Siren Story and a Doll House

 

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.

Molly

Then, July 2017 and a few months ago, May 2020

    

    

Molly found out in March she would no longer be working. It was decided she would  put her town home on the market and move up to Iowa with us! She was concerned about selling real estate when people were losing their jobs. But she sold it within days! The trip down to help her pack up and move took a lot of planning, especially during this weird world time.  At first, I planned to fly down and then drive a U-Haul back up but the airlines were so unreliable. Tickets were crazy cheap but flights were getting canceled constantly. We couldn't figure out the logistics of driving down and then driving a U-Haul back. Where would I keep my car? A colleague suggested I rent a car, so that is what I did. I ended up with a huge Yukon XL that I fell in love with. Perfect for trips, not for town.

This is me at 4:30am heading out on April 29th, 2020

I stopped in Athens, Georgia to pick up Maggie. She was working from home so she was able to go with me to help. 

Maggie was able to work from Florida and still had time to help pack, but we mostly relied on her to do the cooking. Cooking was a challenge because how in the heck do you cook for three people when you are trying to pack up the kitchen?

                                                

Sometimes Molly and I would sit on the patio and watch Maggie cook. We were enjoying the Florida weather for that one last week. It was sad that we were not able to go to the beach because they were virus closed. We couldn't go out to eat either.  

Because we couldn't go to the beach, go shopping, or go out to eat, we had plenty of time to pack. We would pack up one room at a time to prepare for the U-haul. I didn't take too many photos of this but we decided we did very well and were pretty organized.

                                        

                                                

When we picked up the U-Haul, which we reserved online, they didn't have one for us.  We had to wait two hours while they cleaned one up that had just come from Georgia. We watched them clean off those Florida bugs that stick to your car and take off the paint. I was more worried about the inspection. They said they did one but Molly and I were watching and if they did one, it was pretty quick.  In the time of masks, gloves, wiping, and cleaning, I didn't see that done at all and don't think they cleaned the inside of the truck.  When the keys were handed to me, I made the guy grab his stickers of X's to put on all the dents. The truck obviously had hit a few things and I didn't want to be responsible for something I didn't do.  Once we were satisfied, I pulled out of the parking lot and ran over a curb. It was going to take a little time to get used to driving that thing. I did an amazing job backing up (with Molly's help) to load.   

We were happy that three of Molly's guy friends came to help load. I don't have photo's of them helping though!

                                    

The last evening in her town home was sad for me. Even though I didn't make it down to Florida very often, Molly had a very nice, relaxing place.  I had to sit on cushions and the girls sat on the air mattress the last night. We were exhausted and we had an 8 hour drive to Athens the next day.

We decided we needed a day of rest in Athens before the longer drive to Iowa. We rested by taking a walk in the park near Maggie's condo. 

We then prepared for the long trip to Iowa. Maggie's cats were very suspicious as to why there was an empty new litter box and a cat carrier sitting out.

It was because the newest member of the cat family, Poppy, was moving with us! Poppy was found in an environment that was not good for a kitten and was given to Maggie. Maggie realized this kitten would be purr-fect for Molly.

Molly, Maggie, and Poppy headed up to Iowa in Molly's car while I drove the U-Haul. Poppy wasn't too sure about this trip but she settled after awhile.

It was a very long 14 hour drive in that large U-Haul. It was so loud that I had to turn the radio up extremely high, but then it was too loud so sometimes I would turn it off and just sing to myself.  Here we are in Iowa. I miss that truck.

Some of Molly's items are in the house but most is in storage.  I want everyone to know I backed this huge truck up into this garage. The door was just big enough to get through.

When I tried to do it a second time. I couldn't do it so a U-Haul employee had to do it for me.

Since I traveled through so many states and stayed a week in one of Covid's hottest spots, I worked from home for 14 days after I got back. I had a sweet set up. Since I need two monitors to work, the girls hooked the laptop up to Molly's television. That worked beautifully. 

While I worked, the family stayed busy making sure the grumpy old cats were getting along with the new Poppy cat. It took awhile but they all get along now.

The girls got creative with their cooking. Loved this homemade pasta!

Maggie made a rug to take back to her condo!

We also stayed busy coloring Mandalas.  Binx was helping us.

The girls and I even had a chance to go up to Wisconsin to visit my sister and her family. We filled up the car with plants.

One positive outcome of this virus world is the four of us were able to spend a whole month together as a family again. It's been a long time since we did that.   We cherished that month and it was sad when Maggie had to head back home.  

This photo was taken at 4:30am when Maggie was saying goodbye to Poppy.  Mike drove her back and then he spent several weeks in the south.

When they arrived safely in Athens, Mike  made a new friend (Maude) and Penny loved the new rug!

Molly and Poppy are settling in nicely.  

Grocery Stor---ies

My Grocery Store Stories

First I want to mention I plan to build a house. I have already built the furniture for it.  More on that at the end of this story.

I go to Aldi almost every Monday and Friday. It's my favorite grocery store.  I went after work on March 9th which was the first day of spring break for the students who attend the University I work for.  It was a normal Aldi visit after work that day.   As the week progressed, we found out the students would not be coming back but would continue their courses online, like most Universities and Colleges were doing at that point.  I made a joke on Wednesday that I planned to go to Aldi after work to grab as many cans of beans I could.  My colleagues looked at me funny.  I did go after work and of course all of the paper products were gone, except they were having a sale on tissues.  I grabbed three of those and didn't really plan on buying beans (because I was joking) but decided to buy two cans because things were looking a little scarce on the selves and the customers were not really talking, It was eerily quiet. I decided since it was Wednesday, the first day of Aldi's new sales flyer and a day I never shop there, was the reason the shelves looked picked over.  At the checkout I was told I could only buy two paper products and had to put one box of tissue back.  She was very nice and asked me to pick which one to put back in case I was particular about the decor of my bathroom.  

As the news progressed, I went back to Aldi during lunch on Friday the 13th.  There were many people there and the shelves were pretty empty but I was still able to get everything on my short list. They now had a limit of four cans of anything.  I should have bought more beans.  

Saturday morning we realized we were running extremely low on cat litter.  Cats have to poop too during an event like this so I decided to run to Walmart. Not my favorite store but they have the brand of litter our cats like.  I was a little worried about going but the parking lot had the normal amount of cars and I was so relieved when I walked in to see all of the food.

The pet supplies in Walmart are near the paper and cleaning supplies.  As I walked by the paper aisle, it was completely empty except for a couple of bags of paper plates. They were buying up the paper plates too!  As I walked by the cleaning supplies, there were a few things left but, not much.  I thought of Molly and what she goes through when a hurricane is about to hit.  She has sent me photos of empty shelves in stores but I have never witnessed this.  I picked up the litter and walked past the cleaning aisle again to see a man that had found some type of aerosol can and was spraying himself from head to toe.  This was amusing to me and I was smiling as I walked to the check out.  But then I thought about how much of a worry he must have been in. Mike and I decided we would stay in for the rest of the weekend.  Church was still on but I didn't go.

 On Monday March 16th I was wondering if we would have hand bell practice at Church and found that we were.  We would have our own stands and try to stay away from each other. We would be filmed for the live streaming of our Church service for the upcoming Sunday since they decided to cancel. This is the link if you are interested. I only smile when I make a mistake.

Click on this link.  You may want to watch after you read this whole story. If you watch now, just click the back arrow in the upper left corner after the show to come back to my story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaB9rhzXAi4

I went to Aldi after work on Tuesday.  The shelves were almost completely empty. You could tell what people had heard to buy - cans, rice, pasta, bread, milk, eggs, frozen foods. As I walked through finding almost everything on my list, I noticed not one piece of meat was around.  I thought that was funny, people thinking they need meat.  I happily walked to one pile of food in the freezer and picked up three boxes of frozen veggie burgers. Plenty of those left.  I left Aldi with a  down and out feeling though.

The next morning, Wednesday the 18th, we needed something from the pharmacy, which is located in the large grocery store Mike goes to.  Mike announced that morning he would no longer be leaving the house, except to go for a walk.  So off I went to the large grocery store.  I was a little nervous about what I would see, after Aldi the night before.  What a relief to see plenty of food. Not as much as usual, but enough.  I noticed one man in the check out line had come to get his essentials,  Frosted Flakes and Mountain Dew.  After getting the drugs at the Pharmacy, I decided to get a couple of essentials, Almond Milk, Half & Half for the cat (and for Mike for his coffee) and of course,

mascara.  

I have decided I will wait to go back to Aldi until this is all over.  The smaller stores must be having a harder time staying stocked.  I never thought I would say this because bigger stores overwhelm me but, I feel better going to the bigger store.

I am still at work. There are very few of us and I feel this is the cleanest building because my doorknob gets wiped down every few hours by the cleaning people.

The weekends at home are giving me a chance to build furniture and I have decided to build a house. I will blog about this when it is completed.