Mom's Mess and the Town Is Running Out Of Gas

Here is mom's downed weeping willow tree. Uprooted and laying on her porch roof. It wasn't a pretty sight at all. So sad to see. It was such a pretty tree. It now almost looks like her own personal jungle out there. The wind also picked up one of her wooden rocking chairs and threw it out in the yard but fortunately it didn't break. Two glass table tops broke and some artificial flowers were knocked over and out of their container. The other rocking chair was toppled over and she has quite a few shingles off the roof. There were four other houses with roof damage that I saw nearby.

There's a run on gas too. I went to join the fill up crowd and there was no gas to be had at Kroger. I went to another station and waited in line. Earlier in the afternoon Meijer had a line and when I was leaving there after grocery shopping, they had closed down due to running out of gas (apparently they can't spell either). Tim went and filled up his PT Cruiser and a gas can and had to buy premium....supposedly they were out of the others. There's not a gallon of water to be had. There are still 24 packs available but almost everyone had multiples in their carts.

Lots of chain saws were whirring today, clean up crews everywhere, stoplights still out in most of Jeffersonville (which I had to drive through to get Junior), I saw an accident at one intersection there while waiting my turn and many people still without power.

The Remnants of Hurricane Ike Hit Southern IN

We knew it was going to be windy today but as the morning progressed it got worse and worse until we had sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts up to 75 mph. The worst hit between 2:00 and 3:00 pm. We were supposed to have our Main St. Picnic today and that got called off when the set up crew arrived at 1pm and found the tent wrapped around a tree on the grounds of the Culbertson Mansion. One guy was standing under a tree there and decided to move. One minute later, the tree fell down in that exact spot.

Early on, there was a transformer that blew after a tree fell two houses behind us taking a power line with it. That produced a bit of smoke and I called 911. The wind blew the fire out, fortunately.

Then this afternoon we had a big scare. A limb had fallen next to our neighbor's house and taken a power line with it and was leaning against his roof. All was okay until our power went back on, having been out for about 3 or 4 hours, and ignited that tree limb. His next door neighbor happened to be outside and smelled it and called 911. They arrived and said nothing could be done, they couldn't even put the fire out if it became full force. It was really scary. I started packing up the scrapbooks and cds of pictures just in case we had to evacuate as they couldn't guarantee it wouldn't spread to our house!


Fortunately, it blew the transformer with another very loud kaboom and they were then able to extinguish the smoke with water. Meanwhile, we were getting very hungry having just had some cheese and crackers for lunch since there was no power! I called around and eventually reached KFC and they said the lines were to the back of the dining room and around the building in the drive thru! Many places were closed. We never did make it out especially when Tim discovered the scroll on the tv advising no one but emergency personnel to be out and if they were they could be ticketed! I finally gave in and made a casserole and some cookies. I took some over to my neighbor who was still without power.

Tim and I went out to survey our area tonight and man, it was not good! We had heard talk of the St. Mary's Catholic Church steeple leaning and the bells falling in to the lobby, a tree hitting the carriage house of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, awnings damaged downtown at businesses and we saw it all. It wasn't pretty. Many trees are down, uprooted, etc. Huge old trees. The only damage we had were two potted plants that blew off and the pots broke...sigh....but we are very thankful that was the extent of it.

Sadly, mom found out from her neighbor, as she was here with us, that her beautiful weeping willow in the back yard was uprooted and had landed on her porch roof. He said a few shingles were blown off too. He couldn't really tell if the tree had hit her house roof too or just the porch roof. So, she has to face that soon but couldn't go today with the driving restrictions and no traffic lights working on the main roads to her house. He did mention gutter damage and glass broken from tables on the porch. Sigh....

I haven't experienced such winds and weather (it never really did rain) since 1978 when a tornado came directly through our street back in VA. This was pretty scary today. The weather people finally admitted that they had only been predicting 25 mph winds and they did hit hurricane force (Category 1) today, as well as what a tropical storm and tornado would yield. There are power outages to over 450,000customers in Louisville and So IN, the hospitals in downtown L'ville have no power and are using generators and they don't expect it to be fully restored for at least a week. Many schools are closed tomorrow. State of emergencies have been declared all over.

I am glad today is over and that we are all safe and well. We have a lot to be thankful for that is for sure.

Look What We Got!!!

Finally, a red PT Cruiser! Tim had wanted one for so long and had been saving his pennies....this one came up and fit the bill! Now it lives in our driveway with the rest of the fleet! So fun!

Long Time, No Blog

And this is why....65 sales in the last week in my estsy shop for one thing! Yay! Business has been booming which is a good thing but it's been keeping me hopping! I've increased my listing which I think has had something to do with it plus several repeat customers that are wonderful to work with! So, I'm listing, filling orders, packing, going to the post office, etc in any spare time I can find!

Additionally, Junior has not been healing as well as expected from his declawing last Thursday. After the trip to the ER, I've slept in the guest room with him every night and we've checked on him and spent time with him as much as possible. He has been really good but he was starting to get more active I guess. Anyway, he was bleeding a little bit last night from his one paw and then again this morning from the other paw after using the litter box (which I had to change three times in a row this morning all before 6:30 am! Two calls to the vet, a cancelled trip to visit my aunt and uncle today, the purchase of a big dog crate and smaller litter box, only to have him tear up more incisions and end up back at the vet this afternoon! They checked him out and we decided he should stay the weekend there where he could rest and would be less active and agitated. Poor guy!

I'm also trying to squeeze in a bit of much needed housecleaning and start preparing for an upcoming trip that I hope we get to take! Throw work in there, an article for Vintage Indie that will appear soon, MSPA meetings, etc, etc....all leads to no blogging!

Hopefully, I can report back soon that Junior is on his way to recovery for good!

How Junior Ended up With This and My Upstairs is a Wreck

It started as a simple front paw declaw. Poor guy, had his surgery Thursday and mom and I went to visit him Friday and then Tim and I were able to pick him up Saturday afternoon about 1:30pm.

We weren't home 20 minutes before he tried (key word tried) to jump up on the guest room bed to see Tim. Well, we had figured he would. I had discussed where to keep him confined for a few days in great detail with the veterinary staff. All figured that everything was nice and soft in there. So, as he was sliding and falling back off the bed, I knew we had made a mistake.

So, he started bleeding from his one paw and off mom and I went to the Emergency Vet over in L'ville. (Tim had to work at the tv station and couldn't go...wah!) I thought I knew how to get there but I apparently either didn't or was so upset I once again missed the sign for Outer Loop Rd. Which doesn't say Rd. by the way like everyone was telling me and it's so tiny at the top of the interstate sign that all you really read is Okolano and Fairdale. So after forty minutes going in circles, we finally arrived. Three hours later we left. Junior in the bandage with medicine on his slightly opened wounds, pain meds, an antibiotic and a big bill.

I spent the next couple of hours dragging the box springs out of the room (Tim had already taken the mattress and nightstands out), dragging the mattress back in, making the bed, etc....I was so whipped from the whole long afternoon and evening that I fell asleep on the mattress for over an hour.

Junior snuggled up in the blankets in the corner and slept.

So, today I feel like an official new cat mommy. I'm tired, I haven't showered, haven't washed my hair in two days and I am still in my pjs having never gotten out of them all day!

At least Junior has been calmer today and slept under the tall chest of drawers for most of it. Tomorrow I call our vet and discuss whether they need to see him or not as he is favoring that one paw. Honestly, this wasn't so hard years ago with Garden Kitty or Oscar!

Oh, and Garden Kitty threw up in three places upstairs today so I let Tim clean all that up.

Garden Kitty Meet Junior

Monday was the day that Garden Kitty and Junior got to meet face to face. He was all set to play with the other kitty that lives in the house but she was having none of that! There was a bit of hissing and growling on her furry princess' part but Junior was great! He was really trying to make friends with her and laid down near her and tried to engage her in play several times.

Tuesday they did touch nose to nose several times but it always ended with GK hissing at Junior and marching off. We aren't too impressed with her behavior, cat-like or not it's not been too welcoming. Tuesday night she spent most of the night on my pillow right above my head so as not to have a run in with the new, buff colored spunky kitty. Nice, huh?

Today, however, when he was whisked off to the vet's for front declawing, she apparently searched the house over pretty well looking for him (according to Tim). He'll be back Sat and recovering from his surgery so he probably won't be up to playing for awhile.

Got Shelves!

Tim and I finally got shelving put up on the last big wall in my scrapbook room! What a project! Trips to Home Depot, measuring, drilling, hanging, and then filling them up! Trips to Big Lots for storage containers. Revamped the room a little while I was at it! Love my shelves!