Hello friends! Today’s post may be short and sweet as we wanted to let y’all know what’s happening here in Charleston as it relates to Hurricane Matthew.

Sutherly is already dressed for the party and ready to rock and roll. She can do that, you know. As you can see from the list below, she has weathered many hurricanes since her birth in 1913 . Some folks might say, “This ain’t her first rodeo!”

However, this IS David’s & my first hurricane. And here is where we stand with our plans. It is Thursday morning. Governor Haley called for an evacuation starting yesterday afternoon. Many have fled. The town is quite still.

The photo that you see below was taken at 4:45 yesterday afternoon on Cannon Street. For those of you who are familiar with Charleston you will immediately realize that this is certainly a phenomenon. Usually the traffic would be bumper to bumper at that time of day. When our daughter Ali, who lives in Travers City, Michigan saw this she said, “Doesn’t that tell you something?!!” 🙂  (A little role reversal there, don’t ya think?)

This all sounds very dire so far, right? But that’s one side of the story. The other side looks like this:

These are the children of our new neighborhood. Playing in the street with footballs and sidewalk chalk, they display the pure joy I felt as a child on a snow day. No one in the neighborhood is going anywhere. But that doesn’t mean they are not preparing. Take our good neighbor Joe here for example. Smile Joe!

Of course, these are not crazy folks. That decision is as subject to change as Matthew himself.

The Holy City Sinner has a running list of restaurants that are open today and days going forth, on his Facebook page for easy referral. Just click on the link and scroll down until you see the post “Come on in! We’re open!”.

Last night we had dinner at our good friend Gerry Kieran’s Irish pub, Seanachai on Johns Island. It reminded me of when David & I lived in German Village in Columbus, Ohio. After a huge snowstorm you couldn’t drive anywhere because the brick streets could not be plowed.We put on all our gear and walked to a nearby restaurant where, of course, only the locals were hanging. Such great memories.

Of course, I hear you. This is a bit different. Our mommas didn’t raise no fools. 🙂 If the storm has a 4 in it, we are gone. Otherwise, I think we will stay put.

To all who have reached out with concerns, we thank you. To all our Charleston peeps who are on the same page with us,” Y’all be careful out there. Don’t take any chances.  And be safe while we are, “Ridin’ The Storm Out!”

Note: Changes are happening daily at 10 Sutherland Avenue. I will be back very soon with all the details. If you haven’t already, please sign up below for email notifications of future posts. As as always, questions and comments are always welcome.