Lift Up Your Hearts!

9:45 a.m.  We should be at church now, but storm—not to mention curfew—made the 40-minute trip an unwise venture. We did, however, have a great time of singing hymns with Heather at the piano, Jon and Porter singing, Jonathan exploring the living room, and me singing while running back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, so that the lemon-blueberry pancakes didn’t burn.

11:30 p.m. Okay, now it feels as if I’m preparing for a hurricane: I’m baking a pound cake. I think the Daleys are asleep, but Porter and I are still up, doing odds and ends (like baking, and getting the hall ready for occupation) while keeping track of the storm. It looks as if it will hit here sooner than expected, maybe about 4 a.m. I understand one of the greatest concerns is that so many people have just given up. Like one of our neighbors, who didn’t bother to put up his plywood this time. Compliance with evacuation orders is much, much lower, with many fewer people going to shelters. This despite the fact that the news commentators are saying, “Think the intensity of Charley with the duration of Frances.”

I was worried about Ivan, but Jeanne was weak and wandering for so long that I had all but forgotten about her. However, as we learned from The Hobbit:

10:30 p.m.  Just after writing that, I heard some wind gusts, but we still don’t expect much till tomorrow.

9:30 p.m. Thank you again for your prayers—don’t stop just because my updates aren’t quite as frequent as before. It’s harder to find time for computer work when there’s a lovely baby to play with!

 

I feel simultaneously the most prepared and the least prepared of all the hurricanes. Most prepared because we get better each time, and much of the work was already done. Least because this is the first time I haven’t been running around frantically, getting things done. I suppose it helps that I did some of that (housekeeping, shopping) in preparation for the Daleys’ visit. I didn’t bake this time, however. Yet. Maybe tomorrow if we have power.
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10:30 a.m.  Porter and Jon just finished putting the plywood back up. It goes much faster when you have two strong workers—and when you already have the boards cut and the holes drilled! They also did not put up all the boards; we’re waiting for more data before decided what to do about the “safer” side of the house. I’d say the house looks weird—but we had the plywood on for so long that it actually doesn’t seem strange at all. It’s no good keeping it up all season, however; there are other risks in life besides hurricanes, and having the windows all boarded up is not good in case of fire, as has been tragically shown in Florida already this month.

I think the WMAG is going down for a nap....

Saturday, September 25, 2004. 8:00 a.m.  The Daleys arrived safely last night. Although at the time of Frances I assured them that they did not want to be here if a hurricane came through, we’re very glad to see them! Last time they moved out of the hurricane’s way. We would be very grateful if the hurricane did the moving this time.

The car seat was ready and waiting to receive the WMAG, who promptly fell asleep. After returning home, we followed suit.

Friday, September 24, 2004. 2:45 p.m. Back from a morning marathon shopping trip. Not particularly hurricane-related, though it's hard to resist picking up a few more supplies: an extra flashlight, some batteries.... Just lots of errands that I wanted to do today and tried to fit in before everyone else decided to go to the store. I was pretty successful. It was crowded, but not overly so, and certainly not like last time. Now our library books will ride out the hurricane, if it comes, safely in the library. Now I have what I need to complete Heather's birthday present (except for one piece of information, which is trying to find its way out of Janet's busy life). We're celebrating her birthday while she's here, even though it's a month away yet. Hmmm, by that logic, maybe we should celebrate Jonathan's 10-month birthday, which just passed.

Porter decided that putting up the plywood again can wait till Saturday. We want the house to look a little more welcoming for Heather's first time home in three years. And, not coincidentally, by Saturday we will have someone here who is young, male, and strong. :) Oh, wait. We'll have TWO additional people here who are young, male, and strong.

By the way, Happy 12th Birthday, You-Know-Who!

Thursday, September 23, 2004. 6:30 p.m.  Janet, now back in school, said she misses getting regular updates from us via the website. Jeanne seems to agree, because the latest forecast has her paying us a visit this Sunday. It's not likely—this time—to interfere with the Daleys' flight tomorrow. (This visit is the rescheduling of the one that was cancelled by Frances.) But what it will do for the rest of their visit remains to be seen. I reiterate my statement: Just because we went through one hurricane with Janet, I don't feel any obligation to even things up by going through one with Heather. "Jeanne, Jeanne, go away..."; after what Ivan did, I won't even think about "come again some other day."

We took the plywood off our windows this weekend. It's neatly put away in the garage, behind a lot of boxes. But it can all come out again, and go back on the windows.... Maybe it would be good if you'd add us to your prayer list permanently—or at least till the end of hurricane season. :)

Wednesday, September 22, 2004. 9:15 a.m. Jeanne is dancing around and driving all the computer models crazy, and more storms are tumbling along around her.

Sunday, September 19, 2004. 11:45 p.m. Here is a picture from Heather & Jon’s website of what Ivan did to Pittsburgh.

Saturday, September 18, 2004. 6:00 p.m. Ivan is hitting Philadelphia hard, too. NMKB lost a tree, found a couple of leaks thanks to the enormity of the rains, and were without power and phone for a while.

Saturday, September 18, 2004. 7:45 a.m. Jeanne's projected path is looking much nicer for us, and Hurricane Karl, though stronger, is comfortably far away.

9:45 p.m. The news stories I could find online were slow to provide information, but finally it got Google’s attention. Check out KDKA for Pittsburgh news. Jon said that Bigelow Blvd. was closed due to mudslides.

7:30 p.m. We just heard from Heather. Jon made it home safely. He was cold and wet, but now he’s warm and dry. :)

Friday, September 17, 2004. 6:15 p.m. Jeanne is doing her best to assure us that no storm is too small to pray about. At one point, one of the computer models had her looping around and crossing Florida a couple of times! Now the models disagree wildly, though the outlook seems better.