. That’s my plan.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

A Letter

Dear Friends and Readers,

We are fine. We are so lucky. We really dodged a bullet in my town. We never even lost power at our home. I still am pinching myself in disbelief. Our only casualty was our neighbor’s small tree, which fell on our pool cage but it was even kind enough to not break through the screen. My husband just pointed out that the tiny pump in a small pond on our porch even stayed on throughout the winds and the rain. Our immediate family and our local friends and neighbors, are thankfully, unscathed from Hurricane Ian.

That being said, we do have family and friends to the south of us, who really suffered the brunt of this hurricane. There is no such thing as a hurricane tiptoeing through anything. Yes, it is true that things can always be replaced, but it is still devastating to have to rise up, and to have to restore and to rebuild the home and the life and the community which you have lovingly and carefully created and curated for yourself. It is traumatic to experience the worst case scenarios of any natural disaster. Please set all judgment aside. The people who were hit the hardest by Hurricane Ian weren’t even in “the cone of uncertainty” as late as this past Sunday. For all of our technology, and “brilliance”, we are not even close to a being a match to the natural forces and higher intelligence of our world. As the mayor of our town likes to preach, “Mother Nature always wins.”

Please continue to pray for the people who are still in the path of Ian, the lesser. The storm isn’t over yet. And thank you for all of the love and the prayers and the concern and the good ju-ju which you sent my way. I felt it. One of my biggest worries before this all even started to bear down on us, was that I wouldn’t be able to connect with you on the blog, for days on end. That would break my heart.

Love to all,

Kelly

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Oh Ian!

It’s a super strange feeling, anticipating a hurricane. You get plenty of warning – almost too much warning. The anticipation is killer. I’m a “let’s just rip the band-aid off, already!” kind of a girl. And Mother Nature says, “No dear, we’re going to make you sit with your fearful what-ifs for a while. It’s good for you.” Ugh.

The last time a big hurricane directly affected our area was five years ago. And we evacuated, with four kids and two dogs in tow. We went to Atlanta and the people there could not have been kinder and more welcoming. Instead of price gouging, they gave us discounts, and extras, delicious heartwarming food and long, caring hugs. I will always have a warm spot in my heart, dedicated to the good, hospitable people of Atlanta, Georgia. But evacuating didn’t come without its challenges. The roads were filled with wall-to-wall, crawling, slowly inching along traffic. We ended up having to sleep one night at a rest stop (six stressed people, including sweaty, ornery male teenagers + two big dogs, in a cramped car = not good sleep), which was littered with cars of people, doing the same exact thing. There were cars everywhere, even on the grass and on the sides of the highway. Most gas stations along the way, were out of gas. And watching the news, wondering what kind of mess we were going to go back home to, was excruciatingly stressful. Media sensationalism is a terribly painful experience, when it affects the people and the places that you most love and care about. On the way home, after the hurricane, we were surrounded on the highway, by brigades of utility trucks from seemingly every state in the nation, heading down to help with our plight. I remember this bringing tears of patriotism and gratitude, to my weary eyes.

We had a pow-wow with our near-by neighbors last night, and most of us have decided to stay and weather this one out in our homes. (Including a doctor and his wife, who is a physician’s assistant, who live across the street. This helped seal the deal for me. We’ll look out for each other. That’s what neighbors do.) This experience will be a contrast to what we did the last time, and I am curious to compare, first-hand, which is the better way to handle these things. Our adult children are all in safe spots away from here, so that is what gives me my greatest peace of mind. Honestly, right now my husband and I find ourselves stressing mostly about inconsequential things, like how are we going to brew our coffee when the electricity is out?!

People often question why you would want to live in Florida, and other tropical spots when hurricanes are a seasonal concern. These perilous storms are the price we pay to live in paradise. Florida rarely has gray days. Sunshine is a given. I can go to the beach for lunch if I want to, and bury my feet in the sand, feeling the soothing gulf breezes, lulling my heartbeat to match the rhythms of the tides. We have gorgeous sunsets, and dolphins are as common as the deer, and the wild turkeys, and the herons and the hawks that we see almost daily. Florida is an inclusive, melting pot. No one feels like an “outsider” because everyone here is from somewhere else. There is something for everyone in Florida, even the kooky “Florida Man.” Our state makes loads of money from tourism. There are many good reasons for this fact. Florida is soothing to the soul.

This may be my last blog post this week before we lose power. I don’t know. Regardless, I’ll see you on the other side of the storm. One thing is for certain – you fully know and understand the people and the things that you truly treasure and mean the most in your life, when you are facing down a life-threatening storm. My dearest readers, I can’t wait to be with you again, after the storm.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday-Funday

credit: @econ628

Dear friends, please do not be concerned if you don’t get my usual daily blog post every day this week. The price which you pay for living in a land near the beach, with 90 percent sunshine, is an occasional, “I am going to scare the living daylights out of you” storm warning. (It’s not as bad as it seems. The last time we had to take a hurricane this seriously, in our part of Florida, was five years ago.) The truth is, I have been a Floridian long enough now, to be more annoyed than anything, about this hurricane. Don’t worry. We are safe. We have a plan. We would never leave our fur friends behind. I went to the grocery store on Saturday, and I was still miraculously able to snag some water, and some toilet paper, despite the emptying shelves. This too shall pass. (but thank you for the prayers and good juju coming our way – we’ll take ’em!)

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.