Hurricane Irene has come and gone. She left quite the mess. I do not like girls that leave messes behind. We lost power Sunday at 10:30 and had it restored today, Thursday, at lunch time. Power companies from all over the country were in New England helping to restore the electricity. New Englanders aren't used to hurricanes. Perhaps it all the old trees (aren't trees in the south just as old?), but there was a huge mess and enormous amount of people without power. Gil and I are still in the process of house hunting, so we took advantage of offices being closed (no appointments to be made or kept) and followed our real estate agent around on a wild ride of wires hanging in the road, trees clogging streets and flooded lakes...all to see a handful of houses. She was helpful and gracious as we looked at each one and still wanted the one we had been waiting for. Today, we went to look at a house that was built in 1740. It was HUGE and had 29 acres. It sat surrounded by a horse ...