Goodbye Earl

4:37pm

I'd like to thank (aka smack upside the head) the person who added "Earl" to the list of Hurricane Names.  All day long the Dixie Chicks song "Earl" has been playing through my head.

So this morning I got up and the sky was mostly clear - but I was able to get a photo of a few of the clouds.

I woke up the kids, and got them off to school.  Eve and I stopped by the grocery for the obligatory hurricane supplies.  These weren't your run of the mill milk, bread, water....oh no instead my list consisted of chips, dip, milk (really though ours expired 2 days ago ), bananas, and bacon (ok so bacon wasn't on the list, but was on sale)

So the day went on and I have felt more and more at ease with not evacuating.  The weather people have said that we aren't expected to get more and 50mph wind here (hey they're the experts - not me) and some rain.  I had reserved a room in Raleigh just in case we needed to leave, and I still might have even considered it now if Andrew didn't have school tomorrow, but he is just under a 2 hour delay, and I am not going to drive back from Raleigh so he makes it to school on time.

I have however bungeed the trash cans and grill to the privacy fence just in case.   I have plenty of flashlights, batteries, candles, food, water, and I am charging the cell phone and laptop - so I am covered there.

I am saving this here so I can update it later

10:21pm

I have waited around to see what's going to happen - but I am exhausted - the kids don't have to go to school till 9, but that doesn't mean Eve will sleep in.  I have been up late the last few nights doing homework - so I fully intend to drift off to sleep as soon as the 11pm update is over.

I just looked outside and the wind was barely blowing - there was a light rain - but overall I feel this is going to be a pretty non-event - which it's funny but when Ophelia came through it was much worse than this, and I don't remember feeling this worried about her.

So unless I can't sleep (which as tired as I am I find that doubtful) I am closing out this blog entry and will start a new one tomorrow - I also have some cloud photos to post on here...and I have to remember hot to do that first :)