Eastern Shore Islands OK

I thought I'd end up being worried for nothing... Chincoteague and Assateague Islands survived Hurricane Irene with "minimal wind and flooding damage," according to the EMS team that stayed on Chincoteague.  According to the NWS station at Wallops Island, they received 6.15 inches of rain, and the highest wind gust was 58 mph.  The eye of Irene passed by Assateague about 50 miles to the east, out in the Atlantic Ocean.  Just before dark last night, it was reported that Main Street and Maddox Boulevard on Chincoteague, and all the paved roads on Assateague, were under tidal flood waters, that multiple trees were down, and that power outages were happening.  By 8 a.m. this morning, the mandatory evacuation orders were lifted, the causeway was open, and residents and visitors were once again welcome to the islands.  According to a friend, the flood waters didn't even get high enough to go into Grandpa's house at all.  The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel from Norfolk to Cape Charles is open, as is the Chespeake Bay Bridge in Maryland.  Reports state that there are piles of beach sand up to two feet tall that have washed onto the Ocean City boardwalk.  Ocean City officials say they will have public transportation up and running by noon today.

Alexy is due back from England tomorrow night, and the Munsingers are due back from Boston on Tuesday evening.  - I get to sleep in my own bed for two nights!! -  Then Thursday evening, I move back into the Silvermans' to be with Rosie and Remy, as well as caring for Maggie May Barrera through Labor Day.  Yesterday afternoon and evening Aiko decided to go on a "potty fast" - He'd come outside onto the patio and deck, but he wouldn't go into the grass to relieve himself.  Last night, and again this morning, I finally picked him up and placed him in the grass.  The beautific expression on his face was hysterical, as he started relieving himself the minute I let go of him....  He's a silly little Shih Tzu.  Shady slept with me last night, after we watched the Broncos defeat the Seahawks (and Tim Tebow got to play quite a bit!); Cloudy came in and wanted me to let her go outside just about every hour.  I was able to spend some time with Chiton, the orange and white cat, yesterday.  He's lost almost half his weight, and looks down-right skinny at the moment.  Other than weight loss, he looked fine, and let me play with and pet him for quite a while.  He also enjoyed his kitty food.  Lovey is currently laying on the end of my desk, while Nedi is peering through the curtains and out the door.  I found out this morning that Nedi loves Wild Berry Smoothies.  (He also loves strawberry jell-o, so why not a wild berry smoothie?)

And I'll leave you with one last mondegreen....  From 9th grade through my senior year at my high school, music was played continuously in the cafeteria.  The song that was played for 4 years, on a continuous loop, was the long version of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - which was turned into:  "In a glob of Velveeta, honey..."