Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood

We are okay. But our valley is not. The flooding is insane here. We live on a mountain and our house is doing great. We have many friends who have had to evacuate. Our church family has tried to house those who needed a place to stay.

I must say that it is a bit much to have an earthquake, hurricane and now flood in short order. I'm trying very hard not to believe it's some kind of apocalyptic sign.

Folks here will have a lot of cleaning up to do. We all hope that the levees will hold and that the towns of Forty Fort, Kingston and most of Wilkes-Barre will be spared. But Nanticoke, Nescopeck, Pittston and many other places are not protected by that high levee put up after Hurricane Agnes. They will just have to deal with the unimaginable amount of water pouring down their streets right now.

We are very grateful that we have not suffered damage from the hurricane or the flood. The earthquake was an itsy bitsy tremor in our area and really didn't damage anything here. But still.

It really makes you see the value of preparedness, having a 72-hour kit ready and being able to function without power, water or natural gas.

Here's hoping this is the last of the disasters for 2011.

Hurricane Irene in my neighborhood

Two blocks away

Across the street

The neighbor to our left. Hard to see but he lost a whole tree.

One block away

Just one fallen branch. That and debris was the extent of the hurricane's effect on our yard.

On Monday morning, a neighbor a few blocks away was already cutting up a fallen tree.

We were very blessed. What more can I say? We have three enormous trees on our lot and any one of them could have taken our house with it. Also, I think the hemlocks across the street are tall enough to hit our house if they fell.

Folks up in the Harvey's Lake area got it much worse than us. Many people in our county are still without power or water.

We lost power for twenty-four hours. One neighbor told me that in forty years, he hadn't lost power for more than an hour in our neighborhood. Another neighbor confirmed this. So for these folks it was a shock. For Michael especially, this was nothing new as he grew up in South Louisiana. For me, the hurricane was new, but the emergency preparation and power loss was not.

There was one amazing benefit of the whole event. Our phone rang at about 1:45 AM in the middle of the power outage. It was Michael's pharmacy. They are supposed to call his cell phone, but, oh well. I had gotten up to answer the phone and had been dreaming about seeing stars in the sky. So I got my glasses and walked outside.  I had never seen a really dark sky before. So there I was, seeing a sky full of stars for the first time in my life. It was astounding. I couldn't even find the big dipper there were so many stars competing with it. Venus was like a flashlight in my eyes. I wasn't disappointed. Just sorry I had to wait so long to see the sky as it really is.

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.