Weathering the Storm

Today finally dawned bright and sunny, after 4 days of clouds and rain ... and wind and waves and flooding. Ugh. The Nor'Easter formely known as Hurricane Ida struck the Virginia Coast on Wednesday, wreaking havoc on our city and my everyday life. Despite living mere feet from the bay, we actually faired much better than many of our friends and neighbors. If I had managed to do the grocery shopping I had put off for several days on Wednesday, before the storm hit, things really wouldn't have been that bad. As it was, we spent three days living off what we could scrounge from the freezer and pantry, which made for some pretty interesting meal combinations.

While parts of our neighborhood were completely under water, our part of the street remained dry. Although our balcony door and one side window did succomb to the rain by Day 3. Aside from a wet carpet in the corner of the living room, the rest of our love nest was unphased. And while many parts of the city have been without power for more than a day, our's has never gone off for more than 30 seconds. It has gone off several times a day though, to the point where I'm pretty much done re-setting the clocks. At least until I'm sure the storm and all it's effects, are gone. And finally, my gorgeous mums are all but pummeld to death. Along with my flower bed that, impressively, has been blooming since early spring. Between the wind and heavy rain the poor souls didn't stand a chance.

Thursday was the worst day of the storm. I got a message that morning saying the Univesity was closed. And Jon got sent home from work early. By Friday the rain had eased up some, but the flooding was at its worst. Jon attempted to go to work, but gave up after 20 minutes when he couldn't find a dry road out of our neighborhood. That's when he discovered all the abandoned cars left behind by misjudging drivers the night before.

Fortunately, the roads were clear enough that night that he could go out and get his starving, pregnant wife some pizza, salad, wings and chips.
As you can guess, I was starting to feel a little crazy. Despite going into work two days last week, just knowing that I couldn't leave the house if I wanted to was driving me a bit insane. It had been a week since Jack and I had gone on a walk, and the lack of fresh air was getting to me. Jack, on the other hand, weathered the storm very well. He's hilarious lately, laughing at everything and nothing in particular. And he's especially overjoyed with his newfound ability to "walk." I'm hesitant to call it "walking" since it's more like a run, and a very uncontrolled one at that.

I just love the way he throws his hands straight up in the air and runs as fast as he can!
And then there's Dad's version of training - Shamrock 1/2 Marathon Style!

Within a few days he was upt to 5 steps, and just today he walked the entire length of the kitchen before crashing! He's gotten so good that I sometimes catch him practicing even when I'm not there to assist with the landing. I've been trying to hold him off until Thanksgiving so Marmie, Poppa and the Uncles can join in the festivities, but it's looking like he may have this whole mobility thing down pat before then.