Umm, About that Tidal Flooding . . .

Moving to this area meant that I would likely encounter a hurricane at some point. Of course, living in DC we did experience hurricanes, but often "the remnants" of a hurricane that had come ashore some place south of DC. (Like here!)

When Hurricane Hanna came ashore, I was nervous. Luckily, all we got was some wind and rain - no flooding, no damage and we didn't even lose power.

Recently we've been having strong winds and rain, with tidal flooding. There's a Nor'easter off the shore of North Carolina that is pushing this our way. So this weekend we did have tidal flooding, and we had some water in the yard. The problem is, it's never receded.

This first picture was taken this morning around 7:15am. You can see our dock coming out of the water, and that the water is up around the playset:


You can see that it's also approaching the storage shed.

In the next picture, this is the neighbor's yard. That line of shrubbery is where the retaining wall is where the water usually stops. That post sticking out of the ground (center, foreground) is what's left of the fence after the city was finished with their work on the storm drain, which is completely covered in this photo.

This next set of pictures was taken around 5:45 this evening when I got back home. It rained all day long, and it's not supposed to stop until Saturday. I think I might be in trouble here - at least for the stuff that's in the storage shed. We'll see.

This next shot just gives you an idea about how far up the water is into the yard. That wooden deck (lower right corner) is right up against the house. The fence gate is at the end of the car port, which is along side the garage.

This next picture is of the neighbor's yard again. And it shows you just how much water is in the canal. The yard on the other side of my neighbors is completely under water. Again, that shrubbery is where the retaining wall is.

We'll see how this turns out. I had nothing to worry about from the hurricane, but this nor'easter is something else entirely.

Oh, and these were taken with the cell phone's camera. So not the best quality, but it'll do in a pinch.

Totally Bummed!

Well, I've gone and done it now - I've managed to lose the memory card for the camera. :(

No more pictures for the time being.

But really, right now every picture would be of a cranky, crying Bree. She's been quite the sour pickle today. We did have an outside adventure today, though. High tide was really high today - it came halfway into the yard. I didn't see any harm in letting Bree splash and play in the water - after all, it was in the yard. We came in after she was really too wet to justify being outside. The temperature has dropped here - it was in the low seventies here today - really nice to be outside, but it was cloudy & overcast all day. We might go for a walk after dinner, but only if her disposition improves.

Actually, it's just the whining that really gets on my nerves. I need to see a geneticist to get the "whiny gene" removed. From both me AND her. :)

Poolside Daredevil

This morning, Bree was playing in her pool. Or I should say, supposedly playing in her pool. I looked over and she was riding the whale tale like a rodeo champ!


There's really nothing wrong with what she's doing - it's just another example of how this girl has NO FEAR of anything.

We came in for lunch but will be going back out this afternoon. We'll see what fun new tricks she has up her sleeve then!

POW!

Last night when I was putting pyjamas on Bree, I said "Pow!" when I got one of her arms through the sleeve. I said it again when I did the other. She thought that this was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

We did it again this morning. Same result.

After her bath this evening, she started saying "pow!" And laughing. Giggling.

So I thought I'd try to get it on video. Here you go. POW!

Labor Day, Part I

After breakfast this morning, we decided to go down to the oceanfront. There is a musical festival going on - okay, we found out that it was over yesterday, but we went down thinking that it might be going on. I threw Bree's swimsuit, sunscreen & two swim dipers in my bag just in case Scott was willing to take her into the water.

When we visited some friends in Nags Head over the 4th of July, I took Bree down to the ocean, not knowing how she'd react. Well, that girl ran headlong in the water, and would have kept going had I not grabbed her. She showed no fear of the ocean, and wanted to get right in it.

So when we hit the beach, again, she ran straight for the water. We watched to see if she'd be content with just wading, and just keeping her feet in the water. Oh no - that would be much too tame for our girl. So we put her in her swim diaper & swim suit, and Scott took her into the water.

She loved it. She couldn't get enough. Even when the waves were strong, she loved it. She laughed the whole time she was in the water. We let her play for, oh, I don't know - almost a half hour, and then she got cold. The wind is quite gusty down at the ocean front, and it got chillier than I thought it would. And wouldn't you know it - I didn't bring a towel. Scott took her to the showers to rinse her off, and as I was saying what an idiot I was for not bringing a towel, a kind woman overhead me and offered me the use of one of their towels. She had two children, and commiserated that it was hard enough to remember the kids, let alone all the stuff that you needed to bring when going to the beach! So that was really nice of her. We got Bree dressed, and we warmed her up in the sun, and walked the rest of the boardwalk.



Bree was gung ho to go back into the water, but was content to stand and watch the waves when we told her that she couldn't go back in.

The next picture would have been a great one of Bree & her daddy, but she was too busy looking to see what was goign on down the beach.

She seemed mesmerized by the waves. I think she would have stared at the waves all day long if we would have let her

.

I think that swimming lessons are in her future. I purposefully have stayed away from the ocean front because Scott was working out of town, and I knew that I could not handle Bree at the beach all by myself. She's too fast, and I'm not that great a swimmer. That combination made me too nervous to try to take her by myself. So it was great to hit the beach Scott there. I was so much more relaxed about it.

She clearly LOVES the water. And since I can only do 5 photos per blog entry, the rest are in the next one, Labor Day Part II.

Labor Day, Part II

It is a beautiful day here - just gorgeous. It was a great time to be down on the beach.

I took this one because her little sandy foot was just so darn cute!

Bree could say "wave" and "water" and I kept asking her where the wave went when it came in. I got an "I don't know, why don't you stop asking me stupid questions?" look from her.

She had such a great time down on the beach.

And she crashed HARD on the walk back to the car. She was seriously napping by about 10:30am - almost unheard of. But all that fun wore her out, and she slept for a good hour & a half.

At this point, it's too soon to see what Hurricane Hanna is going to do - but if we're lucky, we could go back to the beach next weekend and do it all over again.