photo courtesy of magnoid
Well hey there. I hope of you dear readers survived Irene’s visit with minimal damage. It was amazing how quickly the weather went from torrential rains to a lovely sunny day. Mother nature can be so fickle this time of year.
From a glance at Facebook and Twitter it seemed that most of us decided to ride out the storm surrounded by vast amounts of toilet paper, alcohol and junk food.
While we seemed to be spared the worst of the storm, Irene left a big mess for us to clean up. Thousands of our neighbors in the Greater Washington area lost power but most of us here on the Hill did not. Thanks for those underground power lines, Pepco! We did lose a number of trees which blocked streets and squished a few cars.
I am looking forward to hearing everyone’s hunkering down stories so please share!
Sharee: Made a quick trip to a relatively not-crowded Eastern Market for a few “just in case” provisions. She then spent the rest of the day not panicking and hanging out at the neighbor’s house enjoying some delicious concoction of gin with muddled basil from the backyard. Sunday? Breakfast at Ted’s Bulletin was just as crowded as any other weekend, so I guess everyone else woke to find things (mostly) in working order too.
Liz: Got in a nice pre-gust jog, then picked up some odd vegetables from the Market for a brisket stew and checked and rechecked basement apparatus, batteries and relative status, but only went into high gear as midnight approached and the winds whipped, glass crashed and a tree fell at the end of the street. But no flooding, phew. All that rattling and shaking and wind-roaring all night, left her with a ‘cane hangover headache Sunday, which some yard work, a bike ride and a trip to Eastern Market did little to alleviate. Maria said it was the change in barometric pressure. A nice DCFD Brush Unity guy cut a log from a downed tree for the kids as a seat stump. I have to say, it was a banner weekend for kids on the Hill. Lots of treats, time with parents, hanging around the house playing video games as the rains came, climbing on trees, picking up leaves, sticks and other fun debris and watching the chainsaw guys, touring the aftermath.
Maria: behaved like a total hurricane n00b this weekend. Thank goodness the Capitol Hill Supermarket was open and had a fabulous display of Evian (ah, first-world problems…) and thank goodness Nichole and Liz went to sleep late on Saturday night. Sunday restored our souls at the Argonaut. Yay!
Jon: We spent Saturday morning going up to Ellicott City, Maryland and back for a friend’s baby shower. We avoided the rain going but drove throw normal showers returning. I made a brief visit to the National Building Museum on Saturday afternoon to check out the CANstruction event before heading home and waiting out the storm. Sunday we surveyed the aftermath – minimal for us, thankfully – and spent the day doing chores and taking walks to the uncrowded grocery store.
Lauren: No damage, lights stayed on, baked chocolate chip cookies. Pretty much a banner weekend considering the number of friends we have without power today.
Jen: Friday night we took the kids to see the Wizard of Oz at the Atlas after learning that the younger child had NEVER seen it. We had a quick bite at the new Shawafel across the street where that same child ate the french fry sandwich and proclaimed it delicious. Saturday I shopped for groceries, went to yoga and hung around the house. I ventured out into the storm around ten to join friends who were in the midst of an H Street Hurricane tour. The tour had stopped at Little Miss Whiskeys just steps away from my house where there were plenty of other revelers, undaunted by a few raindrops. Sunday I took the kids to the new Deanwood pool and then for a Last Day of Summer gelato at Pitango. Tried to get them to bed early but Monday morning is going to be painful…