Poor blog, I've ignored you way too much lately. I guess it's time for an update. What have I been up to lately? Same ol' same ol', throw in a couple new things, but pretty much nothing new.

My mom and I went to Alabama last month for my grandson Riley's birthday. I can't believe he's a whole year old now...make that a year and a month! Photos of his birthday weekend HERE.

I found a new weather forum I like, Chaser Update. It's for storm chasers, meteorologist and weather enthusiasts in general. I applied for an open position there and became a Support Specialist. I've since been promoted to Support Director.

I'm still volunteering at the United Way. I helped with their Tools To Teach collection. We sat up in front of Walmart a couple weekends and collected classroom supplies for the local public schools. I was in Alabama the first weekend but helped the second weekend. I think it was the hottest weekend of the year! LOL

The most exciting thing is that I now have fingernails! One day at the United Way Pamela and I were talking and I commented on my nails being so thin and soft that I couldn't grow them. Pamela fixed me up with some Avon nail strengthener. I couldn't believe how much it helped. So now I'm always looking for new polishes. Friday I was at the Dollar Tree and the only color nail polish they had was LA Colors Black Velvet, so I bought it. When I got home I polished my nails with it, then decided to put a layer of Sally So Disco over it, which is a glitter in a clear base. I got quite the surprise when it ended up looking like I'd polished my nails with a deep green glitter polish! I found the MakeUp Talk forum and I'm loving their Nail Talk section. Here's a picture of how my nails turned out.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Flood Of 2003

July 4, 2003. My husband and I were vacationing at a friend's cottage on the western shore of Lake Huron, oblivious to what was happening back home in Bluffton, Indiana. I believe it was the next day that my brother called to tell me a friend of mine's house had been destroyed in the next county over by a tornado on the evening of the 4th. Thankfully my friend and his family were not home and not injured. My brother did not tell me the rest of the weather story though. When asked about that later his reply was that he forgot I lived next to the river.

On the 7th we headed home from Michigan to be back in time for Gene to work second shift. As we got close to home we noticed there was an awful lot of water standing. AN AWFUL LOT! We came past my friend's house and followed the path of the tornado for a few miles, viewing additional damage, then headed for home.

We got to Bluffton and then headed out our street. We got about 2/10 mile from home and sat and looked at water. LOTS of water. We live next to the Wabash River and it was flooded across the street. I was driving and I said to Gene, "We can't get through that, can we?" It was a rhetorical question. The street is dead-ended between our drive and our neighbor north of us but we can come in their side and drive across the yard to get home. We went around to their side and once again sat and looked at water. We decided to go to the police station to ask when they expected the river to crest so we would know how to plan.

At the police station they said it was to crest the next morning but that the fire department could take us through the water and to our house. I said, "I don't think so!" They insisted the fire department could, that they had been taking people in and out of flooded areas all day. So, we climbed into a fire truck with the fire chief and headed for home. We drove out our street, then sat and looked at the water. The fire chief said, "The only way you're getting home is by boat."

My mom and dad lived a few miles away so we went to stay with them. Our pharmacy was kind enough to advance us prescription meds toward our next refills as it was too soon for insurance to allow refills. Based on the police department information that the river was to crest the next morning I only asked for a couple days worth of meds. Fortunately the pharmacy decided to give us more days than that. Where Gene worked it was uniform day so he was able to get his clean uniforms and have clothes for work. He had an old pair of his steel toed shoes in his locker so with a temporary card they supplied for the time clock he was set for work. I could wear the clothes I had with me to work so with my mom's washer and dryer and the use of their extra vehicle I was all set.

They kept backing off the estimated crest time of the river. We had expected to be able to get home in a couple days. In fact, we spent seven days at my parents before we were able to get home. Thankfully we had taken our parrotlet with us on vacation so he was safe and taken care of. The cats had been left home with a clean litter box and lots of extra food, enough that it lasted the whole time, so they ended up being okay here alone, just very starved for attention by the time we got home. We didn't have a dog at that time.

The flood of 2003 ended up being the second highest flood on record here. By the time the river crested on July 9th we had received 12.70 inches of rain. A lot of houses were flooded and considered total losses. The city eventually received grant money to purchase those properties. The houses were torn down and the area has been converted to a park where future major floods would not once again destroy people's homes. One life was lost in the flooding.

My husband and I had married the previous fall. He had lived here a little over 10 years at the time. I had asked him several times if he was SURE the river never gets as high as the house. He always assured me the river never got close to the house. When we were finally able to return home we found a wet garage floor. It appeared the flood had just reached the garage and seeped in a little. Fortunately the house is a couple concrete blocks higher than the garage floor so was fine. Our crawl space was flooded. Gene borrowed a sump pump and started pumping water out. Unfortunately there was a drain in the crawl space that drains into our pond. The water was so high in the pond that the water was coming back through the drain just as fast as we pumped it out. We had to turn off the pump and wait for the water level to recede on it's own. Our lawn mower and 8N Ford tractor were both in flood waters. We had to have some work done on the mower and have the starter rebuilt on the 8N. That was about the extent of our damages. We didn't even have dead fish to pick up after the water receded. Our ponds were murky and really stank that summer and it was a couple years before I would consider fishing and eating the fish out of the ponds after having the contaminated flood water in them. If you've ever been around a flood you know what all kind of contaminants get into flood waters.

Later Gene sealed off the crawl space drain. That was the only time the crawl space had ever flooded so he decided to seal it and if we ever got water we would pump it out.

It's hard to believe on those summer days when you could just about hop stones in the river bed and cross without getting your feet wet that it can do the damage it did.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

How To Help Those In Haiti


This information is from Pamela Beckford, Executive Director of United Way of Wells County: Wondering how you can help in Haiti? You can help people affected by the earthquake in Haiti by donating to the United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund. https://volunteer.united-e-way.org/uwwwdisaster/donate/ Gifts to the Fund support long-term recovery efforts to rebuild lives and infrastructure devastated by disaster and... to address educational, financial and health-related challenges. OR You now can text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to United Way Worldwide's disaster recovery fund.



Excellent blog post on teacher merit pay. http://publiceducationmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/merit-pay.html Please read it.

 
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