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Raspberry of Flourish
Sep. 13th, 2019 11:39 amWednesday was an exciting day, perhaps a little too exciting. I haven’t posted because our cable has been out since Wednesday night. It was supposed to be fixed by last night, but isn’t, so there’s still no internet at home. Yesterday was the Sparrowhawk’s birthday, so we just didn’t worry about it. Today we’ve finally taken refuge in the public library so we can check our email and whatnot.
I’ve been sick all week and unable to eat much of anything. So I wasn’t able to create quite the festivity with which I would have liked to surround Sparrowhawk Day. Wednesday evening, I asked him if he’d like to go over to the village, get ice cream--which I can still eat in small quantities--and stroll by the lake. It had been hot and muggy all day, so we hadn’t ventured out much. A big storm system was north of us, but it wasn’t supposed to come our way . . . . We were enjoying our ice cream cones by the lake, when I looked off to the west and saw the sky turning BLACK. “Hm, let me look at my phone app and see if it’s going to rain,” the Sparrowhawk said. Being a direct person from an earthier era, I jumped to my feet and cried, “Screw your app—I don’t need an app to tell me it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge!” As we hustled toward the car, lightning cracked the sky and we heard the loudspeaker at the high school stadium announcing the abrupt end of the JV football game. We walked into a wind-borne wall of water. It pelted into us so hard I could hardly see where I was going. By the time we reached the car, we were soaked to the skin. We drove home slowly and carefully as the trees lashed around us and the streets flooded with instant puddles. At home, we had to throw our clothes into the bathtub to drip. Shortly after we arrived, the tornado sirens went off, so we spent half an hour in the basement. The last Facebook post I saw before the cable went out was from a neighbor who said a tornado had touched down at an intersection not many blocks from our house.
We are just very happy that we still have power, because a lot of people don’t. It is weird not having TV or internet, because we can’t get any news. We thought we had a radio, but it turns out that it doesn’t work any more. This deficiency will have to be remedied. We’ve been living a very sedate, 20th century life, reading a lot and listening to our CDs. See? See?? It’s good to be retro! The Sparrowhawk says he had a good birthday. We went out to breakfast. I ate half a waffle again. Then we visited the Cheese Lady to get him some nice snacks. I couldn’t share them, but perhaps there will still be leftovers when I’m better. If ever! I’m beginning to wonder. I had to take a nap, but after that, I recouped enough energy to make him a big gooey chocolate cake. We lit the candles, and he opened a couple of gifts and cards from children and friends. I ate one little bite, for company’s sake. Then we watched “The Fellowship of the Ring”—on DVD, ha ha—and enjoyed Bilbo’s birthday party, in anticipation of next week when the 22nd comes around.
While we were out and about, we drove down Michigan St. and saw fallen trees and a phone pole snapped in two. It takes a lot of force to do that. An apartment building over near the highway had its roof entirely swept away. The debris looks like an explosion. We haven’t been able to hear what the official take on this is—was it a tornado, or just a microburst or two? This morning, here in the library, I was able to see our minister’s post from yesterday in which she reports that the synagogue where we meet had its glass front doors shattered, and they have no power. Other neighbors are still without power, too. It’s nice here in the library!
I’ve been sick all week and unable to eat much of anything. So I wasn’t able to create quite the festivity with which I would have liked to surround Sparrowhawk Day. Wednesday evening, I asked him if he’d like to go over to the village, get ice cream--which I can still eat in small quantities--and stroll by the lake. It had been hot and muggy all day, so we hadn’t ventured out much. A big storm system was north of us, but it wasn’t supposed to come our way . . . . We were enjoying our ice cream cones by the lake, when I looked off to the west and saw the sky turning BLACK. “Hm, let me look at my phone app and see if it’s going to rain,” the Sparrowhawk said. Being a direct person from an earthier era, I jumped to my feet and cried, “Screw your app—I don’t need an app to tell me it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge!” As we hustled toward the car, lightning cracked the sky and we heard the loudspeaker at the high school stadium announcing the abrupt end of the JV football game. We walked into a wind-borne wall of water. It pelted into us so hard I could hardly see where I was going. By the time we reached the car, we were soaked to the skin. We drove home slowly and carefully as the trees lashed around us and the streets flooded with instant puddles. At home, we had to throw our clothes into the bathtub to drip. Shortly after we arrived, the tornado sirens went off, so we spent half an hour in the basement. The last Facebook post I saw before the cable went out was from a neighbor who said a tornado had touched down at an intersection not many blocks from our house.
We are just very happy that we still have power, because a lot of people don’t. It is weird not having TV or internet, because we can’t get any news. We thought we had a radio, but it turns out that it doesn’t work any more. This deficiency will have to be remedied. We’ve been living a very sedate, 20th century life, reading a lot and listening to our CDs. See? See?? It’s good to be retro! The Sparrowhawk says he had a good birthday. We went out to breakfast. I ate half a waffle again. Then we visited the Cheese Lady to get him some nice snacks. I couldn’t share them, but perhaps there will still be leftovers when I’m better. If ever! I’m beginning to wonder. I had to take a nap, but after that, I recouped enough energy to make him a big gooey chocolate cake. We lit the candles, and he opened a couple of gifts and cards from children and friends. I ate one little bite, for company’s sake. Then we watched “The Fellowship of the Ring”—on DVD, ha ha—and enjoyed Bilbo’s birthday party, in anticipation of next week when the 22nd comes around.
While we were out and about, we drove down Michigan St. and saw fallen trees and a phone pole snapped in two. It takes a lot of force to do that. An apartment building over near the highway had its roof entirely swept away. The debris looks like an explosion. We haven’t been able to hear what the official take on this is—was it a tornado, or just a microburst or two? This morning, here in the library, I was able to see our minister’s post from yesterday in which she reports that the synagogue where we meet had its glass front doors shattered, and they have no power. Other neighbors are still without power, too. It’s nice here in the library!
