…batten?
As my family waits in Houston for Ike to hit, Cari-Ann sent me a text message tonight saying, "the hatches are batten." I read it to Devin who looked as puzzled as I was.
What does batten mean? I always thought the saying was "button down the hatches." So as I was about the send a text back to Cari asking what batten meant, I decided I would Google the word first. Sure enough, the saying is batten not button. At least according to Wikipedia that’s how it originated (but it seems to have evolved into button). So then I searched "button down the hatches" and the first result was a comment from someone saying:
I’m really ashamed to say this, but until I saw this thread I thought the phrase was to “button” down the hatches!"
Hmmm…I’m guess I’m not the only slow one.
I thought it was button too… so I”m right there with ya! How is everyone doing? Did they survive the strom? We have been thinking about them.
ah, yes. Batten….no, I totally didn’t know that.
-katie
Yeah everyone survived pretty well. Cari-Ann was only out of power for a few hours. Everyone now has power back but they have to boil their water. I guess Bryan and Tara had some damage to their roof and their fence is gone. But nothing that hopefully won’t be covered by insurance.