Aftermath and Stitching Catchup

Things have been quiet this week. The town is still in COVID mode, so everything is empty (but we are still at work), but at least the roads around me are open. I've been careful to avoid the tornado damaged areas, just out of helpfulness of the cleanup crews and out of considerations of the homeowners, but I did circle around the backside of the trailer park Tuesday morning as I went to drop off my lot rent. I was surprised to see a lot of the trailers in the back had tarps on their roofs, so there was some damage, but I was even more surprised to see the field behind the trailer park.

I knew the airport behind us was destroyed, as was the subdivisions all around. As I sat in the tub, basically waiting to die, I distinctly remember hearing the roaring & sounds of destruction it made as it approached, the sound of a train (and I told my Sister "it does sound like a train!" because that's the way they always describe it on TV...it was an actual train I heard, because the train itself got flipped, half on one side of the tracks, half on the other). Then all got quiet for about a minute before the sounds of destruction of roaring started again. I just figured that "quiet" sound was the field behind the trailer park. It was actually the airfield. What I heard the second time was this...the field directly behind the trailer park:
Untitled
And a zoomed in view of the destruction in that area, although they had been cleaning it up, you can still see some of one house is still in the yard of the other house, but the pile of tree limbs was removed from the train tracks:
Untitled
That, my friends, is how close it got to us! I knew it was close, but not THAT close! I'm not so sure I will be the "steady" one the next time a storm comes rolling through. But, just for fun, here are some shots of my house with the power out. Typically, I've always been a candle queen, but since the invention of Scentsy's (and the fact that Yankee Candle has significantly gone downhill in quality), I couldn't find but two candles in my house and two oil lamps! I did eventually find a gallon-sized ziplock bag of tealights though, so my obsession with Moroccan lights finally served a purpose! So for several hours, this is the view I saw:
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Creepy, but cool, right? One thing about oil lamps though, for asthmatics, they put off a horrible smell! It may have been because they are old, but UGH! I couldn't open the windows or front door because the factory that burned down was putting off toxic chemical smells (ironically, they made air purifiers and green products, so I'm not sure why the air was so toxic), so it got pretty hot...up to 85 degrees! Eventually though, it started raining and dissipated the toxicity of the outside air and I was able to open what few windows I can open and it eventually got better (I have huge furniture in front of most all my windows due to a break-in attempt about 20 years ago), until after they put us on a city-wide curfew and then everyone seemed to come out of their houses for some reason and was standing on the street! Curfew means off the streets and stay in your houses, not stand in the streets, congregating and drinking! Social distancing people! If there wasn't so much alcohol involved, I probably would have yelled out the door "SOCIAL DISTANCING!". Eventually, I just got too freaked out and was afraid everyone would get too riled up and start looting or something and closed the door for the night.

But, by Sunday, everything had calmed down, so the door and window got opened again (and it was a much cooler day anyway). I made a HUGE pot of chili and froze it. I baked a ham, made a red velvet cake (although I should have cleaned up the stand before taking a picture apparently...it looks sloppy!):
Untitled

I was stitching the day of the tornado and stitched a bit the day after. I switched from Alice and the B's to Happy Haunts (which I haven't stitched on since April 29, 2019) on March 22nd, but have only stitched on it the 3 days since. My heart hasn't been in it lately. But I left off here back last year:
Haunts028
And didn't make it very far in the three days I did stitch on it thanks to all the "action":
Haunts031
Now, since I have to start cataloging my collection (Disney and otherwise), I'm not sure how much stitching I'll be doing at all, unless I keep weekends for stitching (since, at least for now, I'm not working on the weekends) and do the cataloging during the weeknights. We'll see. Or maybe I'll stitch at night and catalog on the weekends? Again, I'll have to see how it goes. I've ordered a photography light box to help take pictures of everything, so I have to wait for that to come in first.

As extra precautions, I've ordered a little lamp that is supposed to last pretty long during a power outage (instead of the oil lamps) and I got it in today...it's pretty bright at it's highest setting! I'm going to get a couple more. I also ordered a phone case that has a built-in battery (so I don't have to go to the car to charge my phone...or in case next time my car gets crushed like most of the ones at the mall). I need to get more candles too, but that's for the next time I can get up the courage to go to the store (if the stores stay open...Target is in the mall, so it is definitely closed!).

But I'm also going to start focusing on getting my credit cards paid off so I can get a "real" house (not that having a "real" house helped some of these people, but still). Granted, I just spent a crap-ton of money to prepare for the next storm and to have stuff to catalog my current stuff with, but does that count? I've settled on a house plan and I will no longer fight my Sister and Brother-in-Law with whatever financial assistance they want to give. It was mentioned once that my Brother-in-Law was just going to give me the lot and I got very upset about that because I wanted to pay for it all myself...now? I'll take it bro! Anything to get me out the trailer park quicker! Unfortunately, the town I'm moving to isn't any safer, tornado-wise, than the one I live in now, and neither can have basements because the water-table is too high (we live in the Mississippi River flood plain), but I will either have a safe room or a storm cellar, that's for sure! Wonder how much it would cost to get the ENTIRE duck room turned into a safe room? Probably more than the entire house cost! Might be cheaper than a lifetime of insurance on the collection though, right?

Thanks for everyone's well wishes, and keep up the wishes because storm season has just begun!

Comments

Linda said…
I love all of your house pictures Keiley. Glad the storm missed you.

Linda
Your home looks so cozy with all the lamps and candles going. And that cake looks delicious! Scary to see how close that tornado came to your house! So glad you are ok. Stay safe!
I think I'd still be shaking if a tornado came that close to me, it's a wonder you got any stitching done at all! Your preperations all sound very reasonable.