With M alice Toward None byStephen B Oates

Well she was vivacious. down the street from me...is a city under water. down the road from me are people trying to get Trees off of thier homes. I was outside for most of the hurricane. the hurricane I was so afraid of. She turned out to be a category 1 with category 1 rain and category 2 wind. When the 85 mph gusts would come through I would turn my head and look for falling jets...that is what is sounded like...from 2pm thursday afternoon until 3am friday morning. It was the most incredible thing Ive ever witnessed...mind you..I was on a deck above ground...:) and it was screened in. It was better than sitting in the house and feeling it shake and getting freaked out...I tried to take pictures of the bending trees and the rising waters...but Im not sure how they are going to come out.

For nearly 60 hours there was no power...but we do have a gas stove and a gas powered water heater...oh..and water...flowing just fine from the tap.When I woke up thursday morning at 7am...before the storm even arrived full on..there was no power.

It was an eary feeling..not knowing for nearly 2.5 days what had happened to everyone else in nc,va,and DC.

8 people died in Richmond. Horrible~! And Im worried that pandionna hasn't updated in five days...Im afraid she is still without power.

Everywhere...the power is out...only one grocery store is open..and they are giving away Ice. I sort of halfway enjoyed not having power.....at first I was completely loco. Jittery. my battery powered cd player wasn't working. I was sort of going thru techno withdrawl the first few hours.

but. Reading by flashlight and painting by flashlight...turned out to be Awesome. And then I remembered way back in the very still fridge was some film. so yeah..it ended up being a pretty decent experience. And the creek never rose high enough to do any damage. But I watched it rise....and just figured if it came in..it came in and I'd deal with it.

I decided not to evacuate..since the evac site was only a mile down the road..good thing I didn't...they flooded...and the power was out there too. besides...Im about halfway through a biography of Abraham Lincoln..did you know that James K. Polk pulled a GWBush in regards to the Mexican War? Yeah...things never ever change...

but seriously...

Since having power now for a while...I have been able to get caught up on the rest of the storm's damage.

I can't believe how hard a hit Northern Va took...Just Mass Devistation...Im hoping everyone is ok.

The phone lines are down in most places as well and of course cells don't work...the towers are all on the ground.

I haven't been back to work yet...they are letting us all in to survey the wreckage to morrow...I don't even want to think about it..

I am very pleased to say that I am ok...my family is ok..and so far..I know some of my friends are ok...

it could have been so much worse...

If any of you have heard from pandionna please let me know...

Peace