Eerie

As many of you know, I get up early. This post isn’t scheduled; I started writing it at 5am, and already been up a couple hours. I ran up to one of the local convenience stores a little bit ago cause I was craving a krispy kreme donut (sorry you Dunkin’ heads, bleh). I had to drive right through the heart of town, right over the creek that a week ago was a raging river through town. This isn’t a big town, it’s only a few miles wide. So our “downtown” isn’t that big, but so much of it is still out of power because of just how much flood water they had intruding into their businesses. Most of them also have apartments upstairs and, while they were dry, I’m pretty sure their vehicles are not and they’re really uninhabitable as there’s still no power. Trust me, 5 days was rough enough. for those poor people, it’s been over a week now. The street is so eerily dark, not a single light on in a business window or on the side of the building, except the police station. The only noise is one business’ generator I’m sure probably powering a pump still working on the inside. I can’t even imagine… so as much as this week has sucked for us personally, it’s over. We’re back up and running, food replaced… So many businesses, already struggling due to the pandemic… one has to wonder if this will be the final nail for some of them. You have business owners who also lost homes. And those who can march on, can they replace their inventory with all the shortages going on? There are streets in other nearby towns that are still blocked, at least 2 roads that lead into town that the roadway gave away completely just outside of town… You would think by the aftermath that Ida was still a hurricane when she got up here! Even people I know down in LA who survived Katrina 16 years ago are saying that, while the flooding in New Orleans itself wasn’t as bad, the storm as a whole was so much worse. I’d have to agree. Katrina’s epic damage was more localized. Ida ravaged the south and then just kept going, leaving death and destruction in her wake. My heart goes out to everyone who lost so much this last week, and to all the organizations that are answering the call and trying to help in any way they can. We will overcome… it will just take time. And to those of you out west, if you figure out how to get all this wetness over there, you can have it!!!!!!!!!!! lol.

Ida

Ida is a name mama loves – well, loveD.

You see, this last week has been insane. It started last Wednesday. So, a week ago. I could tell mama was unsettled. She was in and out more than normal. She was stressed. And then the rain came. And it got heavier, and heavier, and HEAVIER. Mama came in smelling of foul stuff on her legs, and then a little later, some SEVERE HBO words. And then more stink smell. And then more HBO words. Mama and Daddy had some discussions as to how to “get rid of” whatever it was making mama smell (Daddy apparently had it too just not as bad). Something about flooding, and yuckies in the water. And the water coming out of our sink wasn’t any better at the time (I am guessing that’s what some of the HBO words were about). Mama has some non-bleach antibacterial wipes, and her and Daddy used that to de-stink their legs. Mama said it was gonna be the closest they got to clean.

The “flood” didn’t go away until Thursday am, and then all day Thursday there was a LOT of noises outside and downstairs. Mama said it was the maintenance guy trying to get the bleh that was outside and had gotten on them out of the basement. And then Friday, around 2, in the middle of mama’s cleaning, BLEP. It got dark in here!!!! Mama said the guy in blue shorts that keeps our power on said it wasn’t safe to keep it on and turned it off! HOW RUDE! We were FINE! But no one listens to a 13lb cat…

Friday came and went, nothing.

Saturday came and went. The guy that could fix the light situation came out and fixed things. Still no light.

Sunday came and went. Nothing.

Monday came and went. Mama got hopeful. The man in blue shorts and the boss of the big guys in yellow suits (firefighter chief – poor Alex, has a lot to learn lol – TSB) came out, said NO.

Tuesday the maintenance guy and the big boss that had final say came out along with the fixer dude. Supposedly things got tinkered with because mama wasn’t home to tell me what was going on, but right before mama got home, LIGHTS CAME BACK ON!!!

It’s a miracle!!!!! Now I guess I’ll let mama fill in the details…

So yes, power came back on sometime around 4pm apparently on Tuesday, a solid 5 days plus without power. ANYONE that’s been without power that long knows what comes next… a LOT of trips to the dumpster later, it looked like we were broke, but the fridge didn’t stink and it got cleaned in the process!! I went out this morning to take care of that, but rest assured, Alex was in no way affected OTHER than the fact we discovered he does NOT like total darkness. Normal night time here, okay. Total dark, nope. But neither did we. 5 days without ac, water was off and on as was the water heater, cold food… Ice is expensive! And one cooler isn’t enough for 2 people, their leftovers and drinks! It was a stressful time, but we were VERY fortunate and blessed to be okay. Our vehicles were dry on the inside (the one car came close to flooding out a couple times, but it made it and I got it moved in time – FOR A SECOND TIME IN JUST A FEW HOURS) and we had no water in our residence itself. Our neighbor across the street lost a vehicle, a shed, and had some basement damage. People not even two blocks away lost everything. People were being rescued out of trees. One man died. I’d never seen the Red Cross here, through 15 years of floods. Floyd. Irene. All the nor’easters. NOTHING was this bad. The creek normally falls as fast as it rises, but this time it just SOARED up, and stayed up for hours and hours and hours. It rose in like a half hour or so, peaked, went down a wee, and then soared up again, staying high until early Thursday am. We received almost a foot of rain, which would flood anyone. The main branch of the creek (which most of you would think is a river, but it’s not) crested at a record 19’+ (normal level is <7′). Not too far southwest of here was where the first tornado started, but it really got going east of us. It’s really sad. Our local county commissioner is the former borough mayor, so he’s really involved, not just here, but in the entire county. He’s really marshalling resources to try to help everyone. When FEMA is going to come in, I don’t know. But this county – and the entire region – were just devastated. A fridge? Meh. While it hurts the wallet, it’s a small price compared to that paid by so many others here and in the region. I want to thank all of you who knew what was going on and why I went quiet as I tried to conserve phone battery to not deplete my backup packs too quickly for being so patient and understanding. It’s been one HELL of a week, but we’ll get through it. I have the best hubby in the world and through everything that went on this week, both flood related and not, we got through it. Now to get back to “normal” – whatever that is.

TSB

Aftermath

Like most people on the east coast we got HAMMERED by the remnants of hurricane Ida. 11.5″ of rain, normally 7′ creek crested at record 19.1′, flood waters on my sidewalk almost up to my waist. But the tornados missed us, our home and vehicles are dry, and we still have all our utilities. I spent the night crocheting my blanket. Or trying to……

The flooded out basement set off the master fire alarm and it took a good hour to get the thing to stay off. Alex didn’t like it but he coped well.

Yesterday was recovery and relax day. We all needed it. Vehicles were retrieved and the people that be are working to repair the damages caused. Thankfully I’m on staycation this weekend.

Alex still is hampering my progress.

Snoopervisor

As most of you know I’m a mobile blogger. I’ve done posts from both the laptop and desktop, but phone is my go to. However, nikon, in their infinite lack of wisdom, left at least one android OS version out of app compatibility. There goes the phone, so getting pictures from the camera to the phone isn’t so easy. New tablet, new OS. It took a little work but *ding* success! OK now how to phone…. drive sync app syncs the tablet to the cloud then reverse to the phone. Alex is demonstrating proper snoopervision technique because his mama isn’t the most skilled…. lol. The phone was definitely his target.

No dude no playing on or with EITHER.

WTH?

Where did August come and go to? It was like zoom here and now over half gone!

I feel like the worst cat mama ever. August 3 was the 1 year anniversary of Curzon gaining his wings. I can’t say I can even comprehend how it’s been a year. I’m STILL furious as to how that so-called emergency clinic treated him and to a degree me in his final hour. I still cry. I still hurt. Yes, Alex needed me, whether I was ready for him or not. But to deny whether I was ready in my soul for another cat, no I was not. My heart needed one. Me without a cat is like coffee but no mug (don’t kill me Vicat lol). But I wasn’t ready for the falling in love and taming/training a new cat. And HOLY HECK I was not ready for a half wild cat Maine Coon mix that is smarter than some HUMANS and a lot of DOGS. He’s VERY slowly mellowing out a little, but I can assure you he’s still not done growing. I’m still trying to get him used to being brushed because Mr. Hairball-less has been chucking hairballs at Olympic distance at least once a week, usually early am on Sunday when I’m half asleep. The last couple he’s let me put him in front of the litterbox so he can shoot them in there (and the bedroom box is huge, at least 3′ long) and I almost had to clean up BEHIND it because he almost OVERshot the litterbox. Oddly impressed I must say. All because he likes to try to bite me and punish me for my attempts to groom him. Dude, it’s late summer, early fall time, this is shed season 2.0…. but I don’t seem to remember his spring shed this bad. But he wasn’t nearly this healthy a few months ago.

Speaking of his health, he STILL hasn’t had another asthmatic episode, so we’re going on like 9 months now. His barfing has all but stopped (save the hairballs) and the last month he’s only needed one maybe 2 halves of an antacid. His phone, on the other hand, not so lucky. If you follow us on facebook you know that earlier this month Alex deaded his phone. No bite marks, sheer jaw pressure. Killed the screen in one spot, totally killing the touch screen sensor. There was lobbying for him to get a new phone, but the ease at which he managed to kill that one even with a case and screen protector on it, no. He gets my old tablet on the floor only (so it’s not so easy to pick up and bite) and the moment he thinks about biting it, it goes away. I replaced said tablet and have no regrets on it.

So y’all are gonna be shocked on this, and I am too. I’ve taken back up crocheting and except for once he has shown NO interest in going after my yarn. I do not know what has gotten into him with that – it’s like cord thick yarn, polyester, so it really should be irresistible. But eh, he’s not that impressed. I’ve managed to get the new tablet connected to the Nikon so maybe THAT will help me get to posting more? Maybe, maybe not LOL. I’m trying folks, I promise. Just work has be buried up to my neck in drama and issues and trying to sift through them and weave my way out of situations is difficult at best.

I will leave you all with one… classic… pic…

Those of you who have followed me how much I pride myself on getting these pics…..