The aftermath!
The short version is that everyone is OK, we all have power and phones
and damage was remarkably light considering how powerful the storm was.
I'd say the house lost maybe 10 shingles total and Julia's place didn't
have any damage whatsoever (some of her old neighbours weren't so lucky
with gutters and siding peeled off and strewn about).
Things like this make you really thankful for the modern conveniences
like electric lights and air conditioning. Compared to people north
and east of the eye, we got off quite light all things considered.
What's left of Isabel is now in Ontario and that's perfectly fine by
us...yesterday was more than exciting!
In other news, I apologise for the out-of-order journal entries...it's
been busy enough here that it was a minor miracle to get the pictures
up to the web site. All of the entries are in place and will remain
for a while before being archived at the end of the month.
Rock you like a hurricane!
As anticipated, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast
between Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island today. The center of
circulation tracked well east of us passing Greenville, Wilson, Rocky
Mount, and Roanoke Rapids before finally heading into Virginia (it's
thirty miles out of Emporia, Virginia at the time of this entry).
Even though Isabel wasn't the category 5 storm she was a few days ago,
she still packed a mighty punch. Things got interesting here in
Clayton round about lunch time. We had the winds pick up earlier in the
day but our first real squalls came round 1300 hours and we lost power
completely for the first time (we had been doing the flash and flicker
routine for a while).
The real excitement was at 1500 hours when the eye made it's closest
approach and we had 40-60 knot winds for a good four or so hours.
During this time, we lost power a couple of more times including a
two-to-three hour stretch (we don't really know how long it was...we
all fell asleep!).
But apparently someone in higher places has a funny sense of humour as
the power came up just in time to tape the first episode of
Survivor that Grammy had requested!
A quick check outside (with 30-40 knot winds) showed that we have some
shingle damage (some that are flapping when the wind hits and a couple
of others that are actually off the house). But all things considered,
that's hardly anything and we seem to have power back (we had one big
drop in the middle of Survivor and another flicker an hour or so ago
which will probably be the norm until the winds die down).
The latest reports from Grammy's house in Zebulon (about 25-30 miles
closer to Rocky Mount and the passage of the eye) is that even though
she has lost power and phone briefly, the few trees that have come down
have been well away from the house.
And Nicholas? I think Mommy and Daddy were more nervous about this
storm than he was. If he wasn't eating or being cuddled, he was his
usual chipper self (or he was asleep!). Not bad for a little guy
experiencing his first big, scary hurricane!
The calm before the storm
(Isabel, GO AWAY!!!)
And unfortunately, we're not talking about our household's preferred
NHL hockey team, we're
talking about
Hurricane Isabel.
It was bound to happen sooner or later...you put your nose out there,
someone is going to bop it! And anyone who looks at a map can see
there's a whole lot of North Carolina coast line well east of Florida
that hurricanes like to visit.
On Isabel's current track, the Raleigh area is expecting sustained winds
of 30-45 mph with gusts over 60 mph and about 2 to 6 inches of rain, in
other words...what we're used to with severe thunderstorms! The eye will
pass well east of us and the nastiest part of the hurricane is always to
the north and east of the eye. (Daddy's still sticking to his track with
the eye passing closer to Cape Hatteras but then he's kind of stubborn about
things like that...most of the models have the eye passing over Pamlico
Sound! We'll see who is right...)
Anywho, we've got water, we've got batteries, and we've got a good
house round us. And if all goes well, Isabel will be just a bit of a
blow and will be past us before we know it.
Today's fun is a road trip to Fayetteville for a spot of dinner at the
Thai Pepper. Whilst some of us might have had designs on getting food,
a certain someone was stealthily continuing the Magical Mystery
Everyone Loves Me tour.
Today's stop is at the home of Daddy's stepfather's parents referred to
as Aunt Judy and Uncle Walter (which was certainly a lot easier for a
younger Daddy to remember than step-grandparent and to this day, those
names have stuck!). Through the years, Aunt Judy in particular has had
a habit of picking up strays and taking them in (and feeding them
awfully well...this place would be Daddy's training ground for learning
to love Minnesotan cooking!). Daddy doesn't really want to remember
that this was almost 30 years ago (egads, where does the time go?!?).
Nicholas did have a bit of competition as Aunt Judy and Uncle Walter are
now owned by a new Sheltie puppy named Misty (this one is Misty #2...
Misty #1 was the Sheltie who taught Aunt Meghann how to walk and was one
mighty fine dog!). It appears Aunt Judy and Uncle Walter are being
well-trained by Misty #2 and that the training is taking hold... ;)-
I think it's safe to say our little guy made quite an impression on
them. Not that this should come as a surprise...no one has been able to
resist his charm when he turns it on full-force! And he was definitely
in cute baby mode.
Nicholas seems to be stockpiling grandparents everywhere he goes...and
that's perfectly fine by us. One thing Mommy and Daddy learned when
they went to Hawaii (this would be before Lilo and Stitch)
is that the concept of 'ohana (family) is very inclusive.
So much so that calling someone cousin (even if not
directly related) is a traditional gesture of respect.
In the spirit of 'ohana, you can't really have too many
grandparents nowadays even knowing that pretty much all of them will
do their level-best to spoil Nicholas and then hand him back to us!
It's an occupational hazard of parenting, wouldn't you say? :)
Four Month Checkup!
Talk about one busy day today...Nicholas gets a checkup in the morning
and we head to the theatre to see
Funny Girl that evening.
Nicholas is continuing his climb up the growth charts checking in at
12 pounds 3 ounces, 23 ½ inches long, and a head circumference
of 40.4 cm. That places him squarely on the growth charts at 8%, 8%,
and 10%, respectively. Not bad for a little guy who started the race
five weeks behind everyone else. The way he's eating and growing, we
have no doubts he's going to rocket up the charts in no time. Other
than the poor guy getting several shots and not being a real happy
camper about it (though we know Daddy's a much bigger baby about shots
than Nicholas is!), he's doing just fine in the healthy baby department
so I guess we're doing something right! We've gotten clearance to try
to wean him off the
Enfamil Nutramagen which is fortunate
because that stuff is mondo-expensive. Not that the little guy isn't
worth it, but it'd be nice to be able to get those Balrog-sized tubs of
normal formula at the warehouse club du jour!
Nicholas continued his trend of being a good guy at the theatre and
actually stayed awake for most of it until the first intermission.
This was a bit of a surprise because the afteraffects of shots aren't
exactly fun and you don't know if you're going to get pleasant Nicholas
or crabby Nicholas. Fortunately, the former ruled and he slept the
rest of the way.
RANT MODE ON!
All-in-all, not a bad day considering that today was the second
anniversary of the terrorist attacks against our country. Earlier at
work, Maha and I had a conversation about how one goes about letting
their little ones find out that the world is a rather dangerous place
and that people will do heinous and insane things to prove that they
can.
Maha is a neat lady, always the pleasant outlook on things and she's
got a very precocious six-year old son, Soorya. When the WTC was
attacked, it had to be a heck of a challenge trying to figure out how
to tell a precocious four-year old what had just occurred...that an
already dangerous world had gotten that much more dangerous and now
it's come to her new home. You see, she and her family are originally
from India and I'm sure she's seen enough of the work of Pakistani
insurgents, Kashmiri separatists, and the Tamil Tigers when she was
over there.
You can't just drop that sort of a bombshell on your son lest you have
the poor kid frightened of his own shadow everytime someone says
BOO! At the same time, being
economical with the truth just has to gnaw at you (unless you're
comfortable with lying which would be very unfortunate!). Kids are
naturally curious creatures and they really want to know the
WHY and the
TRUTH of things and I really
love them for it. It's very refreshing!
They're also remarkably good at detecting when a parent or a teacher
is trying to feed them a line of bull...the story just feels wrong to
them. Unfortunately, the instinct to seek out knowledge and truth is
often feared by parents and teachers when it should be utterly
embraced and celebrated.
The child can't help but be what they
are...an inquisitive, thoughtful, caring and by nature HONEST creature.
. They deserve no less in return...but there are things like
this where you have to look at the greater good and make a choice.
The truth of it is that we live in a dangerous world. This isn't
something that occurred overnight...it's been a dangerous place pretty
much from the get-go since Oog hit Ugg over the head with a stone club.
We as a species have gotten much better and much more efficient at
doing nasty things to one another, often for the silliest of reasons.
There are people in this world who despise America and Americans because
we have it pretty easy over here and they are jealous of our country's
place in the world
and the freedoms we enjoy that we fought long
and hard to obtain and defend.
There is a time and a place for that truth. Childhood is and
should be a time of wonder and of joy and the fascination of learning
about the world they share with the rest of humanity. There will be
time enough for a child to learn of the less pleasant aspects of life
on Earth and hopefully by then (if we've done our job right), we've
prepared them to deal with the curve balls we're occasionally thrown
and knock them out of the ballpark! But you'll never get to that point
if you're frightening the heck out of them by telling them of all of
the bad things that can happen. Pretty soon, that's all they'll end up
concentrating upon and miss the bigger picture and be that much less
able to survive in this dangerous world.
And so, I rather like the way she approached this real googly at the
time...by casting the flying of the planes into the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon as an accident rather than a deliberate and cowardly
act. An accident a child can understand...murdering innocents on a
grand scale is something that I hope no child ever has to understand.
Now that he's a bit older, he's starting to get more and more of the
background in ways that Soorya can understand and handle.
Kids are so resilient and wise at times, sometimes more than their
parents. They have a refreshing and honest view of our world and the
people who share the world with us. They're certainly more accepting
of other people in this world than adults tend to be. And I think in
their way, they know more than they might let on to the rest of us.
There are singular events that have really stayed with me through the
years, ones that I can remember exactly what it was like when it was
going down (i.e.
the what were you doing when President Kennedy
was shot? syndrome).
-
When I was four years old, watching President Nixon on TV
resigning the presidency in disgrace. Not that I knew the
exact reasons why at the time (Watergate would later fascinate
me!) but I knew he was somehow important and this was my first
political memory!
-
The taking of hostages at the American embassy in Teheran in
1979 and their subsequent freedom in 1980.
-
The assassination attempt on President Reagan by John Hinckley
(to impress Jodie Foster, no less) in 1981.
-
The bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.
-
The shuttle Challenger exploding a few months before my
16th birthday in 1986. I can still remember the
shock at the school as we gathered round the TVs and watched
that awful replay over and over.
There have been many more examples since...
-
The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
-
The fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism soon after (what a
joyous day that was for freedom for the oppressed people of
Eastern Europe and Russia!). We'd soon have the nastiness
in Bosnia and Kosovo...
-
The first Gulf War when the first President Bush liberated
Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's Iraq (too bad we didn't finish
the job, we might have avoided Gulf War II).
-
Continual bombings and hatred in Israel and Palestine which
show no sign of abating.
And of course...September 11th, 2001.
I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that day. I don't
particularly want to as it would be a disservice to those whose lives
were taken. When our company went over to Bailey's to watch the news
coverage of the event and I saw the towers collapse (previously, we'd
been reading the news on the Internet and hadn't seen video yet), I
knew we were at war and that the rules of the world had completely
changed. Our world had gotten more dangerous by an order of magnitude.
There was the anger at those who could do such an infamous act
supposedly in the name of God/Allah thinking they will punch their
ticket to Paradise. I've got some bad news for you terrorists...any
imam will tell you that the Koran specifically proscribes killing those
not of the faith, such acts are hateful to the eyes of Allah and the
eternal punishment isn't pleasant at all.
There was the sorrow at the terrible price the families of the victims
of the attacks have paid. These people had their loved ones stolen
from them by a bunch of cowards wanting to make a political statement.
There was the pride in the days afterward watching the people of New
York and Washington and the families of the heroes on Flight 93 pick up
the pieces, close ranks, and move forward.
And for a time, our bitterly divided country (as evidenced by the
presidential election of 2000) came together and spoke with one voice
that we would find those responsible and they would be brought to
justice for the acts against humanity they have committed. Since
then, we've had two wars to do just that...history will judge the
ultimate results of those wars but no one will question that our
country and her brave men and women in uniform have met and joined the
battle that was offered and the world has gotten to be a much tougher
place for these criminals to do their dastardly deeds.
And we will prevail! It may well take us years but eventually we will
carry the day and hopefully the day the world wakes up from the madness
and makes terrorist acts obsolete will come swiftly. That goes for the
idiot leaders in Israel and Palestine, the fools in Northern Ireland,
that madman in charge of North Korea, and anyone else who thinks that
terrorism is the right way to effect political change.
RANT MODE OFF!
But it was a very sobering thought wondering how I'd handle telling
Nicholas were he of an age to understand what had occurred. There are
times that I'm very thankful that right now his world and his attention
span are pretty much this feeding to next feeding. There will be time
enough for dealing with the next attack or bit of nastiness when it
comes.
It is my hope that he will find that the world is a wondrous if
sometimes dangerous place and find his way to work toward that better
future that we all dream of. That he will have the courage to face
the dangers of this world rather than shy away from them and bring that
better future to pass.
I hope that when the questions start coming at me in rapid-fire staccato,
I'll be able to do as well as Maha did two years ago!
And I hope Nicholas will understand that there are times that we have to
hold back the whole truth for the time being for the greater good.
