Florence Update.

As you all know, Hurricane Florence slammed into Wilmington, North Carolina last Friday and thoughts and prayers are with those that were affected.  Man-Child and I were in that area recently and are heartbroken at the devastation.

Then we were told to brace for the after effects that we would feel inland.  And the hype was/is getting us all very nervous.  Knowing that we had a few trees that are "iffy" on one side of our house...the side our bedroom is on, of course.  I determined that I would be sleeping on the other side of the house for the time being.

We've had rain but, so far, not nearly the amount that we were told to expect.  We've also had some wind but, again, not nearly as strong as what we were told to expect.  But yet, the news reports keep telling us to be on alert.  I can honestly say that I don't think we have too much to worry about at this point but who knows?  They are the ones with the education, tools and experience.  So we shall see.

I grabbed this screen shot from CNN.com this afternoon and was relieved to see that we aren't in the direct track and wondered why local new stations were still issuing flood warnings.

Then I saw this screen shot (also taken from Cnn.com) and it became clear...

Probably because the storm (now a tropical depression) is SO big!  As you can see, it is covering both North and South Carolina and is overlapping into Virginia and Georgia as well!  So although we aren't in the direct path we are getting hit with the outer bands - which explains the hype.

And as I was typing this a tweet came across my feed stating that there is flash flooding in Charlotte...which, as you can see, also isn't in the direct path.

I do have a funny story to share - although, especially to my husband, it wasn't funny at the time.  Friday evening as we were battening down the hatches in preparation for the worst, I asked The Husband to bring in the chairs from the front porch.  At that time they were calling for really high winds.  He told me that there was no need but I insisted.

Being the great husband he is he acquiesced.  But, for some reason, rather than carrying the chairs down the steps and around the house into the garage he decided to carry the chairs through the house and into the garage.  As he was carrying the second chair in he felt pain in his finger.  He put the chair down and that's when he noticed he had just carried a wasps nest INTO the house!  The sneaky buggers had made a home under the chair.  Then he began trying to kill all the wasps.  Luckily, there were only a few of those wasps so he was able to dispatch them fairly quickly but, I have to tell you, having wasps flying around in the house led to a bit of hysteria.

We put some baking soda on his swollen finger and once the pain and swelling from the sting subsided even he had to admit it was kinda funny...who brings a wasps nest into the house?  Especially, given with his history with bees.  Apparently, it is his destiny to spend his whole life having run ins with wasps and bees.  I've lost count of how many bee stories he has under his belt now.

So that's the update.  Currently, we are safe and most likely will not be in any danger...but I will still be sleeping on the other side of the house until this storm has passed because I still don't trust those "iffy" trees...and we will be getting someone out here to assess those trees sooner rather than later!

And, of course, as I was just getting ready to hit "Publish" both the wind and the rain has stepped it up quite a bit.  I still think we will be okay but will be keeping an eye on the news...

UDATED: It's REALLY pouring now and we have a bit of standing water...but we are going to be okay. I just hope we don't lose electricity...