Hurricane Debby
Aug. 6th, 2024 06:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngI swear, we had more rain for this supposed nothing-storm than we did for any of the ones we actually prepped for. A little system was crawling away around the Caribbean for at least a week with predictions it would turn into a storm over the weekend. Everyone was like "nah, no way," and then she did. Went from a loose mess of clouds to a Tropical Storm to a Hurricane within 48 hours. Pretty impressive.
A little scary that it happened so fast.
Thankfully, the early warning let me also warn dayjob I might be out and get some extra groceries over the weekend. Then we picked up around the house on Sunday and that... was it. I didn't think we'd get enough wind/rain for daycare to close and I didn't bother putting the chickens in the garage. The rain started mid-afternoon Sunday and then just. Didn't. Stop.
It's still drizzling now; I biked to crossfit in the drizzle and it was pretty pleasant. Only one downed tree in my way, a lot of sticks and leaves littering the roads.
Anyway, all in all everything was fine. Just more storm than I was expecting, but our yard drained like a champ and the chickens had enough cover to be fine, if a bit damp. My wife and I tried to work regardless -- of course this was a heavy meeting day for me -- so the kids got free reign of the TV. I hate it, but also what can you do. And it's good for them to just rot every once in a while and understand perhaps in their bodies if not their minds why we don't let them do that more often.
I'd made macarons the day before; my Birthday Month stretch goal is to bake New Things, and I started with one that's both new and personally challenging. Whenever egg whites feature heavily in a bake, I'm pretty much guaranteed to fail and egg whites are key for macarons. So I took it slow and careful and read the directions 100 times and... actually got it! The meringue, at least. There were some other technical flaws in the macarons -- the heat on our over must be off, they were all different sizes, and I couldn't quite figure out the flat top technique -- but they tasted good and both kids kept asking for another. I'll chalk that up to a win.
All that is to preface the part of the day when I was on a call with my coworkers and Toddler comes running through, shirtless, torso streaked with chocolate ganache, curls bouncing, yelling, "DO YOU WANT MACARON??"
A++, would make macarons just for that moment again.
By 2pm we were all a little squirrely and by 3pm, the wind had started to abate. The rain hadn't, but we grabbed umbrellas and went out anyway to survey the damage. As reported above: not much. The power only went out once, and that was before the storm proper, and only for 30min. Lots of debris, though.
The kids then dropped their umbrellas and played in the rain, chasing leaves down the gutter and making dams. It was a nice moment of sanity after being stuck inside all day.
It's still pittering rain and it's supposed to all day, but daycare's open and life goes on. I'm just glad this wasn't a big storm -- only a cat 1 when it hit land -- but it does make me more nervous about bigger storms. As I told another friend, though: if we, inland as far as we are, ever have to truly worry about a hurricane, then the rest of the state is fucked.
A little scary that it happened so fast.
Thankfully, the early warning let me also warn dayjob I might be out and get some extra groceries over the weekend. Then we picked up around the house on Sunday and that... was it. I didn't think we'd get enough wind/rain for daycare to close and I didn't bother putting the chickens in the garage. The rain started mid-afternoon Sunday and then just. Didn't. Stop.
It's still drizzling now; I biked to crossfit in the drizzle and it was pretty pleasant. Only one downed tree in my way, a lot of sticks and leaves littering the roads.
Anyway, all in all everything was fine. Just more storm than I was expecting, but our yard drained like a champ and the chickens had enough cover to be fine, if a bit damp. My wife and I tried to work regardless -- of course this was a heavy meeting day for me -- so the kids got free reign of the TV. I hate it, but also what can you do. And it's good for them to just rot every once in a while and understand perhaps in their bodies if not their minds why we don't let them do that more often.
I'd made macarons the day before; my Birthday Month stretch goal is to bake New Things, and I started with one that's both new and personally challenging. Whenever egg whites feature heavily in a bake, I'm pretty much guaranteed to fail and egg whites are key for macarons. So I took it slow and careful and read the directions 100 times and... actually got it! The meringue, at least. There were some other technical flaws in the macarons -- the heat on our over must be off, they were all different sizes, and I couldn't quite figure out the flat top technique -- but they tasted good and both kids kept asking for another. I'll chalk that up to a win.
All that is to preface the part of the day when I was on a call with my coworkers and Toddler comes running through, shirtless, torso streaked with chocolate ganache, curls bouncing, yelling, "DO YOU WANT MACARON??"
A++, would make macarons just for that moment again.
By 2pm we were all a little squirrely and by 3pm, the wind had started to abate. The rain hadn't, but we grabbed umbrellas and went out anyway to survey the damage. As reported above: not much. The power only went out once, and that was before the storm proper, and only for 30min. Lots of debris, though.
The kids then dropped their umbrellas and played in the rain, chasing leaves down the gutter and making dams. It was a nice moment of sanity after being stuck inside all day.
It's still pittering rain and it's supposed to all day, but daycare's open and life goes on. I'm just glad this wasn't a big storm -- only a cat 1 when it hit land -- but it does make me more nervous about bigger storms. As I told another friend, though: if we, inland as far as we are, ever have to truly worry about a hurricane, then the rest of the state is fucked.
