Visiting with Irene

We spent the day with Hurricane Irene yesterday. As I expected, it was not a big deal for us. It got windy, but no more than the wind we get before a nasty thunderstorm. We didn't have any lightning. It rained, but it was hardly a sustained driving rain. It was generally a consistent drizzle with short bursts of driving rain. If you've seen the news you will notice that the eastern part of NC was not so fortunate. The Outer Banks got hammered, but fortunately it is what they build for and I'm sure that they will rebound.

For those unfamiliar with NC, you can think of the state as divided into thirds with respect to weather. The mountains are the areas west of Winston-Salem. We're in what is known as the Piedmont area, though we're on the eastern edge of it. I-95 is the eastern boundary of our area. In this case, Irene really hit east of I-95 pretty hard.

Noah and I did some grocery shopping in the morning. Wal-Mart and Sam's were both pretty quiet, which was nice. I taught Noah to be tough by growling when he walks in a windy rain. It's pretty cute, as you might imagine.

I figured it would be a good afternoon for more bowling. I took the kids bowling on Friday and Lily set a personal best with 77, including a key spare in the 10th frame to propel her past Noah for the first time. Since Noah uses a ramp and I help him aim, this was quite an accomplishment for her. I thought we could build on this success, but sadly the bowling alley was having electrical problems. Apparently their 220v circuit was out, which is what the lanes use. I'm not sure how that all works, but the point was that we needed to find something else to do.

I got a few used books at the Shepherds library and then took the kids to Dick's Sporting Goods. We enjoyed some time there and then came home. This morning as I went running I saw lots of leaves, pine straw, and some sticks laying around, but no displaced cars or anything like that. A few small branches fell, but that was it. Overall, Irene was pretty much a non-event for the Triangle area and we are very thankful for that.