Hurricane Irene. The Clean Up Begins.

Clean up efforts have begun. My carport is a disaster. It was a disaster even before Irene hit. The carport has become a depository of sorts. Everything that I didn't want upstairs made it to the carport. The boys' exercise equipment and inversion boards take up most of the room. I have boxes and boxes of books and magazines. And I've been meaning for years to go through and clean it out but I'm lazy and never did. I also had a lot of stuff I cleaned out of Mama Hawthorne's house. Boxes I had that had been forgotten. Boxes of my photographs for the last 30 plus years.

I did find some watercolors I'd drawn and brought them upstairs to dry. They'll be OK.

Here's my lovely rose garden.

All I've done for the past two days is haul branches, limbs, and debris out to the street.

Here's what's left of my mulch pile.

Mr. H. and I got tired of cleaning up so we took a trip out just to get away from things. This is the parking lot of Colington United Methodist Church.

This is soundside in south Nags Head.

This house is in Colington Harbour. Soundside.

This is all from one neighbor's house. I talked to him this morning and he said in about 50 more trips he might be halfway through.

Next door neighbor who had all my pine branches in her yard.

Water was up to the console in this neighbor's car.

Yet another neighbor's crap.

Good neighbor Zippy said Irene didn't do this to his boat. He and his buddies loaded it on like that and didn't realize it. And they weren't even drinking, he insisted.

Here's a little drive through the harbor so you can see everybody's crap.

And this is just one day's worth of work.

Here's my lovely yard. CAUTION. The following pictures are NOT for the faint of heart. You have been warned. Dixie and I took our usual walk/run through the neighborhood this morning and we came upon something rather startling.

Yes, my friends. It's a box of HEADS! And this is about as creepy as it gets.

I'll probably have nightmares about this shit. Who the hell keeps a box of heads?

I did find a perfectly good whisk in the box of heads. I will sterilize it.