How F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway helped this Bluffton resident weather Irma
How does one say “lights, camera, action” well when one wakes up at 6 a.m. in a cozy, warm bed and hears the worm has turned?
The “worm” happened to be Irma and we had canceled hotel reservations in Athens, Ga., because Irma had moved toward the Florida Gulf and would miss Bluffton. We were about to experience “An Inconvenient Sequel,” to paraphrase the title of Al Gore’s latest documentary.
We had spent all day Saturday wrapping things in plastic and boarding up all of our various houses. It was quite exhausting, though at the time we thought we were being spared the wrath of the storm. Well, I now know one of us should have kept our ears tuned to the radio. “How in the world could this happen again?” we all thought, but alas it did.
During the storm, we had the good fortune to have power so we got to watch funny, inappropriate movies when there were no little ears in the room. I also got to read snippets of stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and focus on the “Jazz Age,” one of my favorite eras.
So here we are in a sea of debris, thankful we are all vertical and still have our houses and each other. I am so sorry about everyone’s docks and flooded houses, but when I see all of the pictures of Florida and other places the storm hit, I know how lucky we all are.
We have three cats — one inside and two that live outside — that came away unscathed through it all. I felt so sorry for them and was so grateful they were all right that I bought them some very expensive cat food. It was the kind that comes in tiny little cans with pictures of cats wearing crowns and pearls and smells divine, almost good enough for us to eat. They have been looking at me as if I were a god of sorts ever since. I hope I can wean them back to their old vittles.
But, “how you gonna keep them down on the farm after they have seen Paree?” One of my mother’s favorite phrases.
Irma spends small change
I must say that the inconvenient wrath of Mother Nature takes a nice bit of crispy green out of one’s bank account. I save all of my change that I am given when I buy something. This time, I had $220 saved for storm gas, which we did not use for that purpose, so we dined on grilled goodies when we returned home.
Now I’ll start that habit all over again. So far, I have about 20 cents in my secret stash.
Babbie Guscio is the social columnist for The Bluffton Packet. She can be reached at The Store on Calhoun Street or at thestoresc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published September 13, 2017 at 10:17 AM with the headline "How F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway helped this Bluffton resident weather Irma."