Easily Excitable

Thursday and Friday were scary days for most of us, as Hurricane Helene came barreling through. 

If you’re anything like me, you spent a lot of this past week scrolling and refreshing a radar, looking to see how and when she would make her arrival. 

She came barreling through in the wee hours of Friday morning, but we were blessed to wake up Saturday morning with power and minimal damage. 

I know that isn’t the case for a lot of folks, and I’m praying for those who lost property or, even worse, lost life: there is nothing more tragic than that. 

I wanted to show you what riding out this storm looked like for us. 

Please know I’m not making light of the situation: rather, I’m proving to you what a magnificent ignoramus I am.

In fact, I want to prove that to your every chance I get, no matter the weather we are facing. 

Trey came in Tuesday and told me we needed to think about if we were going over to the big house (my parents’ home), what with Hurricane Helene on her merry way toward us. 

“If?”

There were no ‘ifs’ about this situation: a single wide on stilts isn’t the ideal setting for us to ride out a hurricane. 

So, the plans were set: we’d shack up at Momma and Daddy’s Thursday night. 

Well, imagine my surprise (and the children’s excitement) when school was canceled Friday. 

When I told my students (three minutes before the bell, mind you- I didn’t want all that JOY to sully my classroom), you would have thought I’d said summer break was coming soon- as in, tomorrow-soon. 

They hooted and hollered like nobody’s business, and class sizes from first to sixth shrunk exponentially. 

Is it because of the storms, you ask? 

Well, anyone who knows a high school knows that an extremely sunny day is just as good of a reason to miss school as a very stormy one. 

So, I’ll let you be the judge of that. 

Thursday, I prepped as all good folks do: 

I gassed up my car, got cash from the ATM, and went to the gym for an afternoon workout. 

After all, I thought, if I wouldn’t be able to come back for a few days because of a power outage, I really need to get some bang for my buck beforehand. 

Plus, in an emergency situation, I need to have as little energy as possible. 

Otherwise, my nervousness is promptly converted into an absurd (and annoying) burst of enthusiasm that is not conducive to anyone’s sanity. 

Best that I tucker myself out the old fashioned way: on a treadmill and a recumbent bike.

The way God intended. 

I then got home.

I commenced cleaning the house and cooking dinner like we were welcoming a guest named Helene, rather than a category 55 hurricane. 

More energy out of my system? Perfect. 

We had dinner, prepped for a slumber party at my parents, and got ready to head out the door. 

I won’t lie to you: I was a little nervous for our trailer. 

She’s a little more…er…wizened??? than her peers, and the thought of ninety mile an hour winds had me a little jumpy for her sake. 

Plus, I think the trailer got her feelings hurt about my writing last week, because the handle on the toilet broke off this week. 

That’s neither here nor there, but I thought I should just say that. 

She can be a little bitter. 

So, while Trey showered, I dried my hair (because honestly, I didn’t know when I might be able to wash it again) and then walked from room to room and prayed in each one. 

ONE THING ABOUT ME IS I’M ‘GONE BLESS MY TRAILER.

I almost forgot our laundry nook, but then felt convicted, and I went and prayed for that too. 

After all, I have played through scenarios, and if the old oak tree in the back comes a’fallin’, our laundry room is toast. 

What’s more, we just bought a new thing of laundry detergent and dryer sheets, and if something happens to that little room, that’s approximately $107 insurance won’t cover. 

It should be noted, also, that during this time, 

I realized we had a substantial amount of laundry that had not been done: see, that’s normally classified as a “Friday night task” because nothing says weekend like a clean pickleball skirt.  

So, had the power gone out, you might would’ve gotten a picture of Trey and me washing our clothes in a roadside puddle or even the ol’ crick out across the road. 

And, being that I am an English major, and Trey is an engineer by trade, you can only imagine the amount of fun we would have had hanging a clothes drying line together out behind our home. 

(We have two VERY different approaches to tasks. This never shows up more than when we have some type of ‘assembling/ set-up’ project. 

He makes it work, and I make it FUN, okay??)

I’m not one to worry about the details (though, in this instance, I probably should), so in my mind, that was filed in the “Welp, Nothing I Can Do About That” folder. 

And so we arrived at the big house for a slumber party. 

Zayden was waiting up for us, so at least one person was only focused on the fun side of hurricane prep. 

We watching the news, enjoyed each other’s’ company, and drifted to bed. 

Trey and I slept in my childhood bed, and we both settled down to read a bit before we went to sleep. 

I had my supplements lined out, my melatonin beside the bed, and my reading light hooked on my book. 

I was all set….or…I was until I remembered I didn’t have my earplugs. 

My mother remedied the situation, and all was well. 

Trey drifted off into his slumber, and I found my eyes getting heavy. 

I turned out the lights as dreams of no school tomorrow danced through my head. 

And then, lo and behold, Trey jumped. 

And when I say jumped, you need to think of more of a jolt. 

He jolted in his sleep, scaring me half to death and sending me a clear three inches off the mattress. 

He jolted.  

He shifted.

He tossed. 

He turned. 

He kicked. 

And that was when I realized Trey had kicked the sleepiness right out of me. 

This man gets more steps in his sleep than I do in a day of teaching. 

Here is the thing about my childhood bed: 

It was a great size for me throughout my teenage and post-college years. But sharing that same bed with another human being?

And that human being is fighting battles in his sleep? 

All of a sudden, I couldn’t help but think, “Surely, this bed has not always been this small.”

As I tried to drift off, I decided my only way to fix the problem was to kick him right back. 

Did that solve the problem? 

Absolutely not. 

But it made me feel a lot better. 

My right leg kept a vigilant watch so the rest of me could sleep. Finally, all cozied up, I conked out. 

At the wee hour of 4:00, Trey rolled up and started getting ready to go to work.

This was after he had finally gotten still for approximately eighteen minutes. 

We were both checking the weather, and I felt like the winds were a little heavy, but being the good wife I am, I checked the radar, prayed about it, and went right back to sleep. 

But, before I drifted off, I did admonish the speeding ticket king, 

“Trey, you’ve got to drive slow.”

He made it to work, and all was well. 

I woke up at 6:00 aM, and I walked outside. I wanted to feel the winds. 

They were strong. 

That’s all I have to say about that. 

And so, we hunkered down, and we weathered the storm together. 

Zayden woke up to tell us that he didn’t sleep a minute, and what I wanted to tell him (but didn’t because I AM WORKING ON MY SELF-CONTROL) was that he didn’t have to try and sleep with someone who’s dancing in his slumber, so count your blessings, bub.  

And so, all’s well that ends well. 

Our county, for the most part, fared well, but, in writing this, I do realize that not everyone had the outcome we did from this storm. 

I hurt and pray for those folks: that their recovery will be swift and that communication and restoration will be smooth. 

I also ask for comfort for those families who lost loved ones. 

We were fortunate. 

On Wednesday, I walked around the farm. 

I walked up the road, around our trailer, near my parents’ place, and past the surrounding fields. 

I asked that God would protect us and keep us in the storm: that He would look after the trees, keep them stable, protect the house, and more so, protect the ones who would be in it. 

As I looked outside yesterday morning, I saw that not a tree had fallen, and the limbs that littered the ground were minimal.

Our power blipped for fifteen to thirty minutes. 

Even our muscadines had the majority of the grapes still on the vine. 

For anyone who didn’t wear their earplugs last night and heard the assault of the wind outside, you know that’s a pretty amazing feat. 

I don’t understand the whys or hows of God answering prayers: sometimes, the way He answers just doesn’t seem like it could be right. 

I think that, even as I believe He always does what is right and does it when it’s the right time. 

I don’t know much, but I know He answered this one in a visible way for us. 

 And I’m grateful for that. 

That being said, we have power, and we would love to help with any needs you might know about. Shoot me a message: let me know. 

Stay safe, folks!