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Lucky

I am writing this post because we are lucky.

We never lost power during Irene.
We had only a few tree branches come down in our yard.
Our front storm door is toast (it was old) and a piece of our fence is down (it was old).

Big branch that fell just beside my brother's house.
Gutter is bent but all is ok.
A few stray limbs fell from the trees.


The storm door was flung open by the wind.
It shattered in a few places and the glass is gone
(still intact but fell off the door)
CJ's Butterfly Bush is doing well.
She grew a lot this summer.
Piece of our fence fell down. One thing we'll need to replace.


We are lucky and blessed.  

After all the shit that has smacked our lives over the last two years, it's good to feel positive about something.  Irene was a crazy storm and many people have not been nearly so lucky.  At the moment, Roger is trolling the neighborhood with his chainsaw, trying to help others who face significant cleanup from the storm damage.

I thought a lot about Charlotte during the last 24 hours.  Particularly, I thought of this post I wrote at the end of May in 2009.  We had just been to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for the first time, getting a second opinion and a new direction on Charlotte's cancer treatments.  I found the analogy of a hurricane strangely adaptable to the shitstorm we faced with cancer.  I still think it works.  

If you have been impacted by this storm, stay safe. 
If you are local and you need a place to stay, a warm shower, or just a place to charge your batteries, we have plenty of room at our house and my brother's house.  Come on over!

If you feel lucky today, count your blessings.
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