Dear Reader:

As I walked out yesterday morning… I started looking around the yard, gardens, deck …and front porch. And then , lastly, I looked on the back wall… the plaque said it all. Boo’s Blessing! It was still perfectly balanced -usually if the wind gets up… it falls off and ends up on the porch floor behind the white bench.)

There was nothing, nada, anywhere to show that anything more than an on and off rainy day had transpired the day before.

The winds were minimal, an occasional gust that only fluttered some leaves but no heavy branches…. honestly… we have had summer thunderstorms with more wind and rain impact.

My back door neighbor had texted to check on me and we started conversing ( back and forth) about how lucky we really were. The answer to our surprise ” escape” from Idalia – location, location, location.

Donna Clark said she noticed while following her mobile phone map locations that Summerville was ” cocooned” right in the middle between Charleston’s coastal surge and the outlying towns located closer to I-95. ( who were getting hit harder than Charleston. )

We were getting neither… at least minimally neither …when it came to flooding or damaging winds. ( Just intervals of a light rain and a slightly heavier rain … light winds to occasional stronger gusts-and everything came in very short intervals.)

I did get two emergency alert alarms on my phone of the potential for a tornado… so the first time, it happened, I finished my lunch sandwich sitting on top of the commode seat ( in the bathroom – my safest room) but the second call was so short the time limit was almost over before I could even move out… either way… no twister or tornado! 🙏🏻

Even my adult children living in Charleston said they only experienced some heavier rains but no power outages except for Tommy and Kaitlyn in downtown Mt. Pleasant and it was only temporary.

So, as a whole, the Palmetto State fared far better than expected and everyone was and is thankful for it. And continued prayers for our Floridian Friends- who suffered the brunt of it.

So Idalia left us in pretty good shape yesterday while finishing up the month of August… a Happy Birthday shout-out to my cousins ( Charles and Marilyn) brother and sister born three years apart on August 31 -as well as my beloved Aunt Eva. ( in memoriam.)

And now ( drum roll) September Has Arrived! Happiness is…!!! September shouts ” Autumn is Coming… Autumn is Coming” to the Rooftops and back!) … ( Now where is Paul Revere when you need him! )

And speaking of…

Psst! Did you know that the mare Revere rode on his now famous ride… was loaned to him by Deacon John Larkin and never returned.

September 1-Time to call out ” RABBIT RABBIT! For Good Luck this month!”

“( I thought in memory of our storm ending August, our September Poster Rabbits should wear rain gear! “)

So until tomorrow…

” Today is my favorite Day” -Winnie the Pooh

*** The funniest sign came this past Tuesday when Mandy went with me to get my annual PET scan done… new technology since last year really cut down on the length of the procedure.

I was in the machine…after the IV glucose had time to spread throughout my body ( 45 minutes in a dark room) and was getting “in my zone” with my eyes closed from the bright lights inside the machine… when I heard a voice whispering.. I practically fell off the table it startled me so much… it was the technician telling me that my earrings were causing imaging problems and he was so relieved when I told him they were clip-ons because I couldn’t move at all while he took them off-he then casually commented that normally earrings didn’t cause problems …but these were.

I then remembered I had put on Mama Mia’s ( Jackson’s mom’s earrings …Jackson later shared a whole bag of her mom’s clip-on’s with Brooke and me. -the ” clip-on gals.” )

Mama Mia and I became really close the last few months of her life… brain cancer after defeating breast cancer years before.. we talked on the phone a lot sharing our feelings fighting this disease.

And now the old metal in these earrings had stopped the procedure for a little ” Mama Mia Wink”( she had a funny sense of humor) letting me know she was watching over me-my guardian angel! 💗