Home again!

Our most recently adopted cat, Jakes, came back home today after having been missing for 5 nights. I was worried about him, and thought it was entirely possible that we would not see him again, but I wasn't particularly distraught.

Why? Because I knew that if he didn't find his way home to us, someone would feed and take care of him. Ocracoke is definitely a cat friendly place. Several people even take responsibility for ensuring that the island's feral cat population eats regularly, spending their own money on food to put at areas where our feline citizens hang out in groups, like the Post Office and the Bank. So I knew that here in the village, Jakes would be in good hands.

We did post a flyer at the Post Office in case anyone had seen him, and very quickly got a call from our friend Amy. (We're still not sure if the cat she saw was Jakes or not, and of course it's a moot point now.) This is another great thing about the community here - people do try to keep a lookout for each other (and each other's animals!), and help when they can.


This picture is from a few weeks ago. Jakes loves snoozing in the laundry basket!

Fun stuff!

I swear, I wish I were a kid. (Well, maybe I am still a kid...)

Anyway, I am jealous of all the fun toys there are for kids these days. I spent a night with my friends Julie and Alan, Alan's son Patrick, and their son Alex on my way home from Colorado. I loved watching the boys play with their cool toys...and I also participated, of course!

Here are a couple of pictures of the most fun (in my opinion) things:


Alex loves playing his colorful drums.


Patrick doesn't like having his picture taken, but he had no choice when I snapped this one. This kind of play I definitely can't do...no one is going to pick me up and dangle me upside down! (Come to think of it, that's probably a good thing.)


This is the thing I most wish I could do. You would not believe how much fun Alex was having in this jumper! Darn, though...this is another one I can't do...

Loud thunder

Last night, lightning flashed repeatedly in the sky throughout the evening. John said a storm was forecasted, and from the looks of things I expected a doozy. But nothing happened...at least at first. The night was uneventful, with no rain even though the flashbulb pops of lightning continued.

It started raining this morning somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 AM. At first, it wasn't even particularly stormy; it was just raining but with no thunder or lightning. A little later, though, the weather system started to strut its stuff, with rumbling thunder accompanied by flashes across the sky.

Late in the morning, I happened to look up and see a bolt of lightning which looked like it hit right across the street. It was followed almost immediately by an incredibly LOUD clap of thunder. It sounded directly overhead. It was so intense that my house shook slightly, and a broom leaning against the wall fell over!

After the storm, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. Multiple windows and doors are open at my house, as we have been enjoying the mild weather. Hope things are more sunny than stormy in your life too, wherever you are...

Moves, adds and changes

As I drove off the ferry and down the island last night, finally making my way home from Colorado, I noticed a few things that were different from when I left. In my job, we use the term "MAC", which stands for move/add/change, to refer to updates happening in the work environment. So here's the update on the MACs I noticed:

- the store Village Diva has moved and is now on Back Road, on the left just past Pirate's Chest
- mile markers have been added to Highway 12 on Ocracoke
- the National Park Service is attempting to change the height of some of the sand dunes protecting the road, and they have installed sand fences (on top of the existing dunes) in order to do so

Today, I saw another addition: the ice machine. You may have already read about this, as I did, on ocracokeblog.com. It's right around the corner from my house, so now I've seen it with my own eyes.

Another recent change, which you may know about already, is an exciting one: the Community Store is open! I haven't experienced this change personally yet, but I hope to get in there and do just that very soon.

Some changes are good, some are not so great, but they are all certainly inevitable. Hope you are able to embrace change, wherever you are...

Traveling and talking

I spent all day Saturday traveling back to North Carolina. The day started at about 6:15 AM (Mountain Time), as I had to get up early enough for Damon to drive me to Denver for my flight. I arrived in Raleigh at 5:30 PM (Eastern Time), and my friend Julie picked me up at the airport.

I thought that I was completely exhausted from traveling (and not sleeping particularly well the night before), but somehow managed to stay up past midnight chatting with Julie and Alan! (As Julie pointed out, it was only 10 PM to my body, which was still on Mountain Time...)

Anyway, all that traveling and talking meant no time for blogging!

Family focus

I went to the Focus on the FamilyVisitor Center and bookstore today. What a terrific ministry with wonderful resources for families of all kinds!

I had to control myself in the store; I could easily have spent a small fortune in there. I am now looking forward to reading the books I bought.

I'm flying back to NC tomorrow, although I won't be home on Ocracoke until Sunday. I'll get back to truly island daily updates soon! :)

Cold

This morning, while watching the snow, it was very difficult to remember that the high temperature yesterday was 79. Yes, it snowed here today. That's a temperature change of around 50 degrees! Yikes.

I did not take any pictures of the snow (it melted this afternoon). Sorry!

Stay warm, wherever you are...