A Week of Waiting . . . . and a Lot of Joyful Moments 9/30/2022

Moments in time that bring a lot of joy . . . .

Lunch on Tuesday at the Gate House with four of my favorite folks – Bart and Andy from the Chippewa and long-time blog readers DeAna and husband Shawn.

I met DeAna the first time when she and Shawn (a Michigan fire fighter) and their son Trace visited me “quite a few years ago” when I was volunteering at the Stuart House. If I remember correctly Trace was just about to get his driver’s license. Now Trace is grown, married and a Michigan fire fighter also! Love this family so much!

Lunch today at the Chippewa with another group of blog friends, Mike and Pam day from Ohio and Kem and Ed Green from Iowa. Missed you, Pam Kay Kentala! Also in pic are dear friends Jill and Brian Bailey, GM at the Chippewa Hotel Waterfront and Lilac Tree Suites. Brian has been putting up with Ted and I since 2000, when we stayed at the Chippewa for the first time.

The “girls” – Pam, Kem and Jill

Probably my last Secret Garden pic of the season – unless I swing by later and find a river of chrysanthemums flowing under the bridge.

Walking Bodie down to the corner vet’s office at Chambers Corner for his monthly check-up, strongly suggested by his oncologist since he wouldn’t be seeing her for four months.

Our boy was pronounced “a healthy dog” by Dr. Shaker Hites. That pink spot on his nose is from lost pigment due to his radiation treatment – and will probably remain pink from now on. We’ve also noticed recently that the fur under the side of his neck that received the radiation treatment to that lymph node is now white as snow. The other side is blonde.

A great pic by Ted of our handsome boy from one of their early morning walks. Anne’s Tablet and the Straits of Mackinac in the background.

And a week of waiting . . .

This has been a “pins and needles” weeks. From the time we began to realize Hurricane Ian was probably going to impact Florida’s west coast, and then come across pretty close to us on the east coast, we’ve followed along on every report, praying it wouldn’t strengthen or cause harm to lives and property along both sides of the Florida peninsula. Unfortunately, Ian did come ashore as an almost category 5 hurricane, with devastating damage from Naples to Tampa. In our little neighborhood there are roofing shingles, soffit and other debris everywhere. Sunset Inlet looks pretty beaten up, but no one is hurt, and all can be repaired. We’ll know more tomorrow when someone can go inside our house and make sure we don’t have any roof leaks, or water intrusion from windows or doors. If we do, we’ll be going home three weeks earlier than planned. I’ll post on Facebook as soon as I have something definitive to report.

In the meantime, a huge thank you to Sunset Inlet neighbors who have kept us informed all last night and all day today through the very thick of it. We had 50-60 mph winds and at least 10 ” of almost constant rain for over 12 hours straight. It’s hard to be away from home when something like this is going on, and we thank you all for being our eyes and ears.

God bless.

Update: The wind and rain finally calmed down enough for neighbors to go inside our house and check things out. We have some soffit off, but roof and siding are fine. Inside there were no leaks. Something going on with the air conditioning unit in the garage (leak), but AC is working, and the problem might not be storm related at all. We’ll call our AC company to come out and check asap. We are still in disbelief that Sunset Inlet never lost power.

Thanks to everyone for prayers lifted and please continue to pray for those in Florida whose entire lives have been changed over the last two days.