Hurricanes, Family, and Leaks

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who showed concern for my safety.  It means so much to know there are people who care.

The worst of it is over.   Irene has passed and the cleanup begins.  Not that we really had any damage, thank goodness, but they have lifted the evacuation warnings, and the other hurricane has left my house.  My sister-in-law and her crew left a short while ago, leaving me to pick up the pieces.  Now is the time to sweep up the crackers and return all my breakables to their proper places.  I've a large collection of the faceless dolls from the Dominican Republic and another collection of angels.  Very breakable so with four children, all under six, it is better to be safe than sorry.  It was an exasperating, noisy 24 hours, to say the least.

But others have had it so much worse so I'm not about to sit and complain.  Some have lost everything.  I heard a news report that said the little bungalows located at Broad Channel in the Rockaways were seen floating down the street.  On the upside, lives that could have been lost were saved....a 12 year old girl who went surfing with her mom watching and two young men who went out kayaking.  For the life of me, I can't understand why excitement means more than one's life...or how could a mother stand there and watch her child do something so dangerous.  I shake my head in disbelief.  And, sadly, from what I here, the storm-related deaths that did occur because of Irene were of people who just didn't heed the warnings.

Just got back online a short while ago.  It was exactly 4:22 am that I was awoken by a knock at my door.  It seems there was a severe leak in my son's room...where the family was staying.  Son volunteered to move to the sofa. A pretty dangerous situation, it was.  Now, being that we are on the first floor, I highly doubt the leak could have come from the roof or maybe it could, I don't know, but it was powerful enough for us to cut the power.  We woke up the man upstairs who checked and said 'it's not from me.  There must be a brick loose.'   Not that I believed him.  He will never admit to doing wrong....and strangely, even though the rain kept on falling, the leak miraculously faded away.  In the morning, the pail was empty.

Hubby and I waited until daylight to check outdoors, and there was no loose brick, not even a crack in the wall...but there was his window directly above my son's room.  Hmm!!!  I wonder.  Can't prove anything, will just have to wait and see the next time it rains.  

All in all, I am glad Irene has passed in more ways than one.  I am thankful that no one died in this storm; it could have been so much worse here.  This time our mayor handled things well, unlike the day of the blizzard.  In my book, it is always better to be safe than sorry.  My house is peaceful and quiet, and I am about to say a prayer of thanks take a nap, but wanted to check in before I did to let you know that all is okay with the world.