We are blessed, safe, have power, internet, and a beautiful view out the window of the falling rain. Hurricane (down graded to a tropical storm) Irene hit us early this morning. "Hit us" is maybe a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it did start raining and it hasn't stopped since. We got hit by gusts of wind and there was some carnage (fallen trees) on the roads but we definitely didn't get the worst of it.
We decided to take a drive into Plymouth (about 12 miles out of Waterville) mid-morning to grab some lunch and see what the storm was doing. Lots of wind and lots of rain and some power outages . We had a fabulous lunch and ventured back up the valley only to be stopped by the first road block. Luckily there was a way around the road block and we were well on our way. 
Of course we had to make a stop over all the bridges on the way up the valley and check out the raging river. It went from a slow trickle to this. The sound that was coming from the river was incredible, the boulders underneith the water were crashing into each other, it sounded like thunder. The smell of fresh, wet dirt and pine was in the air as the river swept the banks and took out lots of trees.
There was one more road block once we got home and there was the washed out bridge right behind the house so naturaly we had to check it out. I have to say mother nature did some MAJOR damage.
On a TOTAL bummer note, my mom and dad were suppose to fly in on the red-eye overnight and be here first thing tomorow morning but thanks to Irene that trip has now been cancelled. BIG BOOOO! But, their tickets were fully re-funded and they are coming out around the first week of October just in time to help us move into our new place! YAY!
Sending out much love...