Frittering Away Friday

As I have to report to work in five hours, I have spent much of today doing nothing at all. Sleeping in until eleven. Oh, I did one load of laundry.

The web version of our slowly dying grand dame newspaper had an article about hurricane evacuations and such.

I won't evacuate, mostly because I will be locked down in the hospital (pssst, Joan, how big of an air mattress can I fit in your office?). Jason will stay because his day job requires him to be on the relief team.

My house survived Hugo with the only damage being a what's-it-called-the-part-of-the-roof-that-overhangs squished by a pine tree that fell on it. There was no flooding, but the storm came in well north of us. Unless a storm comes straight up the Ashley River at high tide, I don't think flooding will be too bad.

Since the neighbor's insurance company blackmailed him into cutting down the two hundred year old pine trees in his back yard, there isn't really anything close to the house unless a branch comes off the oak tree out back.

But I've taken a lesson from Katrina. Part of my hurricane preparations this year will be to put an escape kit in the attic - a hand held hatchet and a hammer, some heavy work gloves and perhaps a length of rope. If I want to get super paranoid (which I am certainly capable of), a raft. Just in case.

I do need to double check the plywood in the shed. The only window I plan on boarding up is the big double window in the front. The rest can blow out, I want new ones anyway.

My top two tips:

1. Make sure you have a manual can opener. Many people thought of that too late.

2. Unscented baby wipes for "bathing" and hand washing saves on water.

Our new visitor the Downy Woodpecker came by yesterday:


And having nothing to do with anything,

Loki licks a leg.