Hurricane Ida and leaf blowers...

On November 9th, Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast,

 then moved up to northern Florida. By the next day,

Ida had weakened a bit and was downgraded from a hurricane

to a tropical storm.

The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida

all declared states of emergency.

Ida dropped rain and sent gusting winds north along the Piedmont, (which is us)
and up the east coast

On Wednesday, November 11th,

the National Weather Service issued flood watches and warnings

in most of the state of North Carolina.

There were more than 9,000 homes and businesses without power

in the last part of the week,

although few places here in Cary were said to be affected.

The rain was supposed to stop by late Wednesday night,

but it continued all day Thursday and Friday as well.

We were soaked here...and, as you can see, there are

about a million leaves on the ground

(and our deck). The wind was very strong...

it took a couple of screens off of the house

and tore the satellite dish from our roof.

The hole it left allowed water into the house through the chimney.

This is Scott's ceiling. The damage wasn't extensive, and no water came through.

(Scott's room, however...now that looked it got hit by a hurricane...

but that's just Scott. :) )

The storms canceled a park play day for us

with the home school group here in Cary,

but, while we had four days of pretty wet, windy, wild, weather,

we fared pretty well.

Hurricane Ida caused five deaths along the Eastern Seaboard;

three people were killed in Virginia, one death was reported in New York,

and one man died here in North Carolina when a tree fell on him

during the worst part of the storm.

There was widespread flooding along the New Jersey coast

and hazardous weather warnings extended from

southern Connecticut down to South Carolina.

At it's strongest, Ida was a category 2 hurricane

with winds above 100 mph.

Has any of this stopped Steven and I from wanting to live

closer to the shore?

You'd think it would...but, NO!

We're still hoping to head further east eventually.

(We'll buy a lot of rain gear and hold on really tight...)

And now onto the clean up stage after the storms....

As you can see by this picture,

we don't have a lawn really to speak of...

it's mostly just a thick layer of leaves.

I think it's rather pretty, actually. I sweep the deck,

more leaves fall.

Steven sweeps the deck...

again, more leaves fall.

They're slippery, sure...but so very pretty.

Something Steven and I have learned about North Carolina...

in the spring, you hear a lot of birds in the morning.

It sounds like an aviary...all kinds of birds singing and calling

to one another. We'd lie in bed in the mornings and say,

"Hey...that's a new one. Haven't heard that one before."

In the summer we have the cicadas. Damn annoying insects,

(not to mention HUGE) if you ask me. Loud, too.

Then those guys die off and there is about a month of quiet.

Ah...blissful silence.

Great for sleeping, and the temp falls to a balmy 70 over night.

Very nice.

Then, in November, the air is filled with the constant,

(and somewhat irritating sound)

of the mighty leaf blower.

Ah...now we know why we are ill equipped for the

few snow storms that hit us in the winter time.

They are under budgeted for winter weather,

but we have plenty of leaf blowers, by God!

This is the first place I've ever been where people rake,

(or blow) their leaves into a long heap along the curbs

in front of their houses and the town comes by every

couple of weeks in a big truck with an oversized vaccum

hose attached to it that sucks the little buggers up.

Wild. Also somewhat entertaining to watch.

I don't remember what noises come with the winter season...

whatever it is, you'll most likely hear about whatever it is. :)