Barbie Perkins-Cooper, Author

Dearest Readers:

 

Image of Angel Oaks tree, over 400+ years old. Surviving many hurricanes.

Today is Day Five of anticipating Hurricane Florence. Now, she’s downgraded to a Category One storm.

While looking out my window moments ago, I saw gusty winds. The trees were not dancing an elegant ballet, just an unchoreographed, erratic dance with the branches of trees moving around like an outraged dancer attempting a performance, or a hawk flying over looking for its next prey! Moments ago, the wind gusted. Now, it’s a simple, soft wind, where my pine trees are not moving at all. The mimosa trees sways with the wind. Now, there’s another gust, not nearly as active and unpredictable as the stronger gusts.

It’s only a matter of time now before we feel the hurricane. I suppose Florence wanted to make her debut into Charleston like a talented artist with only one showing, or maybe she did not want to fight the congested traffic of the low country. Who knows?

Much to my surprise, last night I slept well once again. I awoke a bit after 4:00am, deciding to get up and walk around the house to check on the arrival of Florence. Everything was quiet. All of the neighborhood appeared to be asleep. I opened the back door, to find nothing different. Quiet. Peaceful. So nice. So, I went back to bed after turning on channel 362, The Weather Channel.

Apparently, Hurricane Florence really likes North Carolina. Her twirling winds and rain were pounding the State of North Carolina. For those of you who believe hurricanes “only happen on the coast. Inland is safe.” You must understand, hurricanes hitting the southeast coastline turn inward. Hugo – went to Charlotte. Matthew – went inland to Georgia. We had hotel reservations in Georgia. The hotel would allow my dogs! When I discovered the predictions of heading ‘inland in Georgia,’ I cancelled those reservations, choosing to stay home! We were safer here than Georgia! Never did we lose power.

Looks like the gusting winds are back. Most of my trees appear to be strong. We haven’t had much rain in September, so I suppose when we get rains, the trees will guzzle lots of water, only to allow it to remain on the grounds for a while.

And so today, I return to listen to the latest predictions on the Weather Channel while I glance out the windows to watch occasional winds gusting around my trees. Yesterday, I saw a few birds, including an erratic hawk while we drove to a restaurant that was open.

I suppose I was in the mood to have a cocktail — oops, looks like I was a ‘naughty girl,’ drinking three kahlua and creams while my hubby sipped Diet Coke. Oh well. Sometimes, I must let my hair down to enjoy life, even if a hurricane-is-a-comin!’

Stay tuned! More Later!