Earthquakes, Hurricanes and Extreme Makeovers

24 August 2011

Yoga of Karma

This is the week of big stuff.  The first earthquake to rumble through Delaware's Cape Region in most people's memory. At the blacksmith shop in Lewes John  Ellsworth found bottles shifted an inch or more on a glass shelf.  Not big damage certainly but more evidence than just memory. He called a neighbor.  She said she thought she was having a stroke, not registering that her weird sensations might be external rather than internal.  When she called her daughter, she found that she wasn't the only one worried about health issues.  "Her daughter said she was taking her blood pressure at the moment, worried that she might have had a heart attack," said the blacksmith.

Carol Garner at R&L Liquors in Lewes said every bottle in the store shook. "It reminded me of my father," said Carol, remembering Lou Ianire.  "He used to live upstairs and he would run up those steps outside and shake the whole store."

Back at the blacksmith shop we discussed the impending arrival of the Extreme Makeover crew.  Ellsworth said the crew wanted a bunch of spoons shaped into hooks to hold aprons in Dale Dunning's new soup kitchen.  Ty Pennington and his camera folks showed up and John started showing Ty how to make the hooks, shaping them with hammer and anvil.  Ty arrived with two handfuls of spoons.  They had their work cut out for them.  But it wasn't just Ty watching John. He's a hand-on guy.

Ellsworth joked as he watched Pennington slowly getting one hook done.  'If we're going to get all of these done we're going to have to order pizza," said Ellsworth.  Then he joined in at another anvil. "I used to have a sign in here that said: "Two anvils, no waiting."  Old barber shop joke.

In the midst of bending spoons, others watching the production spoke of Hurricane Irene and how it would affect the area if and when it visits this weekend.

Earlier in the day we were talking about the soybeans growing.  That's usual fare for around here.  That and traffic on Route 1.  This is a week of bigger rumblings and grumblings.