Hurricane

     First, the week started with a 5.8 earthquake that struck about 40 miles outside of Richmond on Thursday. In my mind, it provided some mental preparation for what would hit the area about four days later. As Irene rolled in late Friday night, we spent our evening celebrating my dad's 62nd birthday. Hard to believe he is 62- such an inspiration to me in many ways. Recently, he helped me as I studied for the math section of the GRE, which I also took last week. I feel incredibly fortunate to have a dad as giving and caring as the one I do. I hope one day that I am able to be half of what he has been to me to my son or daughter. 
     Saturday morning brought some last-minute grocery shopping, along with grabbing some gas and batteries-gotta love our preparedness plan. The power went out around 10 Saturday morning, but we were fortunate enough to only lose it for about seven or eight hours. After watching part of a documentary on AIDS for my Epi class that just started, Peyton and I ventured out to see what the creeks were doing around Richmond. We found Staples Mill Falls- as it is now called-to be running brown (claw) level. The drop looked to be between 12-15 feet with a nice fluffy foam pile below. I called up Ben and sure enough, he was ready to fire it up. Ben, Burke, and Emily met me at my place and we headed over to Staples Mill for a few laps. All in all, an awesome drop. Definitely wish we had run it ten times, instead of just three, but I can't complain. Can't wait for it to come up again.

                                         
   Saturday night brought some music playing, chicken-of-the-woods eating, and more importantly, hanging out with some great friends.
  With church cancelled Sunday morning, Peyton and I stuck around the house and did some school work.. Around noon, Ben, Mert, Burke, Peyton, and I headed out to Tuckahoe for some mushroom hunting. We had some great success and found a nice chicken-of-the woods mushroom, along with what looked like some Western Chanterelles-which smelled like apricots, Eastern chanterelles, and a variety of other unedible-but still cool-varieties of shelf mushrooms. Since Ben is leaving for Blacksburg tomorrow, we decided tonight would be a good night to cook up the chicken and chow down. Below are a few pictures of the mushrooms, and the risotto dish we made.

  All in all, an enjoyable hurricane weekend. Glad we stuck around for sure. My prayers go out to those still without electricity and with homes damaged or destroyed. Also, I was glad to see the community come together, although later than what may have been preferred, to ensure shelter for the homeless.
Until next time..