Gone To The Beach: 08.29.2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

A Little Wind, A Little Rain

Hello everyone! Hope you are all home and safe and sound. Thanks for everyone's message of concern.

I'm not at all sure WHAT to say about "Hurricane" Irene....except what?

Yes I am grateful whatever storm there was missed us....but still. Lotta angst and hard work for what we'd call a rainy night at the beach! I mean, c'mon! 35 MPH wind?! Storms with 60MPH winds are not uncommon here and we go nowhere, except about our usual lives.

The beach has no trees so no branches are here to fall on us, and our two feet elevation [two---2! feet!] above sea level was more than enough to protect us from the so-called "storm surge/ high tide".

beach to my west just after "eye" passed

Was the hurricane party fun!? Oh yes! Wonderful new friends took us in and gave us a party to remember....and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Such warmth and generosity, such amazing hospitality. (Thank you, N & D!).

so-called storm surge?

But I resent the news media with their fear-mongering tactics and overblown hoopla...making me, us all, run away in fear. Run from a marginal storm that if it happened before the days of "hoopla" we'd never have even thought it was a tropical storm.

a little wind, a little foam, a little seaspray...
taken at noon, just after "eye" passed

So Dear Mr Weather Channel Guy: believe me when I tell you my home and I have happily survived far more severe nor'easters and blizzards. Happily tucked in, here at the beach.
Never again. I don't care if Jose or whoever is a Category 5, never again.
(Will I eat my words, because I have kids? We'll see...)

Oh PS: The only scary moment! After the storm was "over" and the plywood down, I just went into the house to get my binoculars to look at my birds...and like a demented Mary Poppins, a huge metal and canvas waterlogged beach umbrella (like a big market umbrella) flew through the air and landed where I'd just been standing, admiring the sunset. An isolated gust brought it from...somewhere.

And now today...the beach is HUGE. And pristine. No treasure, not even a clamshell...that flotsom after a storm thing is just an old wive's tale!

Erosian, what erosian? The beach is lower and flatter but much deeper, wider...

The birds look exhausted though, poor babies.

a toppled on purpose lifeguard stand.
They tip them over to make them more stable...

A little evidence of the largest waves...this wooden bin is about the size of a large SUV. It usually is on the beach by the above lifeguard stand to my east. Now it is high up on my dunes.