Time Out for the Hurricane....

Just wanted to let my fellow Gatherers know I haven't been avoiding anyone, just preparing for Hurricane Dolly.

Yesterday was spent rounding up supplies, clearing the yard of debris that might fly in high winds and getting emergency items ready to be used. We brought in our "wind up" television and weather radio from the boat, our big cooler is sitting in the kitchen in case the power goes off and we need to put the block ice into along with the contents of the refrigerator, jugs have been filled with water and candles and matches sit on the diningroom table so we won't have to hunt for them.

It looks as if we'll get lucky this time. Dolly is about to make landfall in Brownsville, quite a bit to the south of us. That means our area will be on the "wet" side of the storm, more rain than wind. After spending the evening monitoring the news, we went to bed and were awakened about 2:30 a.m. by the beginning of the rain and thunder. The tropical storm rains have begun in earnest now so I'm posting this as quickly as possible in case the computer and power go down for  a while.

Local news reports have let us know that the power has already gone off on South Padre Island. Since Dolly is a category 1 hurricane and farther from us than we first expected it to be, we don't anticipate much trouble, though we ran the tornado drill with our children last night before bedtime.

Please, everyone, think good thoughts and send your prayers to those farther south of us near Brownsville. They're right in the middle of the storm and we won't know until later in the day how they've fared.