Thursday, June 22, 2006

A First

This is a first for me! Blogging from work. Shan't be long.

Sunday was RM's birthday. First born! How is it possible that she's 41? It was just yesterday that I held that beautiful bundle in my arms and day-dreamed about her future. It seems I was quite short-sighted...she has built a life that is more wonderful than I could have imagined for her. I'm so proud to be her mother!

I talked with her on Sunday. So good to hear her voice. She is very level-headed, bright and had knowledge about so many things. My world always seems to revolve much better after a chat with her!

Love you Rosie!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Watermelon Festival Day

The "kick off" for the Watermelon Festival began 2 weeks ago. The finale is today and tonight. I'm meeting my sister in front of the bank at 7:30 this morning for a "country breakfast". Should be lots of folks we know there and it should be tasty also! Don't know if we'll stay for the parade or not.

When I got in to work Wednesday morning I still hadn't seen an electrician. I had called 3 of them. Well, when I told HWB that I really needed help getting an electrician out to the house he picked up his cell phone made one call and less than an hour later I met an electrician here. It turns out that the breaker box wasn't as bad as Progress Energy had thought. He did have to go into the insides of it, two of the switches were frozen, one in the off position and the other looked like it was on, but was stuck sorta half way. Then, bless his heart, when I got off work he sent one of his men to replace several bulbs that had blown (they were way too high for me to reach). The surge that happened when the lines came down blew my big tv in the living room. Boy, I scrimped and saved for a long time to buy that last year. Had built in DVD & VHS players and I really liked it. Oh well.

Thursday dawned clear and pretty. The Watermelon Festival luncheon and fashion show was at noon at the Opera House. Met LJ and her neighbor, Norma there. We sat at a table for ten with seven really cute young women. It was great fun and the food (chicken salad and bunches of different fruits) was very good...too much to finish for everyone at our table...we looked around, however, and many folks were sitting at "clean plate tables"! All three of us won a door prize! Norma won a battery operated tv, LJ won a pewter candle holder and I won a huge golf umbrella! Who'd imagine we'd all win! Two of the girls at our table also won! What fun!

After the luncheon LJ and I went to Thomasville to Walmart. Her 20 year old microwave bit the dust Wednesday night and I needed a tv. I took all of the money I'd stashed away for a fence. I'll get one, just don't know how. I got a 20" flat screen tv (really looks good and wonderful picture) and a small dvd player. I felt a little embarrassed counting out all $1's and $5's to pay for them, but it was real money! Came home with 12 dollars.

Cashed my paycheck after work yesterday and started my fence stash again.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

And now the fun begins!

Actually, the fun began late yesterday...as I was making ice (putting little open containers of water in the freezer) Shirley and Mercy were helping and both of them jostled me a couple of times and I had a lovely little puddle of water on the floor and sorta under the 'fridge. So, when I finished (making ice) I began to sop up the water with a couple of paper towels. Right when I had my arm scootched down the side of the 'fridge (and under the plug) a giant BOOM sounded, the floor shook and the panes in the windows rattled and the power went out! Then the house started filling with smoke. Scared me to death!

I grabbed Shirley, ran out and put her in the car...ran back in & grabbed Goodness (who I had finally gotten into the house and he was having fits!) and ran out to the car, I got the door opened and was pushing Shirley back with my knee when Goodness gave one of those long-cat twists, flipped out of my grip and was over my shoulder and down my back in a flash. Couldn't get him. Ran back in (house was quite smoky by now) couldn't find Mercy. Picked up the phone to call 911 and it was dead. Grabbed my money stash, put on a bra and ran next door (left the back door open because of Mercy). As I dashed over, I looked over toward my other neighbor and saw pecan limbs down over the power lines and flames dancing down the lines and under the eaves and flames were going quite nicely around the power pole and several feet up it too.

You should have seen the face on my neighbor when he answered the door, I must have rapped quite loudly (I did want to make sure he heard me). All I could say was "a tree took out my power lines and the house is filling with smoke. Please call someone my phone is dead". He said ok, went back in and closed the door. He did come back out shortly and said Progess Energy would be out soon and that they said a breaker should have flipped and the fire should go out.

I didn't know what to do. Was shaking like a leaf. Backed the car out and left Shirley in it. Went back in and found Mercy, just couldn't catch her, so decided to leave the door open.

Then the rain began. Then Progress Energy arrived. Two trucks.

Well, it turns out the tree took out the power line, the phone line and the cable line. You should see them they look very much like eerie Christmas decorations with hardened black drippy stuff hanging from them.

Progress Energy finished around 9pm. Told me to check out everything. Only half of the house works...the ceiling fan and one wall outlet in the living room, everything but the shower light in my room, the stove, but not the refrigerator in the kitchen, no air conditioner, etc. So I called out to the guys and they came in and looked at my breaker box. Something is wrong with it and one of the heavy switches keeps flipping off. They told me to call an electrician asap. I had no phone.

So, I grabbed my purse and jumped in the car and decided to go to the office to make some calls. Well, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was really pushing my little car around and the town was dead and going out to the office felt scary, so I turned around and went to Leah Jane's house. I'm so glad she was still up. We tried calling one electrician and his business phone has been disconnected...found his home number and left a message on his machine. Didn't have a phone number to leave, but left name, address and problem. LJ insisted that I bring her cell phone home with me, she didn't want me alone without one. That was awfully nice.

When I got home I got out a heavy extension cord and plugged the refrigerator up to an outlet on the other side of the kitchen. Whew!

Got to the office at 6:20 this morning (was home by 7:30). Called electrician again...left message. Called Sprint and they had me up and running by 2 this afternoon. Called cable, they said by 5...we'll see.

It was still raining all this time. The yard is standing in water. Feast or famine!

Decided to take LJ's phone back to her. Wrote her a note in case she was out (she was) and put everything in a plastic bag. Still pouring rain. For some reason I took my cigarette with me when I ran up her steps to hang the phone on the back door and when I ran back to the car I somehow knocked the end off of it as I got in the car. Now there is a dime size (ugly) hole in the middle of my car seat and she doesn't even have 4,000 miles on her! And I have melted seat cover stuck to the back of my middle finger...guess I was using it to put the cigarette end out. Oh well, it could have been worse.

And, it wasn't even my tree that did all of this, it belongs to me neighbor. The funny thing is the tree broke in half and it wasn't even raining (nor had it) and there was no wind. Go figure!

Right now the rain has slowed down quite a bit and there is only a small breeze. Alberto has come ashore and he's not so bad. Lets keep our fingers crossed for the rest of the season!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Get this!

The first thing I did when I got in from work (after putting Shirley out, of course) was to clear the patio...everything but the little fire place, it was filled with wasps!

Anyway, when I finished I came in & turned the weather chanel on just in time to hear that obnoxious barnk, barnk, barnk sound they use to make you look at the screen because it could be an emergency. It seems the Florida Emergency Management Agency has issued a voluntary evacuation order for Jefferson County...no other county! Now, they did say coastal residents, people in flood prone areas, low-lying areas and in mobile homes. They said more inland residents should prepare for high winds, heavy rain and possible flooding. Do they know something they aren't saying about the path of Alberto?

Need to go make ice.

Here We Go Again!

Tropical storm Alberto has formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Shouldn't become a hurricane, but who really knows? The storm path is targeting the Big Bend area of Florida...guess where I am? The Big Bend! Our area is 11 1/2 inches behind in rain fall and "they" are saying this storm could drop that much rain between now and Wednesday. Hope they're right!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

"They" say it's gonna rain!

With the 2006 hurricane season only 3 days old it's a fairly reasonable thing to say that it's going to rain, but I say "WHEN?"! We are over 10" in deficit in the annual rainfall for this area and it's awfully dry!

As we are only 30 miles or less from the Gulf it's a pretty good assumption that we'll be getting some sort of tropical stuff sooner or later. We had thunder last night...no rain. Actually it rained at work in the afternoon I don't think it was enough to amount to anything.

This was a short week at work yet it felt very long. Wouldn't it be nice to work two half days and three full days or just Monday, Wednesday and Friday or something. I think I'd be able to get by on the money, but the job wouldn't be happy. Guess I'll stick with my 37-40 hr. week! Thank goodness I have a job!

Still haven't gotten the mulch I need and earlier this week I thought about going to Thomasville today to get some. But, yesterday HWB sent me to Tallahassee in his truck to buy MDF and velvet for him and I found it harrowing and tiring to drive a strange vehicle in Tallahassee...and "they" are saying it's gonna storm today...pray they are right! I don't plan to leave the house (not even for the yard), I need to clean. I've found I can work and do the gardening or I can work and do the house. No way I can do both on the same weekend!

Am feeding another outside cat. Pretty, young black and white male who's built just like Goodness, long, tall and lean. I'm calling him Cameo as his back markings look rather like a cameo. Goodness loves him and he Goodness. Shirley chases him, but he's learning just how far he has to run before she does her backward flip when she reaches the end of her chain! It's a hoot to watch!

I HEAR THUNDER!!!