It strikes me funny as I am sitting here at how strange my life may seem to others looking in from the outside. I am sitting it the blaring sunshine of the kindergarten pickup line waiting to pick up my son from the first day back to school after our Hurricane Matthew evacuation. As I am sitting here in my car, I am crocheting a tiny hat for a dog that lives up North in a much colder climate. It's what I do. The onlookers of this sleepy little Southern town think I am nuts, I am sure of it. When my son introduces me at school or out and about, he says very proudly, "My Mom crochets for dogs!"
Oh well, I haven't fit in for the better part of my life so why try now, right? Now, back to the evacuation for that hurricane. We ended up leaving quite early in the morning two days before it hit. Of course, in typical fashion, my son had found himself ill with a rather nasty respiratory thing so the day before we left, I drove both of us to his doctor without an appointment after waiting, unsuccessfully, for a nurse to call me back and managed to get seen and get the needed medicine in case we needed it. We then, went home and threw everything we could fit into our SUV, including two less than thrilled putty cats, and drove west to Alabama.
There, from the safety of our hotel room, we watched the likes of Matthew bear down on our home and many of our loved ones and neighbors that chose to stay. Luckily, our house and neighborhood were spared the worst of it but our town and many of our favorite haunts were ravaged. I feel blessed to be here and safe but I can honestly say that experience shook me and that is coming from someone that went through all of the Florida Hurricanes in 2004 I think including Charlie.
