isabel. what i thought was gonna be harmless soon proved me wrong.

she came thru hard core thats for sure. i went home by my parents request and me and my family and some other ppl that my dad works w/ stayed at my dads work. it is underground- which means that i was basically oblivious to what was goin around us. yes the power went out but we got a generator that kept the lights on in one room which was a blessing. so we got there in the morning. 4- my family, 2- a couple, 1- janet, 2- dogs, 1- 82 y/o milly. we spent the majority of the day playng rummykub and cards...rummy 500 and blackjack, and i learned how to play kings of the corner. we had the radios informing us of the news. we had lots of food and battery powered fake lanterns to lead us around. we had to go upstairs to get a signal on our cell phones..that is before they died. and my dad had his little t.v. that kept us company some. my dog bella [a little yorkshire terrior] was continuously being chased around by storm, janets dog, a germain shepard. ha considerable size difference there. bella thought she was bigger and meaner until storm almost attacked her when he found bella eating his food. ha. when it was time for bed we realized that the lights couldnt be turned off so we moved into a small office to sleep. the next morning we got up around 7. my dad was already gone to try and drive over to see if our house made it. we had coffee and awaited his return. when he got back we packed up all our cars, cleaned up our mess and left. we knew that there was alot of damage done but when we actually saw it all it was crazy. the roads were covered w/ trees and branches and leaves are everywhere in site. the light signals are out obviously since the power was still out so traffic was kinda crazy. when we got into our neighborhood everyone was out walkin around just in shock. there were trees down on almost every house. we drove up to our street and couldnt go up it. two trees were down across blocking the road. we parked and got out. the house at the end of our road had three trees on it. one had totally crushed their garage and the roof was peeling up. another house had trees just leaning on it. we got to our house. our entire drive way was basically covered w/ fallen trees. nothing had hit our house. trees that fell into our driveway looked as if someone trimmed them to fall just shy of hitting our garage. the only damage done was a loose shudder on the porch and a tree fell and broke part of our fence. Praise God he protected it. our 'this house is protected by angels' sign held true. so the rest of the day we moved everything perishable into coolers w/ the ice that we had, cooked on the grill, and my dad started cleanin up the backyard. me and my sister went out on a hunt for ice. we came back after an hour empty handed. the rest of the time that i was ridiculously bored i was thinkin about how our generation is so spoiled and how we cry if the power is out for as short of a time as 1 day. its like we think we have nothin to do if we cant watch tv or get online. true? so yea. i also was playing the piano alot and lookin at magazines and eating ofcourse. i drove around town to check up on my friends to see how they made it. everyone is safe. today i did the same things...played piano mostly and walked around. i took my dog for a walk. i re-dyed my hair [oh yea by the way if anyone doesnt know...i dyed my hair dark brown w/ a slight red tint.] its pretty sweet. so i got a call saying that the power came back on at my apartment so that means i no longer have an excuse not to do school work. so now i am back in richmond. and becky said she is glad to have me back :) i feel special.