Farewell Barry, We Hardly Knew Ye

Last week was a busy week at work. News reports showed that a hurricane would be moving across our area.  I work for an oil company, and we spent an abundance of time filling all of our customers' tanks with fuel and delivering oil to ensure their inventory was stocked in the event of disruptions in supply.

Tricia and I spent time as well at home, walking around outside, securing anything that could blow around during the storm, and preparing for the storm.  We took the swing down that hangs from chains off of the big live oak tree in the back yard.  In an earlier storm it was blown into the tree and was broken.  We brought the American flag inside so it wouldn't get wet and exposed to the weather.  We laid the basketball goal down as in an earlier storm, it blew over and bent the rim.  We put stakes and ropes around a tree that falls in windy conditions to help prop it up.

Then we waited.  The storm was slow in getting here, but Barry finally arrived.  We were blessed to not have any damage.

Barry didn't quite pack the punch that some prognosticators predicted, but it always helps to be prepared.  Barry's effects were less than some thunderstorms we get during the spring and summer.  We always think about where our exposure is with these storms.  One of the biggest is the loss of power and thus possibility of losing all of our meat in the freezers.  We've thought about getting a generator, but we can't bite the bullet in spending money on something that we may never use. 

When all was said and done, we got less than 3 inches of rain and gusty winds that knocked down some dead branches from our trees.  The power only blinked on and off a couple of times.  I think the animals actually enjoyed the inclement weather as it cooled things off and allowed them to comfortably eat grass in the pasture all day long.