Hurricane Matthew, Out

He was here and now, he's gone. There was a hullabaloo before hurricane Matthew arrived but not so much during his stay. I tried to take some videos for y'all but I warn you, they're not very good.

Here's the backyard around 8:00 Saturday morning:

The hullabaloo took place on social media and the news media and that governor of ours. But we did not fall for it at our house. I've learned a thing or two about myself and the low-country of SC over the years- trust my gut and whether or not I need to evacuate during a storm.

This one is, hopefully, the 9:00 one:

Seriously, my intuition told me this was not going to be the ginormous event the media said it was going to be. I did not flee on Tuesday evening or Wednesday. I did not flee on Thursday or Friday. We sat right here and Matthew never gave me cause for concern. However, had my gut told me to leave, I would have been out of here.

This should be around 9:30.

There's a 10:30 video that has some harsher wind and shows more water and harder rain. But where is it? Who knows??? Oh, found it but it's too large, apparently. Just imagine stronger winds and more rain.

This little cutie went with her parents to my mother's house because when you have a little one, everything changes. Great-Mimi didn't mind one bit having them there for a couple of days.

Our 'hurricane party' was small and uneventful. We played games, had some drinks, ate some food, laughed like crazy, and enjoyed a bit of guitar playing and loads of off-key singing. The off-key singing had nothing to do with the drinks. Had we had too much to drink, the singing would not have been off-key. :)

This is where all the pictures would be had I used a different camera. I messed with the setting on my little Nikon and, DANG IT, nothing but a big blurry mess. 

However, I did get a couple to come out fairly decent... OK,, they aren't blurry. 

Silly sisters. The oldest and the youngest lovelies.

The old and the young.

It took me YEARS to learn to listen to my gut. Some people call it, 'Women's Intuition.' I have been known to call it that myself. Call it what you will, I believe it is God given and not to be ignored. If I have the undeniable feeling that I am being told, "Trust me, I've got this," I try to listen. And, I've gotten much better at it as the years pile on my aging pyramid.

CAUTION: this is where I wax philosophical----After the storm, there is a mess to clean up and waiting to be done if you are left without electricity and all the stores are closed up tight but, in all that, there is a peace and calm. Isn't that the same way with our life storms? In the aftermath of Matthew I did reflect on this topic and discovered that most of my life storms have been self-inflicted. Yeah, not something you really want to see or admit but there it is.

If anyone else does this to themselves now would be a good time to let me know I'm not alone in that boat. Or in there with 12 year-olds. 

I'd like to give a shout out to SCE&G, our electric company. I have NEVER sung their praises before but you better believe I will from now on. They were out in full force DURING THE DANG STORM. We didn't lose power until Saturday morning but had it right back by that same afternoon. When I called to report the outage (yes, chances are they already know, but they like for everyone to call it in anyway) the girl who helped me was SUPER SWEET and I'm kicking myself for not remembering her name.





Another shout out goes to Calder's Buffalo Pub, the ONLY place open in the whole town. The owners were super sweet. The wife had to go pick up the chef but they got there and the kids were able to get burgers and watch some college football. They brought burgers back with them and, YUM! Breezy and DoodleBug said the regulars at the pub were helping out as well by taking orders and busing tables. Such a friendly and inviting atmosphere. So, a great big KUDOS to, Calder's Buffalo Pub! We will be back!






If you and/or yours was in one of Matthew's path, I hope you had no more than what we experienced or even less.

Have a great Monday, y'all!