Storm

Last week we endured a nor'easter on top of a nor'easter just before the remnants of a hurricane rolled in.

Queens Creek tried to contain herself, but those sustained northeast winds wore her down after a while, especially at high tide.

The water came in the yard but thankfully not in the house.
Unless you want to count the standing water in my garage due to a clogged drain, and I don't.
Thank you very much.

The dock and boathouse, built by my father in the 1970s, worried me.  The creek was over the top of the dock and well up the side of the boathouse for at least five days straight.  Whenever I went out to check on things, especially at high tide, I shook my head as I watched the weakened dock boards go up and down like piano keys with every wave that hit.

There are four dock boards here poking their heads above water.
They're supposed to be attached to the dock, not coming up for air.

(Let's not talk about the paint job the boathouse needs. Thank you.)

This was the first time I ever wondered if the boathouse would finally just surrender and say, "Ya know what?  I've been here a long time.  I'm old.  I'm tired.  I've put up with a lot of stuff, I've done my job.  I deserve to be retired, sipping a margarita poolside in Florida.  Why, exactly, am I still here on Queens Creek putting up with heavy, sustained northeasterly winds and water up to my waist?"

I didn't have an answer.  I couldn't muster a reason at all.  As a matter of fact, why wasn't *I* sipping a margarita poolside in Florida?  Why was *I* still here putting up with the same stuff day after day? Storm after storm?


Miraculously, we both stayed put.

Although the boathouse and I survived with nothing more than an attitude, the dock clearly showed signs of a potential move to Florida surrender.

Luckily, this was the worst of it for us.

Mathews schools let out early on Friday and were closed Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday there was an hour delay to allow the tide to come in and out.

And the sun came back out again.

The storm always passes.  

And life goes on.

********

p.s. I'm not blogging as much for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is Daughter is using my laptop for homework since hers kicked the bucket of late.  Other reasons include driving 400 miles a week to work, work itself, other people asking me to take on more work, very little spare time, nor'easters, surviving as a single parent, surviving another senior year of high school and college applications, remembering to order senior pictures, enduring a nagging toothache that is causing a nagging headache 24 hours a day and my refusal to go to a dentist, Daughter's car needing work, Son needing money, a dog that needs a bath, a cat that needs flea medicine, the stink bug population, ants on my counter, a leaking kitchen sink, a dripping kitchen faucet, and a case of severe exhaustion.  Oh, and I'm training for a half marathon.

Stormy Weather

These are pictures of my yard and dock during what has been the longest spell of dark, dreary, rainy, windy weather we've had in quite a while.

During this time, I've also been out of work due to the government shutdown.

At first, it was OK. 

The dreary weather combined with no place to be forced me to focus on things that needed 

doing, like cleaning out a few closets, organizing my desk, getting caught up on paperwork, etc.   

Now I'm entering week three of no work and week ten thousand two of gloomy rain.

I'm ready to leave the county country.

Bora Bora is sounding particularly wonderful, although I still don't have a passport.

There's not much else to report from here.  

Dreary, boring days filled with inactivity is about it.

They say we may see the sun by the middle of the week.

I'm not sure when I'll be going back to work.

I hope things are better in your neck of the woods.

They'll be better here too, at some point.

A little sunshine would really help.

Haven

This is a shot from a few weeks ago of  Haven Beach in the morning.

I hardly ever go to Haven any more because I don't have time to do anything much less lollygag at the beach prefer our other two county beaches,  Aarons and Bethel.

What a shock to see how much of Haven has eroded away - even with the county's efforts to take protective measures to preserve it (note the rocks just off the shore above).  One of the big nor'easters last year certainly took a toll, but I think it's become even worse here lately.

I'd love to see pictures of our beaches from decades ago, and perhaps in doing my research for the book I'll come across some.  But if they exist they are few and far between - so far I've not found any.

For now, though, this recent trip to Haven made me realize how important it is to document the beaches as they exist right now, because the next big hurricane or nor'easter could do some devastating damage.

Rather than end on that depressing note, I'll close by saying there should be no devastating storms this week, anyway.  If you believe what the weather people are saying, we can expect 80-degree days filled with sunshine.

Enjoy the day and have a great, storm-free week.
 

Wandering Wednesday

Today we wander down to my dock, which was built by my father and some of his friends many moons ago. The dock is a museum filled with things that haven't moved or changed since Walter Cronkite delivered the evening news I was a kid.

For example, a bucket full of gill nets is still there in spite of multiple hurricanes and countless nor'easters.

I used to go out with my father on cold, rough days to help him haul those very same nets in.  Although at the time I hated it wasn't particularly fond of those trips, I did learn a lot and in hindsight am very grateful for those times.

No matter how much the wind was blowin', or how cold you were, or how much something on that boat stunk, eventually it was time to turn green  head home and the whole thing was behind you. Plus, how many girls can say their fathers took them to fish gill nets?  (Ann Marie, put your hand down.)

Since I'm not even showing pictures of the gill nets, let's move on to something else, like the view from the old fish cleaning area below.



This was a covered area rigged with disco lights so they could clean at night.  Windows provided protection from the northeasterly winds and horizontal rain.

  My father and his buddies often came home with what seemed like hundreds of fish to clean.We always ran out to the dock to see how many they caught.  But you wouldn't find me hanging around too long once they started cutting. Blech.





Inside the boat house, there are some oyster tongs. Of course, Chesapeake Bay Woman has been known to incorrectly identify things once or twice a week on this blog, but I have no doubt that someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

But to the best of my knowledge, these are oyster tongs.




This is the dock inside the boat house.  I sort of liked all the lines and angles in this particular shot, especially the triangle of sun. The squiggly lines of the rope and that dangling wire add to the fiesta of shapes.  But I tend to say weird things like fiesta of shapes focus in on weird things, so don't pay me any mind.




Speaking of weird, below is a strange angle of the aforementioned fish cleaning table.  Notice the missing dock planks there on the right.

This old dock, while in need of some TLC and attention, is full of many wonderful memories and never fails to make me feel good whenever I go down there for a visit. (Unless that visit is during a nor'easter and I am wading through knee-high tide to retrieve lawn furniture.  For example.)

If you have any fond memories of a dock, please feel free to share them.  If you've ever fished gill nets, I'd like to hear about that too. If you've never heard of gill nets, Ann Marie will explain what they are since I won't be back on here until very late tonight or tomorrow.


Happy Wednesday.