Well Ivan did his deed and left us all a bit wetter than before. I woke up around 9am and had no clue that Ivan had even passed. Last night I was dead to the world. Shelly said the storm made pretty much noise and she woke up a few times. But I managed to sleep through it all. My mother called soon after I woke, she had some water in her basement so we packed up the kids, my computer and the shop vac and took off to spend the day at her house sucking up water. When we got there about 1/2 the basement was wet and we set out sucking the water out of the carpet. After a few hours of work the carpet was about as dry as it was gonna get so we set up some fans and headed out.
After moms, we drove to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Rick's house, they had it nowhere as easy as my mom. They had tons of water in their basement and their septic system backed up. When we got there they were carrying all the items out of the basement and throwing them on a trash heap at the end of their driveway. Stuff like that always puts life into perspective.
I can not imagine what it must have been like in the cities the hurricanes really hit. These small tragedies in our lives have to be dwarfed a thousand times over by what those people experienced.
I will continue to pray for everyone who has been effected by these storms and I am making a note on my lifetime calendar, "NEVER, plan trips to Florida(and other south eastern states) in September".
Maybe you should stretch those dates from May to Nov. Charlie went through Fl in early Aug. Frances which hit my area went through at the end of Aug going into Sep. And Ivan hit hit at the middle of Sep. They say though that the Hurricane season lasts from May to Nov though.