We’ve been camped out in the den, watching our local stations out of NYC. They’ve been preempting regular programming with coverage of the hurricane and its aftermath. I couldn’t stop watching yesterday as I tried to comprehend the damage to the infrastructure of Manhattan, the horrendous damage to the shoreline of New Jersey, the loss of life, the fire that destroyed over a hundred homes in Queens, a tree falling on a young couple walking a dog – it just goes on and on. It’s really all I can think of right now. We were incredibly lucky. Millions of others were not. This tragedy has just stopped us in our tracks. My sense of humor isn’t working very well at the moment.

Finally, we stopped for a while and played Scrabble. The previous night of very little sleep may have blunted our Scrabbley-wordy skills, but we had fun. I won. I tell you, it’s all in the tiles you draw. I managed to draw Q and Z and that made all the difference.

I really can’t think about anything for any length of time other than those who have lost so much and the heartbreak I feel for this part of our country that is so dear to me. It has been ravaged, stripped and forever changed.

But I try. I took all the plants back outside to the porch, stowed all the flashlights and lanterns. We ate food that Don had precooked the day before when he was worried that all our frozen food might spoil if we lost our electricity. It makes for easy meal prep, that’s for sure. I may keep this alyssum inside for a bit longer. I like the way it looks here. Has anyone ever kept alyssum as a house plant?

And in the ‘Duh’ category, when I was preparing to bring all my potted plants in before the hurricane hit, I cleaned out a few pots that held all-but-dead plants. One of them had a sweet potato vine in it. As I took it to the compost pile, I had trouble dumping all the potting soil. My fingers kept running into something beneath the soil. What was it?

Am I the only one out there who was surprised to see an actual sweet potato underneath the soil?

I felt like an idiot.

I’m charmed by it. It’s sitting in a place of honor in the kitchen right now.

Hey, sometimes the simplest thing can bring a smile to my face. Or make me laugh at myself.

Thank goodness. I need that right now.

Happy Wednesday.