I find myself at the start of every summer just dreading the months until November when the "season" is over. Of course, I do not like the heat of the summer either. But it's mainly these hurricanes that make me want this part of the year to hurry up and move on. If you've never stayed through one here on the coast or any coast and listened to the wind beat your house and trees for hours at a time at great speeds and the rain just come down sideways, you don't know how stressful it is. I mean for hours and hours. I have a problem when the pressure drops as the hurricane gets nearer. It messes with my ears, and I feel like I can't breathe too well.
Then there is the aftermath of the storm. You go out and look to see what damage has been done to your home and your yard. You feel lucky if you only have to pick up tree limbs and debris. You feel lucky if your privacy fence is the only thing that got torn up...and believe me, most privacy fences do come down or get broken during the storm. You feel lucky if the trees in your yard didn't fall on your house or your neighbor's house or that your neighbor's tree didn't fall on your house. You feel lucky if your roof tiles didn't blow off. And you are lucky if a tornado didn't visit you. And I'm not even going to tell you what can happen to people who live on the water or near it. But it takes forever to clean up the mess. And you want to help your neighbors clean up and church members who need your help cleaning up and your hot and tired and no electricity (for days or weeks) and sometimes there's no water service because the city turned it off. Then it takes a long time for people to rebuild and for the area to look like something other than a bomb went off.
But having said all that, I feel like praying has taken much of the worry and stress to a lower level for me. I also feel like there is nothing you can do but get prepared for it. You can't stop it and worrying about it is not doing any good. Just make sure you renew your hurricane insurance and wind insurance every year! I still feel like I live in one of the most beautiful places. I always dream of living in the mountains one day, but I also know how seeing the beach and the waves and shore birds is something I would miss so much. It's nice to have a dream, though.
Okay. I wanted to do the Fill in the Blank Friday questions today. It's hosted by The Little Things We Do.
1. Over the Labor Day weekend I will be finishing the baking and decorating a three tier anniversary cake for a couple at church. Party is on Monday. I am excited to get this cake done! It's kind of stressful to me because this is the first one that I've baked. Usually another lady does the baking. And we are going to stack it. Aunt Sue is going to decorate it. I'm making the buttercream frosting instead of using the Wilton in the bucket. Also, I made 60 or 70 gum paste dogwood flowers and leaves to put around the tiers. I'll show a picture next week. I'm not sure if I'll use that many flowers...but I found the cake on a web site and they said to make that many. I can see why wedding cakes cost so much.
2. With the political debates going on right now, my thoughts are I hope whoever is in office next year will make a difference for the better. I get so tired of the campaigning. I feel like the president really doesn't have much to do with what really happens...it's congress. And they are game players.
3. Today I am working all day and night to get some deadlines met before I work on that cake.
4. The best thing I've cooked recently was a flat iron steak. It's a recipe from Rachael Ray's TV show. You cook it on the stove top instead of the grill. The pan has to be really hot before you put it in and you'll want a lot of fresh cracked pepper on it before you put it in the pan.
5. The last thing I bought was some cake decorating items. I'm getting quite a lot of cake decorating tools. I'm thinking if I enjoy making these gum paste flowers, there's a school in Atlanta I'd like to attend.
6. The best movie I saw this summer was I can't think of a movie I saw this summer. I have watched The Help a few times. I rarely watch a movie more than once and I don't go to the theater if I can get out of it.
7. The best book I read this summer was Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews. I have enjoyed every book I've read authored by her.
