A short break…

Please forgive me; I have taken a brief break from Silent Wave blogging for a couple days, and I might need a couple more.

As some of you know, our state was hit by a Category 4 (out of 5 possible categories) late Friday night, and although we were not directly in its path, we were indirectly affected.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall around 11pm Central Daylight Time that night and moved inland, still spinning, and it has stalled just to the east of us, but has not stopped spinning.  Although our area was on its periphery, we got inundated with rain and high winds.  We will remain under a Flash Flood Warning for 3 more days, until Wednesday night.  This may bring power outages for us.

This weekend, I made 4 separate 90-minute treks through the bands of heavy rain and random strong gusts of wind, all within the last 36 hours.  I clutched the steering wheel so hard that my hands hurt for hours afterward.

In fact, I hurt all over.  My back, my neck, a headache, and a heartache for the people who are more directly involved.

I reel from the stress of hydroplaning and fighting to maintain control of my truck, the training in between the trips, and worrying about what we’d come home to, as the winds soared to 50 mph (80 kph), and I am spent from praying and checking in on friends and loved ones and relaying messages to others who are concerned for loved ones in the affected areas, telling them everything I know.  I’m exhausted from watching the Weather Channel, which provided much-appreciated nonstop coverage of the storm, my sole source of information during this time.  And I’m aching for those who had to leave their homes and lost everything.

I’m overjoyed about the kitten that was rescued by some wonderful people who were walking the streets, their home flooded, needing rescue themselves.  I feel guilty about not having a boat to tow to Houston to aid in the search and rescue efforts (I was certified through FEMA’s CERT program in 2013).

I’m spent, flatlined, exhausted to the core.  My situation is very good, considering what others have been through, but I’m an empath, so this has been harder on me than I had imagined it would be.

I am not taking a long break, just a short one, however long I need to recover.  I’m heading into a busy workweek after not having had much of a weekend, and I’ve got some important deadlines to meet, with people counting on me whom I don’t want to let down.

I’ll be back ASAP, I promise.  And when I do, I’ll reply more properly to the lovely comments that y’all have written over the past few days, too.  ❤

 

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