Funny what makes us laugh

We get our paper early in the morning and usually read it right after our bike ride. Yesterday, our routine was a bit different and E brought it in right away. "Look at this and tell me what you read," he says to me. I had to do a double take. Talk about irony as the ad over the headline caused it to speak more accurately than the real one did. Charlie was a sh_tty hurricane for sure.

We were lucky living in Ft. Myers as the hurricane struck 17 miles north of us and the residue of the storm passing that close to us caused so much damage in our area and what happened to those poor people further north of us was horrific.

We had only been in our new house for about 7 or 8 months when E, who is an avid news and weather watcher, made a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's for ply wood and began nailing us in. We had been warned by my step dad to stock up on propane for the grill and food and water so, when the storm turned with only two or so hours notice, we were as prepared as we could be.

We attended our first pre hurricane party that morning, roaming the couple of streets of our development with neighbors helping others secure their homes and drinking bloody mary's hosted by a sorority sister of my daughters who lived down the street. We watched our 5 inch battery operated bl/wt t.v. in the inside bathroom on dining room chairs as the storm grew closer and closer. The cats huddled in the shower.

It was during this storm and it's aftermath we learned the true meaning of 'good neighbors'. We grilled breakfast and supper with Ed and Deb every day while the electric was out, swam in the increasingly green pool to cool off with the people in our community and were served hot coffee every morning by the one guy in the neighborhood who had a generator.

We woke the next morning after Charlie to find one of our palms blown down across the road and a huge tree on top of our lanai. What woke us was the sound of multiple chain saws at work on the tree to remove it so we could get out. The younger guys in the neighborhood had formed a brigade to assist each homeowner in whatever way they could. E joined them. We were without electricity for five days which was minor compared to some who lost it for months. The last day our food would stay good, we all gathered grills of all makes and models into our drive way and had a massive bbq. Everyone brought what they could and the feast was amazing. The fellowship even more s.

Out of adversity, we formed lasting friendships with some of these neighbors and forever memories with all. This headline brought all this flooding back.