Thanks PST

What a strange and frustrating day! My cakes are not working very well at all. Barometric pressure? Humidity? The wrong pans? The first 12″ square cake overflowed and burned on the borttom of the oven, filling the house with noxious smoke. The cake itself was a horrible, coarse texture, with a big undercooked place on one side. That became property of DH and the girls. And oh, alright, I ate some, too. OK, fine; I ate a lot.

The rest of the day has pretty much gone the same way. The latest is that the middle layer, which is supposed to be a ten inch cake, is needing to be pieced together with icing as glue. Jeez!

The weather has commanded center stage for the last twenty-four hours. Hot Springs has had some serious flooding, and the wind here last night was scary! We woke this morning to the sound of a big tree crashing down up behind the house somewhere; there was another one a couple of hours later. It’ll be interesting to see the condition of the road tomorrow; I am dreading delivering this cake, especially since that will just mark the beginning of my day. What in the world was I thinking agreeing to work this wedding? And cooking breakfast the next morning, too? Am I stupid?

Ivan’s here! We’ve had some pretty huge gusts—DH estimates 50 to 60 mph. All the windows are closed, because it’s coming from every direction and blowing pictures off the walls, and soaking anything that’s near a window; now it’s hot in this house.

My frosting’s all made. What’s the chance that there’s even going to be a wedding? Tonight I will get everything ready for baking in the morning, especially the odious chore of separating millions and millions of eggs. Actually only six dozen or so. I hope I have power tomorrow!

I love Ray’s Weather Center. He started in Boone, and now covers several Western North Carolina towns, including Asheville. Here’s what he has to say about the recent flooding in Asheville:

Some Historical Flood Information For Asheville

Lastweek’s flood event ranked among the top flood events in Asheville’s

history.The flood stage along the French Broad River ranked as the 4th highest

last week, reaching just under 15 feet. The flood of record for Asheville along

the French Broad is 23.1 feet back on July 16, 1916. Along the Swannanoa River,

it was the second highest flood stage ever, or just over 19 feet. The record

flood for the Swannanoa River at Asheville is 20.7 feet, also occurring during

the 1916 flood on July 16. Interestingly, the 1916 flood was produced when

two hurricanes affected the southern mountains within one week of each other!

It’s an interesting parallel between the 1916 flood and the situation that we face

this week.

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We are all holding our breath, waiting to see what Ivan is going to do up here. DH was in Asheville yesterday, and it sounds like the atmosphere of the town was crazy—people hitting the grocery stores and hardware stores hard, in a frenzy of preparedness buying. But what do you buy to prepare for a flood? I guess people were buying huge amounts of bottled water, for one thing. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for everybody.

Well, after a meeting with DH this morning, I can honestly say money is going to be fine; we’re in the black. However. We have three weeks of activities to fit into the next seven days, and I wish I was kidding. Between the two of us, plus the two girls, our family’s schedule could get really hairy this next week.

DH has gone to pick up our car at the mechanic’s, where it’s been for the last almost a week, and then he’s taking it to a muffler shop; it will be very, very good to be a two car family again. After that he’s going to meet my dad in Biltmore Village, the site of some intense flooding last week, and look at some flood-repair- type-work, which Dad would rather not begin until Ivan’s done with us, understandably. It’s looking like the plan is for Ivan to miss St. George Island, come ashore around Mobile, and then stall out over the North Carolina mountains. For like, three or four days. Which will occur during the wedding for which I’m baking the cake, and serving. One hundred and ten guests. Outside. I bet the poor bride is a little stressed right now, too!

So DH needs to be in several places across two counties every day during all this, too, and the girls? Who knows! Up at six to come to the Inn with me to cook breakfast? Sure! Why not! OK, I’m losing it. Deeep breath, rm.

In a weird sort of way, I actually kind of thrive on this kind of stress; I much prefer schedule stress to money stress. And waiting at the end of it is ten blissed out days on the beach, which helps enormously.

It really feels like fall today—sunny and dry and breezy. It’s gorgeous. I guess I should really go outside and be productive. You know, like wash clothes or mow grass, or something. Well, if I thought I could stand up, I would.

The path of Mr. Ivan seems to be inching ever further west; looks like they’re currently predicting landfall to be somewhere between Gulfport, MS and Mobile, AL. Maybe he’ll just peter out somewhere out there in the gulf, and not cause anybody any trouble. You think?

ED is making great progress with Blossom; when I got home from work she was riding her around the yard. Blossom is doing really well, and doesn’t seem to be testing ED quite so much. She’s so pretty under saddle with that cresty Morgan neck, and her shiny, dappled bay self.

A* and her little one stopped by the Inn this morning while I was working, which made my morning. A* is having some computer issues, which is why she hasn’t updated Littlebear Holler lately. How frustrating for her. It was great to be able to give her my page for D*’s blessingway book, and I wasn’t even the last to turn it in! Good job, rm!

It looks like Ivan may be going a little more west, towards Alabama, Mississippi, or even Louisiana. Yikes for those folks, cautious sigh of relief for St. George Island! I’m not getting cocky, though—it’s a little ways off, yet.

I’m listening to Jimmy Buffett and some vintage Calypso; got a load of laundry going; am working on the page I’m doing for D*’s blessingway. A* so graciously gave us some extra time, but once again I’m feeling like the weak link. I’ve got a bit of a mermaid theme going.

I did breakfast this morning, and will do it again tomorrow. Just had four people this morning. That’s like cooking for my own family, not that I ever cook breakfast for my own peeps. It’s more of a do-it-yourself affair around here. But anyway, I only have four again tomorrow, which is lovely.