The Florence Mermaids arrived at 5 and we kicked off with Limoncello Spritzers along with cheese and crackers in the new Olson Room, our enclosed Sun Room.
The Olson Room got the name because when we first moved in, we kept trying to describe the room we wanted, and then we walked into our friends the Olsons’ house and there it was. The difference is that they actually did it. They found the contractor, went through all the hoops through the HOA, and got it done.
And then it turned out their contractor was the same one who had done our lanai. That felt like a sign, so we followed through.
I copied their tile too. It is absolutely gorgeous and I took the whole concept, blue tones and all, just in a different shade. The Olsons were the guinea pigs on this project and we sailed through it because of them.
It turned out better than I ever imagined.
It is long and narrow, thanks to our floor plan. The back half is a little playroom for the grandkids. The front half seats four comfortably, which is exactly what we needed. It has a door, so you can close yourselves in and talk without bothering anybody in the next room, and it is full of natural light with a view straight out to the pond.
And this was the first time my friends from Florence had ever seen it.
So that is how we ended up sitting in the AC cool between blistering and unreasonably hot outside. Nobody was in any hurry to leave.
41 Up on the roof
Eventually we pulled ourselves out of it and headed over to 41 Up On The Roof, the rooftop bar above Benny’s Coastal Kitchen on Skull Creek. It gets its name from the 41 steps between the main restaurant and the roof. Remember that number. It comes back.
A one man band was playing and I kept one eye on the horizon, where clouds were quietly stacking up in the distance. Well, I thought, there goes our sunset. I was actually disappointed about it.
We were just about to ask for the check when a black wall of something came up out of nowhere. Not a cloud. A wall.
A gust came ripping across the open bar and we all heard glass shattering. They yelled “everyone move inside”. I got up and handed my empty glass straight to our waitress so it would not become one more casualty and headed for cover. The staff moved fast, closing the rooftop in and getting everyone off the deck. We stayed at the top of the stairs waiting for instruction.
Then the lights went out and that was that. They moved us downstairs.
So down the 41 steps we went.
Downstairs was still humming along, lights on, business as usual, while the rain blew sideways past the windows.
We still needed to find our waitress somewhere in the middle of all that chaos to settle up with her. While we waited for the rain to stop or calm down, I went to the bar to order another round while we waited. As the driver, mine was a mocktail.
And that is where I found out what had actually happened to us.
The folks downstairs had a better view of the waterspout coming across the water. They also added that it had hail. All I could think is how lucky we were it could have been worse.
We found our waitress, I asked her has this happened before and she said “NO”! “I have never seen anything like this”! She closed out our check, and finally headed for the door. The parking lot was littered with debris. All things considered the damage we saw on the way home was minor, and we made it home and into bed.
Because Friday was the big one. The 14th Annual Spartina 449 Warehouse Sale, Early Bird entry, my fifth year going.
We were rolling out at 8 a.m.
Happiness is Possible 