Isaias or I 26

 It has been a challenging week. 

I am completely exhausted.

I am thankful and sad at the same time. 

*****

Compared to so many around me, I came out really good.

Each storm has a name and that name goes down with its own story. I have lived through many and this one's main tagline will be, "The Storm That Broke All the Rules." 

A few observations...

I have lived through most of my hurricanes being center or east of the storm. West is best is the rule. This one seemed to have broken all those rules. The west was not the place to be. We were in the center with the National Hurricane deeming the center crossed Destin. That does fit. Lindsay and her family went to Atlanta for the storm. That was sorta in the works pre storm. Tucker is 8 today and came on the heels of Michael 8 years ago and is frightened of even a thunderstorm, which is not good considering where we live and those being a part of life, so they rode it out at Tyler's parents. She knew what was going on, but that is scary too thinking about your family down here and knowing what can happen.

We kept waiting for the surge of water. We know how far it comes up and had prepared. It never really surged. The wind howled and was about the right amount for what they said was coming. The rain however was not the right amount.

I do think the wind we received as that wall was coming over was about right. Do NOT mistake that for it was nothing or not scary as Hell. 

The rain was the craziest. The number of homes in Fort Walton Beach that are flooded is unbelievable. The direction of those rains too was odd. We have a couple in our small group who do live in a low lying area. They did have flood insurance. They prepared their back side of their home with as much as they could and decided to leave town pretty much knowing they would get water in it. What they didn't expect was the amount or the direction it came in from though. We know so many from our church that live in that neighborhood that flooded. I feel so grateful.

Paul Allen had a large tree come from a neighbor's yard in to his, but it missed the house. Praise God. Lindsay lost a fence, but you know all of those things are fixable.

Lindsay's neighbor did say the eye came over them because he thought a window was blown out at her house, but checked on it and the eye that it still had did come right over them. He was able to look up and see stars and then not.

There is debris as far as you can see everywhere.

Our live oaks all look pitiful. Heavily pruned but all standing. One of them next door fell, but didn't crash the house. Many down the street the same.

I will always say the number really means nothing unless it is a 5 and then catastrophic doesn't describe it. 

My mother's assisted living place took on water. I won't say flooded because it didn't go up the walls, but the flooring was soggy for certain. I am disgusted with the place for lack of communication, but I will get past it. I had taken her out the day before it all started. I didn't like that it was headed our way and they can strengthen quickly. Her place is close to the Gulf and wouldn't be protected from winds as much as we are even though we are on the bay. 

She has been with me for most of the week. She is entirely ready to be back in her place which HOPEFULLY will alleviate my guilt for not having her live with me. Just a week has been hard. I love her but she is a lot. I certainly don't think it would be good for Jeff.

Now, the west is best thing...

Whatever happened to the storm cause an odd phenomenon to occur. The worst winds were on the west side running from Milton to Repton. For those that know the area. Highway 87 leaves Navarre and runs through Milton where we bought Barkley, up by Whiting Field and into Brewton, my hometown. At the state line that highway changes to Highway 41. The highest winds ran from Milton straight up 87/41 all the way to Repton, Alabama. I have so many friends and family with lots of damage. It will be a while before things are back to normal up that way.

 I think people can be surprised at how far the winds can go. Brewton took a hit in Ivan and everyone is saying this was worse. Ivan was a low 4. 

I let everyone know on Facebook I was ok, but I had no idea about Mom's place or all my family. It has been a lot to swallow as all hurricanes are. About the 3rd day I had to quit looking at any news or social media to recapture my sanity. 

I am good now.

We had our small group on Wednesday along with the couple that their home is ruined. I wanted to find some Scripture to read since we were mainly meeting to pray and converse. 

I read Romans 5:1-5 emphasizing certain words. 

5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [b]we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but [c]we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

I am so grateful I was spare, but heartbroken for others. It will take time.

Jeff and I have had lots of doctor appointments the last few weeks mostly due to his Parkinson's. I have noticed a few new things which has led to testing, but I feel all of it is the P word. None of it is fun, but Tuesday after the storm he had his bladder appointment for the scope. He gets tense before each one and quite frankly, it is a good thing we were even able to keep the appointment in Pensacola. I keep reminding myself of the good. He does have another tumor and will need the surgery to remove it. That is why they do the scopes every 3-4 months. Bladder cancer has a high recurrence rate. We are waiting for that to be scheduled. He is seeing some other doctors in the days ahead for the other mentioned items.

Busy days.

I am of course behind in reading anyone's blog. I will get there eventually. I have mostly looked at Facebook to see family and friends. I do have power which is in itself ANOTHER completely weird thing about this storm.

I won't be around too much until it settles down a bit more.

I will leave you on a happy note. 

Barkley had no idea a storm came. He was completely happy and well cared for. He was pretty sure all was good while his doggy family in Milton was also hit very hard. Fortunately, many have swooped in to help cut trees and help out with the breeder's needs. All I could do was pray that would happen for her. 

He is just adorable.

Everything goes to his mouth. 

Can you believe that mum still looks this way? Now, there was debris everywhere around it but the wind came in from an odd direction and I guess its proximity to the house and being low it didn't get touched. 

Trust me when I tell you the wind whipping between our houses and in the circle in the live oaks was nuts.

We are off to celebrate Tucker's birthday and watch Georgia demolish us in football, but our family will always be Auburn.

Fall arrived this morning. It is cool and I am in my first long sleeve shirt and pants for the season. I think I am ready. I know all those cutting up logs and working are happy to see it. As I look across the bayou there is a huge tree they are working on now.

Forgive typos - my brain is tired too. 

I haven't even picked up a needle in over a week. Not good-

On one more good thing -

I saw a hummingbird on my bottlebrush the morning of the hurricane and then again yesterday. I take those as good things. Also I think it was Friday, I saw a ton of monarch butterflies in the front yard. 

Oh goodness, one more thing. See, I told y'all I am nuts. 

I 26 is the name I dubbed the storm all most immediately. What was the NHC thinking when giving a name like that for people like me living in northwest Floria and south Alabama to try and pronounce with southern accents. That may be a lighter moment in all this - the names given to it. I even heard it dubbed Julio Iglesias. I wasn't the only one who knew we would need something else. 

Thank goodness I 26 is gone. 

Thankful,

Sandy

News

I am high alert, but I wanted to get this post out before the weekend for a reason unrelated to storms. 

We are on storm watch here in the Gulf. Anything that forms in the Bay of Campeche is not to be taken lightly and must be carefully watched. This means I am in storm mode. That means I am washing clothes and cleaning house like it is the most important thing I will ever do. I don't know exactly why I get like this, but it is what it is. I am prepared in the way of water, food and fuel. If it turns in to something and moseys this way, I will be out of power for a longer time than most. That is something I have written about before - being on a very small part of the electrical grid.

So yes, let's hope this thing disappoints weather reporters. We are saturated so even being on the east side of it will bring more water than we need. The peninsula probably needs water but not this kind of water. 

So I am still in grieving for my Gus. I don't think I will ever quite get over his loss, but losing our family pets is hard. I counted up the other day, that we have only been without a dog for 8 months of our marriage. We got Sally about 2 months after we married and after losing her it took us about 8 months to find Murphy. We were never without a dog again as we decided to have 2 at the same time from that time forward. 

The house has been so quiet and sad without Gus. 

All that changes on Friday when we bring home BARKLEY. We have gone to see Barkley twice and the breeder has put up with Jeff needing to have pictures sent weekly of him. Needless to say we are ready to let Barkley be a part of our story.

Springers come in black and white, liver and white, and tricolor which we were familiar with. We have had 2 black and whites and 2 liver and whites.

We were not familiar with roans. The roan means their white is mixed with the colors black or liver. A black one is known as a blue roan and a liver one is known as a red roan.

Barkley is going to be a blue roan. 

It will take him about 4 to 6 months to fill in his coloring. 

Here is a page of possible looks for him from Pinterest.

We did notice the roan in his white on our first visit. He has tiger striped legs. It will be interesting to see what he ends up looking like. 

Like I said, we have been twice to see him and we pick him up on Friday morning. 

I honestly glad he is not liver and white, because I am still so heartbroken over Gus. I needed a different look. I love liver and white. They are quintessentially the look of what one expects in a Springer, but I know Barkley will have his own look.

This was the latest picture the breeder texted us of him. I can see his head is already filling in with the roan.

I will be back next week if I have power to share all about him. 

Let's pray I have power and Barkley doesn't have his first adventure with a hurricane!

OH and --- I bought a mum which proves only one mum can give someone all the fall feels. I simply must share before it dies or gets messed up from a storm.

It is actually in full bloom right now. This was from a week or so ago. I did wait until there were no 3 digit temperatures. All that heat has that GULF still very warm.

Sandy