Irma extras

• After Tom went out during the storm to check on the noise I was hearing banging against the house, I freaked out. I mean, seriously, who goes out during a hurricane? Not only that, but he went out our back door which is not as sturdy as the front and with it not latched I was concerned it would blow off. He returned safe and sound, but that wasn't good enough for me and so I scolded him. "What were you thinking? Are you nuts? Blah, blah, blah." He paid as much attention to all of that as he usually does when I freak out, and so I told on him to his mother, thinking she would lay into him. Instead she said, "Was it windy?"
• I have a SnapChat streak with my SIL in Indiana. We had gotten to 700 days of daily picture snapping to one another. My SIL was freaking out about losing the streak and so I did what my youngest daughter and her friend did when she went to China. I gave my SIL my password information and she snapped for me so the streak would stay alive. I liked the idea of this because that way she could get out information to my family too. When my brother received a picture of his own dog from my account, he was quite confused. When he found out the truth he was flabbergasted. "Are you kidding me?" When my youngest saw her photo of the dog, she said, "Glad to see SnapChat was a priority during the hurricane, Mom."
• Not getting the news was weird. Not knowing where Irma was after hitting us was creepy. The only time I got great cell service was in the early hours of the morning. My friend Robin and my cousin Jay were the only two up at that hour so they would text me the news and pictures of where Irma was wrecking havoc. It was like they were the only two people on the outside. 
• On Tuesday we drove Grandma home. She and Elliot were in the back seat and Tom and I were up front in the van. First mission was to get gas. We knew the station up the road had gas so we discussed our strategy; which way to enter the station, how long we were willing to wait, whether or not we turned off the engine while waiting, etc. We were all involved in the conversation. We pulled in and waited until our turn. Tom got out to fill the gas can and top off the van. No sooner did he get out of the van then I heard Grandma say, "What's he doing, huh?" I thought, "OMG! Is she serious?" So I reminded her, loudly, that we were getting gas in our can and in our van and she started laughing. She was talking to the dog. Who obviously did not follow the early conversation. I was quite relieved to know that Irma hadn't sent Grandma into the start of dementia. 
• We collected twenty bags of debris mostly sticks, leaves, and small stuff and then we received the notice from the county that we shouldn't bag. Seriously? Hopefully, our garbage company will do so. The large limbs and rest of the debris sits along our curb for pick up by the county.
• Everywhere we drive there is debris stacked on the curb. Major trees were toppled, including huge palm trees. It's crazy to see the roots on these things ripped right out of the ground. We wonder if there will come a time when we don't see this stuff stacked along the roadways. Who knew we had so many trees with so many leaves.