And the rain came tumbling down or should I say flying sideways?

Hi all-

As I am sure the world knows, tropical storm Fay has been quite busy over the past few weeks and Josh and I (and the rest of South/all of Florida) got to experience some of her activities first hand. :)

Fay truly came for a visit down here last Friday. And in anticipation of her visit many schools were closed for the day. Honestly, at the time I felt that the Fay fear was a little over the top. I mean, she wasn't even a hurricane...but just a tropical storm. And living in the part of the country that we do, tropical storms are not typically something that are given a lot of thought...but Fay was different.

Why? Perhaps because she was so slow moving...and because she was leaving SO much rain behind! ARGH!!! As a result, Fay was doing tremendous damage without even being a hurricane.

So, even though the high school where I teach, didn't close on Friday we did release early. And I have to admit it was nice getting out a little bit early. It was even nicer only having 40 minute periods throughout the day. :)

But I was determined, even at this point that Fay was no big deal. Thus, bound and determined I began to make plans for Josh's and my date night. My husband and I started doing these together last winter and let it slide for the summer, but now that autumn activities are upon us, we've picked it back up.

Last weekend was Josh's turn, and he announced that we were going to Tallahassee for our date night. We had a wonderful time...we ate Olive Garden, went to the movies to see Swing Vote, and of course went to Sam's Club. But the on the way home...our car broke down...so date night turned into dddddaaaatttteeee nnnnniiiiigggghhhhtttt! And even though we broke down before 10 PM...the never ending date night, meant we didn't get back into town until after TWO A.M. Yuck!

So this weekend it was my turn to come up with something for date night tropical storm or no tropical storm! And I was determined we weren't leaving town because I didn't want another two A.M. adventure.

But, let me tell you, it's not easy to come up with creative and fun things to do in the middle of a tropical storm. I didn't want to go to the movies...we've done that a lot lately. I thought about putt putt, but it was raining...so out went that idea...and what I came up with instead was a progressive dinner.

It actually turned out great...except for the cold wet rain. Here's how the dinner worked. We had appetizers at one restaurant (Blue Sky Grill)...then climbed back into the car...and drove to Applebees for the main course. And it was at Applebee's that it hit us...the rain wasn't tumbling down, but flying sideways! Well, Josh realized it...when I opened my door to dart for Applebee's and he got wet (even though he was across the car from me)!!!!

So we talked throughout our main course about how the storm was much more powerful than we had anticipated...but do not fear, even the strong winds and flying rain couldn't keep us away from Dairy Queen for dessert.

Yes, we topped off our evening with two blizzards from Dairy Queen. After all every one needs a blizzard in the middle of a tropical storm. Right?

Well, let me tell you the Dairy Queen visit was interesting because the light on the drive-thru was literally hanging by it's electric wires and swinging over the car. Yikes! We'd passed a light pole in a car lot that had been knocked completely over...and so it was obvious it was time to get home.

And homeward, we drove. Thankfully, our trip home was uneventful...as was ALL day Saturday. Except for the rain, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday morning! The rain was so hard and so steady that I was contemplating singing, "The Lord said to Noah...there's gonna be a floody, floody..." Because that is certainly what it felt like with all of that RAIN!

And by Sunday morning...we'd received FOURTEEN, yes FOURTEEN inches of rain. That's a far cry from what the newscasters were saying with their 6-8 inches expected.

Thankfully though, nothing of ours was tremendously damaged. We have limbs down everywhere, but that's okay. We can pick those up. The creek didn't flood...which is good, since we live right beside it.

But many rivers down here did. In fact, the town where I teach got over twenty inches of rain (and they're just 30 miles down the road)...so school was called off today.

(A tree down in front of a school in Thomasville)

And don't you know I'm just heartbroken that I had to have a holiday today? But I do feel for those people whose roads were washed out or who had serious damage from this storm.

I think Fay has taught us all a spectacular lesson and that is...you can't judge a storm by it's first appearance. Because no matter what it's called because even a tropical storm can send truckloads of rain flying sideways, not just tumbling down.