Getting ready for Irene

It's going to be an interesting weekend. We are due for some weather associated with Hurricane Irene but we are on the outer edges of her reach. We keep a supply of stuff for emergencies but I added some more flashlight batteries, drinking water and foods that require no refrigeration or heating up yesterday. Today I got cash. Michael will gas up the third car. Two of the cars already have gas. Michael's lived through enough hurricanes that he knows the importance of having enough gas to get you somewhere out of a danger zone. We almost always have one with a full tank. This afternoon we shift some stuff around in the basement which is wet on a good day and we move into the garage anything that could blow around the yard and damage the house or our cars. We do not have garage space for the cars so will just have to hope for the best on that one.

We live far away from any creek, stream or river and high up on a mountain (relatively speaking of course compared to our daughter who lives in Utah) so we should be clear from any flooding. However, groundwater will come into the basement and if there's no electricity to power our dehumifiers, we will have water in the basement. The Susquehanna is one foot below flood stage so everyone is feeling pretty good about that as well.

Michael is in charge of emergency preparedness at his facility and they think about these things all the time. So he has huge generators there and tanks of fuel ready to be used if needed. Power outages during a blizzard are always possible so this isn't something new. 

We could ignore the whole thing which would be foolish. Much better to be prepared and to have nothing happen than to ignore the situation and find that we are indeed going to suffer from the storm.  Big question right now is whether or not we have church tomorrow as I have to give one or maybe two lessons. Only time will tell on that one.

Wanderlust

 It's been a while since I've visited. But Europe calls to me constantly. I'm reworking a novel right now about a schoolteacher in France. She's helping to herd a group of teenagers on a school trip. Sound familiar?

Of course it does. I tend to write what I know, even in fiction. But even those arduous trips with teens are precious to me. Because I love Europe. I've never been to a country in Europe I didn't fall in love with. These pictures are from Portugal where my daughter lived for a few years.

And I have a long list of places still to go there. I've never been to Bath, Brussels or Rome. And they're all way at the top of my bucket list.

This year has had some fine moments but it hasn't been the greatest in a lot of ways. The constant desire to travel has been one of the hardest things to deal with.

And that's because it's not just Europe that is calling to me. One of the most frustrating things this year has been knowing that some fabulous places (I've never been) are within driving distance of here. Niagara Falls, Boston, Cape May,... I could go on and on. And now the weather is cooling off. It won't be long before any trips to those places become problematic.

But I can still be a tourist right here in Northeast PA. Because having the weather cool off in August is novel. And having everything so green in August is also novel. And my fascination with fall color still hasn't worn off and probably never will.

So we'll stay close to home. We have a couple of grandson baptisms this year that will make traveling a pleasure. They just won't be in Europe.

Why Folks Up Here Are Wussy

Here are a few more photos from the Texas/Louisiana trip. Three of my kids made it to the party. I was so happy to have them all together. They reminded me that they are often all together. MF plays hostess at her house in Carrollton to her sibs. It's just the parents who are missing! And we do hate missing out.

But I'm glad they get together. How many groups of sibs do that? I'm so proud of all of them.

So why are folks up here wussy? Because they have such a beautiful climate, that's why. It rarely goes below zero around here and rarely goes above 90. Very temperate, right? But it means that they're basically spoiled. I spent a week in Louisiana and Texas where the daytime temps were in the 100s and it only cooled off in the nighttime to 85 or so. And I heard this many complaints about the weather---ZERO. No one said anything.

But tonight I covered a council meeting for the newspaper and of the five or so folks I talked to, three of them complained about the weather. It was in the low 80s with a nice cool breeze. For goodness sakes! What would folks in Texas and Louisiana do with that right now? They'd be doing cartwheels down the sidewalks.

I'm looking at my outside thermometer right now and it's 70 degrees at 10: 30 PM. Just absolutely gorgeous weather. But it's a bit humid and so folks up here are complaining like they're going to die. Not joking!

They really are nice people up here. But if they've lived here all their lives, they have absolutely no clue about weather.

Momma's birthday

We had a lovely time in Texas and Louisiana. This is a photo of my mom who was celebrating her 90th birthday and her "baby" brother who is in his 80s.

A great time was had by all. All of her children, four of her grandchildren and three great-grandchildren made it. Her brother, a son and daughter-in-law and some very close friends made it a special day. Two of the grandkids made a special trip to see her before the party since they couldn't make the actual day.

MF brought her three little ones to the party and they were really, really good. I was happy since three of my children were there. And nothing makes me happier than being around my own kids.

 I was worried about the weather since it was in the 100s the whole time. But I'd forgotten how protected you are in Texas and Louisiana. You basically go from air conditioned car to air conditioned mall or supermarket and then back again to your air conditioned house.

I keep asking myself why I live in Pennsylvania since so many of the people I love are in Texas and Louisiana. It's a good question to ask and we certainly have plans to go back "home" after Michael retires.
  We also got to visit MF and family and see our two other children in Texas. Our son threw us a small party at his house so that we could visit with some old friends. And we also attended the church congregation we used to belong to in Denton. Ward boundaries have changed a lot but we saw many people we knew from old Denton days.
Morgan's pool was a lot of fun. The kids have specialty dives including "the Egyptian", "the Pencil" and "the Princess." Too cute!

Glad to be home though as there is much to do here and a Pennsylvania summer is something everyone should be able to experience at least once.

Out of Commission

I've been not working up to speed for a quite a few months now. The almost constant migraine headaches really put a crimp in my style. But I'm trying a new med now which seems to be working a lowering the number and severity of them. Now I have a whole backlog of things that weren't getting done. So I have a lot of catching up to do.

The weather here has been crazy but what's new? Seems like the whole US is having issues. Here it was very hot for folks who don't have air conditioning (meaning me!)  And then yesterday I had multiple errands to run while there were flash floods all around.

And I'm still enjoying writing for the newspaper. It's really fun to start a new career and to have to learn so much so quickly. 

But in spite of the hot weather, it's still beautiful and green here. Summers are my favorite time of year in Pennsylvania.

And the Rocket's Red Glare

A very fuzzy photo of my grandgirls having fun at Knoebels on their recent visit. I wanted to convey excitement because that's what the Fourth is like around here. Last night there were three major fireworks shows going on. It was fantastic, noisy and somewhat sobering. It must have sounded like that to folks who lived near Gettysburg during the battle.

One set of fireworks is visible from our front lawn. So we put on some bug spray, set up our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show in the comfort of our own yard. The guy who does the fireworks is called Pizza Paul and he runs a local---can you guess?---pizza restaurant. But he lives for fireworks. He does these on Back Mountain and then he does the big fireworks for the city of Wilkes-Barre.

No worries about burn bans here although the fireworks can get rained out. And the weather yesterday was perfect. A little hot for the locals perhaps (high 80s) but the temperatures soon dropped. And by the time we went to Sonic for dinner last night with the top down on Michael's convertible, it was in the 70s again.

I have an assignment on Monday night to cover the festivities in Pringle, the smallest incorporated city or town in Pennsylvania according to my buddy, Tom Mooney, who knows these things. It's one half square mile with a whopping 991 residents. And they too put on their own fireworks show with the city of Wilkes-Barre's fireworks visible in the distance.

There will be eleven, count them, eleven different fireworks displays in this little valley over the next three days. And this in a metropolitan area smaller than my hometown of Shreveport.

What can I say? These folks love to party and they do it with a bang!

Whirlwind Tour

That's what a two-week visit from the grandkids feels like--a whirlwind tour in a rock band. And I'm the rock star. I've never felt so in demand. Lots of cooking, book reading and even roller coaster riding made for a very busy two weeks. We had a great time and the kids were very sweet. MF and NL were considerate guests and very cooperative ones.

Grammie had to pitch in and ride one day a lot at a county fair since the kids' dad was riding the big rides. I got to ride an elephant ride, a circus train ride and also got to squeeze myself into the kiddie trapeze ride so that the baby could ride too. I also went down a giant slide with the baby.  Michael was at work that day so it was Grammie to the rescue as MF is expecting and couldn't do any rides. Knoebels is an awesome amusement park, but I got really excited by the sleazy sights and sounds of an old-time carnival. Took me right back to my youth. I was a bit disturbed though when the carnie told me that I had broken his merry-go-round since it was my horse that didn't want to work.

We found out at that fair that the girls aren't afraid of any animals at all no matter how big and were willing to offer their little hands out full of feed to an amazing variety of nibblers.

Since I don't post pix of the little ones, my photos are rather limited. We did go to Steamtown in Scranton so there's a photo of something we saw there. Michael and MF's oldest took the shop tour. We also went to a cute county fair, the library several times, the most amazing library book sale ever, and parks. The visitors also went to see Cars II and the Crayola Factory without moi so that I could do a little writing and catching up.I really liked the day when MF and I took the kiddos to the downtown book sale, spent oodles of time in the downtown children's library and then went to the farmer's market where we bought lunch and lots of good vegetables and fruits for supper. The kids snarfed up amazing things including beet greens and Swiss chard.


Michael did not get to take off as many days as planned because of a huge project at work that had to be done. But he got to go to Knoebel's with us and he spent a lot of time with the kids. He enjoyed playing with the oldest in a game of pitch and catch. He and Vivi enjoyed joke books and he and the baby read books. Little E had everyone read books to her. MF's middle child was my constant companion in the kitchen and even in the garden where she learned to weed and deadhead flowers. She made rhubarb pudding, cupcakes, Jello-O, salad, you name it. She's amazingly enthusiastic about helping. The little one just did her charming thing and drank gallons and gallons of milk. For folks who buy a two quarts of milk to last a week, we had some adjustments to make there.

We got another unexpected play day because MF and company had a flight canceled.

Today I had a huge editing job to do and no Internet. My cable modem had died. Luckily, the tech came in the early afternoon and she was extremely helpful, even making sure that our digital picture frame was working properly with the new modem. The kids really enjoyed the frame and were excited to see themselves appear on the frame on the same day we did an activity. They also liked seeing pictures of their cousins in Utah whom they haven't seen for a long time.

We had a great time. And we'll see them again soon as we are headed to Texas and Louisiana soon to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday.