I wrote this before hurricane Laura. The damage caused by our storm is no where near what they are going through in the south. I can somewhat imagine, if I take our experience and multiply it by ten.
I have learned a very important lesson.
During my 1-2pm lunch hour at work, I walk two miles around the neighborhood near the University I work for. On this particular Monday, I checked my weather app and it said rain after 2pm. So, I was good to go. I walked for a little ways when I heard the siren. My first thought was it must be the first Tuesday of the month test but then I remembered it was Monday. There wasn't a cloud in the sky so I continued on. I then passed two guys talking to each other as they looked to the sky but they were not talking about weather, so I continued on. I turned a corner and noticed it was pretty dark in one corner of the sky. I don't know directions to tell you where it was coming from. Still no concern because it was a bright sunny day, except in that corner. I walked a little further and a man on his porch yelled out that I had 10 minutes to get home! I told him I would make it, and started walking faster. I could have turned down a street right away to head back but decided to go one more block. After that block I headed back to the office and thought, maybe I won't make it. The storm was moving so fast and I was a mile away from my office. The wind picked up and so did my step. Without any warning, the sky was black and the wind was pushing me over. I started to run. I haven't ran in over 20 years and this was a hilly road. My legs were numb and I was losing my breath. If I could only get to the rec center on campus, I would be safe. But, that was a long ways away yet. I started to panic as my mind began racing thinking about where I would go for shelter. There wasn't anywhere unless I ran to a house and banged on the door. I was worried my colleagues would be concerned and think they would have to come find me. Even though I was so frightened, I was determined to get to campus. Cars were stopping at intersections to let the old running lady get to where she needed to be. Finally I made it to campus. Since it wasn't raining that hard, I continued to struggle through the wind to my office. I made it! I was wet, weak, out of breath, frightened, and thankful I had made it. Davenport had a lot of damage. Trees down, roofs off, we didn't have power for two days (we were the lucky ones) and no internet for a week! As I drove home that afternoon, there were so many blocked roads from downed trees and power lines that it took awhile to get home. It was a different world.
We have a gas stove so we were able to cook as you can see above. That is Molly making something delicious. Poppy, Molly's kitty was on our workout bike enjoying really cool shadows. It was strange without power. Our neighbor let us use his generator for a couple of hours to cool our fridge. Getting gas for the generator is a different story. Let's just say I was very anxious after that gas station trip. Molly said it is just like having hurricanes except with Florida hurricanes you panic about supplies and then sit and wait. We didn't have any time to prepare for this storm. It came and then the panic of getting supplies came.
Our neighbors are wonderful. They started as a small group helping move limbs the same day as the storm and as they progressed down the street, more volunteers showed up and we had the whole neighborhood cleaned up before dark! Word was that we had a land hurricane. Later learned the word for it is Derecho.
I didn't work for two days because of no power and when I did go back to work, I drove the street I was running on. There were many trees down and a leaning power pole with lines on the road. Lucky me! That road was closed for over a week.
So, the lesson I learned was.........take shelter when you hear a siren, even if it is a bright sunny day!
Doll House
In an earlier Blog I mentioned building a doll house. I have been finished for awhile and really enjoyed building it. I am ready to do another one but haven't found the right one to buy yet. They are expensive. I didn't like all the foo foo hearts so changed it up a little.
I started reading the directions and found that I had painted over the first step! I thought it was newspaper. That first step was a challenge. Our basement table was an organized mess for awhile.
Does the wall paper in the doll house bathroom look familiar? It's from my parent's bathroom. I saved some!
I am hooked on miniatures and will continue to shop for the next perfect doll house to build.
