Trying to give a little update on the storm and it's aftermath. Please bear with me. I have had an incredible headache for about twenty-four hours now. I can get it to back off with drugs, but it will not go completely away. The barometric pressure dropped really low, as it normally does with a hurricane and I, unfortunately, am susceptible to that, in the form of extreme headaches.

Anyway...We survived the storm. It did turn into a hurricane, either directly overhead or between here and Puerto Rico (that's a distance of approx. 75 miles). The winds were coming out of the NE at first and although they were pretty strong, it was nothing like the wind we experience once they shifted to come out of the SE. Those babies where howling for most of the night. We are still in a stiff breeze with some pretty strong gusts coming from the SW.

Not near as much rain as we had last year with Hurricane Earl,but enough to keep things pretty soggy. The rubber strip under our front door is rotted away. We told the property manager about this months ago and they are supposed to be working on it. As long as it's not raining and blowing from the SE we all forget about it, but I had a giant lake in my entry hallway this morning, as water was just flowing under the door. Lovely.

The generators are still running at our place and when you look out over the island it's pretty dark, so I'm guessing current(that's what they say for power down here) had not been restored to most of the island, it could be days. The Internet is back up and working pretty good and the TV is back on.

Apparently, there were a lot of downed tree branches and other debris in the roadways. We didn't venture far from home today. Rick didn't have work due to the high winds. Hopefully he goes back tomorrow. All in all we fared pretty well. Rick was able to call many of our friends on the island and everyone he was able to get a hold of was doing good. The local cell phone companies were down for most of the day, so there were some we could not call.

From what we see on the news, it looks like Puerto Rico took a beating similar to us, but so far it appears most of Hispanola will be spared the really bad stuff. It does look to be taking a direct bead on the Bahamas and that will be rough on those little sandbars. The weather channel seems to be hoping to a major event on US shores, but we are praying it gets dragged out into the Atlantic where it can do no harm.

Last night we got into bed about nine thirty or so and I didn't even try to stay awake (My headache was so bad, I just wanted to escape into sleep). If Irene did become a hurricane over St. Croix, I apparently was able to sleep through it. I am not complaining.