Getting Back to Normal

Things are getting back to normal as the flood waters have subsided on the streets. There is lots of sand in the road where the flooding was the worst. The rivers in the area are still increasing and many are now above "flood stage". School resumes tomorrow for Meghan.

Friday afternoon as the outer bands of Fay moved through, I was struck by how beautiful the sky is in the aftermath of one of these storms. Meghan and I saw a rainbow that went straight down instead of having the classic arc that is normally seen in rainbows. The sky was fill of the grayish white clouds that were part Fay. The cloud cover that these storms create in their wake have a texture to them that is impossible to define. Normal clouds day to day seem almost one dimensional compared to these clouds. As the sun set in the west these clouds created a swirly vision glowing light through the clouds themselves and shades of pink in the areas between the clouds. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me and my cell phone with the camera met with disaster with another type of water source earlier in the week and was not completely operational at the time. (Better luck next time)

Meghan in Florida Today

They had a reporter at the BSYO kick off this past Saturday. More than 100 students participated and Meghan managed to get on photo posted on the site. This is the link for Meghan's BSYO photo . Meghan is in photo number 7.

Fay Is Still Here

Meghan woke up this morning and in a very disgusted tone asked why Fay was still here. This is one guest that has most assuredly out stayed her welcome. Fay will not let us forget that while she is not a hurricane, she is still a tropical system and has dumped astronomical amounts of rain. In just under 40 hours we have received close to 20 inches of rain. Much of our area is flooding including our street; however, cabin fever set in so we went out and took pictures to share with all of you. So scroll down and enjoy.



Alan trying to get in his truck to move it so it is not sitting in water.
Our front yard and the street in front of us.

Our street as we returned home this afternoon.

Meghan playing in the water at the foot of our driveway.


This picture is of I-
95 as we went over the overpass this afternoon.

This picture says it all. The first day of school was the 18th and they have had school cancelled now for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

This is the picture of some poor soul's front yard and garage.

Bike riders are a dedicated bunch when it comes their riding. Tropical storms and rain cannot keep them from riding.

A Pounding From Tropical Storm Fay

Fay continues to make her trek through our part of Florida. So far we have not lost power but many streets are flooded around us. Fay has proven to be hard top predict like so many tropical storms. She stalled earlier tonight to our southwest. The prediction on where she will exit the state has changed continually throughout the day. The most recent prediction has her exiting somewhere between us and Vero Beach. Based on current forecasts, she will exit off the east coast and hang out in the Atlantic and be a hurricane sometime tomorrow and then hover off our coast and gather strength before returning to visit Florida again. I hope she does not return to us at for a second time.

Meghan is out of school again tomorrow. Not bad go to school one day and out two. The bad thing is they are using up hurricane days right at the beginning of the school year.

Here Comes Fay

Well Meghan returned to school today but due to Fay churning away in the Gulf, school has been cancelled for tomorrow. What a start to the school year. While as of right now school is only cancelled for tomorrow the chances are high that it will be cancelled for Wednesday as well.

While we actually reside on the opposite side of the state from where Fay is expected to make landfall, we are currently under a tornado watch until sometime tomorrow morning due the part of the storm are expecting.

While we do not look forward to these storms, they have their place in pleasant memories for the time we spend together as a family. Despite the stress of dealing with the preparations and the days without electricity, there is a special feel to those days when the outside world really ceases to be intruding on family time.

Of course, you have not lived until you eat spaghetti that you made on the grill. I was not talented enough in 2004 to make a cake on the grill but one of the people that I work with did.

Gearing Up for School

School starts back on Monday the 18th. Meghan is eagerly counting down the days. We have finished her back to school shopping. I do not think we are missing anything. This year it looks like Meghan's principal in no longer at the the school which is disappointing. This principal knew just about all the students names and faces on site. She seemed to feel that it was equally important to recognize the good or quiet students and let them know she was aware of them and their existence. With a school population of over 1000 students, I find that to be a remarkable feat.

Last night we went to that W store and finished off the one or two things I did not have. We are thinking about letting her take her lunch to school some this year which meant that we had to pick out a lunch box because the one we had that someone gave her in kindergarten she was worried that someone would make fun of her for having. So we are standing on the aisle with the lunch boxes trying to make a decision. I am there with my 9 year old when another group came up. These girls were high school aged trying to justify to their mother why they needed a "character" lunch box while my daughter is asking my help ion locating a non "babyish" lunch box. The irony of the situation did not escape me or the other mom who was trying to get her girls to pick a more grown up lunch box.

Today we went and had Meghan's hair cut for school. This is the shortest that she has ever agreed but it still long enough to handle pony tails, braids and buns. Unfortunately for Meghan, I cannot french braid so she has to settle for regular braids.

With the return of school, we have to return to our very active schedule. Dance resumes on Tuesday. I have not picked up the lyrical shoes that she needs nor have I purchased ballet shoes. (We did get tights) I am hoping that she has not out grown the tap shoe which were a little big last year. BSYO resumes on the 25th with a kick off on the 16th. the school strings program usually resumes the week after school as well. Busy, busy, busy!!

We are down one driver with my mom looking at knee replacement surgery on both legs this fall.

New Picture of Meghan

Both pics taken today in the car

while we out running errands.

How Sweet!!

We just accepted to the invite to Alan's 25th class reunion. I have enjoyed the past few days reminding him exactly how long ago that really was. During this time I reminding him that when he graduated I was just completing fifth grade. It has been great fun (especially reminding him that we have not even hit the 20 year reunion for me:) Fortunately we live near by and will be able to attend the events and return home at the end of the events. It is cheaper for the two of us to go to his 25th reunion than it was for us to go my 5 year reunion. (His is a 2 day event)

Yes I Am Slacking :)

Yes I have been rather negligent in leaving any post. I have found myself falling into an old habit of reading too many books at once and found myself with the problem of preferring to read to "surfing the net". In addition to the distraction of reading multiple books at one time, Alan and I have been working on cleaning out the garage. When we moved 6 years ago the situation was so disastrous that we are still opening boxes from the movers packed for us. Many things we were forced to replace from necessity but there were many things that did not get packed were they should have so there are many things that we are still looking for that simply cannot be replaced. Every few months we go through some boxes in the garage and hope to find those missing treasure. Today we found several treasures in the way of pictures some of these I will post here. The first one is a team photo from 1985 and might bring back some memories for some.