And life goes on.....

The dawn of yesterday was eye-opening.  The harsh realization that what happened the night before was not just a bad "dream" nightmare, but a real nightmare that did not go away. Our place was strewn with branches and debris so thick you could not see our yard. My beautiful perennial gardens that received so many wonderful compliments on my side and back yards were now covered with big trees that had toppled like matchsticks by the force of the wind.  Gorgeous wave petunias hanging from my front trees were stripped and trees in the back yard (for as far as we could see--which now had increased by about 500 ft.or more) were split, broken or down, broken bones poking through the skin of the earth. It is painful to look at them. In a few weeks they will all be gone.  The broken ones, the down ones, the ones with roots pulled out of the ground and only standing because they are leaning against another broken tree will be cut down, pulled away, or put through industrial chippers.  For weeks we will hear the whir of chain saws, chippers and cherry pickers.  Our landscapes will change, our privacy stripped away, but life will go on.

As we brought out the rakes, saws, and our own little chipper to begin the daunting task of cleaning the yard surrounding our home, we were thrilled to see that our bird feeder stationed where the lawn met the apron of the tree line was standing sturdy and ready to provide our bird (and squirrel) friends with seed.  The birds flocked in like nothing had happened to their world. Their beautiful chirping was uplifting and glorious to hear. Life goes on.

As the day past, sunshine pouring down on us through places that used to be shaded with tree tops, we made lots of observations. With each square foot of yard that was revealed by our cleanup, we could imagine that some day in a few weeks things would be accepted and our yard would be back to relative normal.  Our water breaks brought forward our thankful thoughts that we were not hurt, that our home was still standing (save only a few shingles blown off). We can not imagine what the people in Jarrell, Texas must have felt when a tornado hit that town (several years back) and left nothing in the whole town but miles and miles of wood splinters, the whole town leveled. Theirs was a category 5 with winds over 250 mph.  Ours was declared a category 1 with winds close to 100. Those fine people gathered their hearts together and never gave up hope, rebuilt their city....life goes on.  We can not imagine what people in war-torn countries must go through when they are bombed.  Thank God we can not imagine that.  For the survivors of those bombings....life must go on.  How courageous they must be. Our damage pales in comparison to those thoughts.  Our damage pales in comparison to other people in our town and the surrounding towns who lost roofs, houses, animals.  We just have a very messy yard huge trees to clean up.  Others in the abutting neighborhood who were hit harder than us begin their cleanup and are thankful, as we are, that no one was hurt.

On the bright side, (no pun intended) our small vegetable garden is miraculously still standing and will get as much sunshine as it needs.....nothing blocking the sun now!

Last night, after raking, dragging, and chipping away at the debris from 8 AM to 7 PM, we ached from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes.  But as the hot comforting water sprayed down our backs in the shower it washed away the fright of the tornado, the pain of the clean up, and helped massage in the realization of the changes in our home/lot that happened in the blink of an eye.  Mother Nature brought a huge change, but once again she helped us realize what is really important....that we still have each other, that we can accept change.....that life goes on.

We were told by a neighbor coming home in the storm and stopping so the doors of  her car were not blown out....that she looked up and saw the funnel right behind our house.  That thought still scares me and I wonder and give thanks to God that it seemingly got the trees, but pulled up before it got our home.

If you love someone, don't miss the chance today to tell them so.

Dorothy, Are we in Kanasas?

The sky turned that icky color of gray-green. A sky like a child sick with a severe stomach ache. Heaving, blowing, rolling, and ready to erupt. And then the lightning struck straight down, wide, blinding, cracking right outside our 4-season room--ripping the bark right off of a huge tree--so loud it took my breath away. I heard the blood curdling scream and realized it was coming from the depth of my core. The uncontrollable tears poured out of my eyes like an inner ocean I didn’t realize I had. I was sobbing uncontrollably for what seemed forever. Panic and fear set in. Just as I was able to catch my breath and the sobbing subsided, the pings and hits began on the house and windows. We ran for the basement. The “train” was literally using our house as a track.


No sooner had we gotten down in the basement, then it got quiet and all we could hear was the blistering rain. We slowly ascended the stairs hoping that we’d just had a bit of heavy wind. Little did we know.

Our back yard, front yard, side yard, down the street, across the street, over to the next subdivision, had been hit by a bomb. What was our beautiful neighborhood looked like a war zone, save only, thank God, without any human casualties. The casualties were homes, trees, gardens. Thousands and thousands of dollars in damage. My thoughts went to the squirrels and birds and other nature creatures out there amongst all the rubble. And we were told ours was not the hardest hit.

Neighbors were out immediately checking on each other, crying out to each other to see if everyone was OK. We were hugging, crying, all in a bit of shock at the devastation. And then the rain came again, in sheets. Night descended and we knew all we could do was go to bed and wait until the light of morning to survey the complete extent of the damage.

We went to bed with the comfort that we were not hurt, we still had each other, we just had a lot of clean- up to do. And so the task is at hand and we must begin.

Anybody need some wood?

Would you sell your soul for your cell phone?

Yesterday afternoon I had something happen to me that freaked me out, made me panic, made me feel desperate and then made me laugh at myself for feeling all of those things.

I lost my cell phone!!

Holy oh Hannah!  I was jumping through hoops retracing my steps, writing down all the places I'd been since I last saw my cell phone.  Let's see I had it with me when I did my 5 mile power walk . Yep had it with me then because I remember when the sweat was pouring down my face I took it off my fanny pack belt and put it on my kitchen counter....had it then.  Then I went to take care of some paperwork at an office, brought my brief case with me, and it was clasped to my purse in the little side pocket where it always is....I think.  Then I went to the grocery store, put my purse in the baby seat on the grocery cart (which of course they always tell women not to do....because dirty diapers have been where --the bottom of your purse is....euuuuu....well you get my drift).  But yeah, my purse was in that seat.  So it certainly could have gotten caught on the handle bar when I went to pay (the phone pocket is on the outside of my purse).  I went to the pharmacy and hiked my purse up on the counter to pay.........geeze I thought I saw it there.  Then I went back home, unloaded my groceries, could have sworn I saw the phone then.  And then I went to Walmart.  OH NO!!!! Not Walmart.  If I dropped it at Walmart I may never find it or have it returned.  I realized it was not in my purse when I went to use it at Walmart.  But I didn't panic at Walmart because my better sense told me it must surely be on my kitchen counter where I know for sure I saw it earlier in the day.  I only thought I put it back in the phone pocket of my purse.  Not to worry.  As soon as I get home, my "security blanket" will be right where I left it. I finish shopping and drove home--walked in the door, my eyes almost flew out of my eye sockets to the Counter ....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  THE PHONE IS NOT THERE! Panic immediately set in.  Humor me....it's my cell phone.  It's my security if I'm ever in an accident.  It's my means of calling to see if we need anything else when I'm at the grocery store.  It's my additional phone in case you can't get me at my home. It's the place I have all of the phone numbers of friends, relatives, doctors, dentist, beauty salon.....taxi cab numbers for taxi's in San Antonio and Dallas (I need them 2-3 times a year).

So I start one by one calling the places I've been to see if I left my phone on the counter and some kind benevolent soul found it and turned it in.  I even called my cell phone company to see if they could beam me up and see where my phone was (I'm sure that guy got a good laugh out of that question).  I did all of this after going with my portable home phone back out to my car and all over my house calling my cell phone number. But I couldn't hear that Mexican Hat Dance song that I have as my ring tone.  Come on ring, ring, gosh darn it all...RING! DA DA-- DA DA--DA DADADA DA DA........nope, the only ringing I can hear is on my home portable and that dang Mexican Hat Dance music is playing somewhere out there.  So the advise I got from the cell phone company was that if I had not located it by tomorrow morning to call customer service and have the number turned off.........cause heaven forbid some guy (or girl) would find it and call those 1-900 numbers and start charging long distance charges up the wazoo on my cell phone.  It's just so depressing, to have to get a new phone and try to remember all the numbers you had in the old one....and then get use to and give out a new number to 85,000 people (OK....maybe 85!).  I am in a major panic.

Breathe Peggy, breathe.  Calm down. Chill. Let it go.  It's not the end of  the world.  You're not out in the middle of no where in a blizzard with no houses around for miles. It's a cell phone.  You can get another one.

OK.  I'm feeling less stressed.....but let me retrace my steps one more time.  Empty my purse on the counter, Go into every room in my house, every closet, through every pocket of my brief case, unzip every pocket of my brown leather brief case...nope....I've looked there before for my cell phone in it's brown leather case....I did look there before didn't I.............go ahead scroll back up (I'll wait).....did I tell you I looked there before.......have you guessed by now....right there on my brown leather brief case attached to the side pocket was my brown leather cell phone case with my cell phone right there in it.  I guess I just overlooked it when I went through the inside of that case maybe a dozen times.  Oh good grief.....heavy heavy sigh (of relief).

Which brings me to the questions: What have we become that we are so dependent on a little piece of plastic that flips open and connects us to the world?  And would you sell your soul for your cell phone?" There was a time (come on I know some of  you remember it) when we did not have cell phones, when we actually asked someone before we left home, "Is there anything else you can think of that we need at the grocery store?" or "What is that brand of shirts you like so much?".  There was a time when we didn't have computers and were not nearly so impatient if information didn't come to us in a nano-second.  There was a time when children went outdoors and created games or rode their bikes with other children (or alone).  And they call this progress!?  But it's true, I have a computer and I have a cell phone.........and oh yeh, just yesterday I bought my first ever I POD.......now I'm not sure how to use it, but I think I know how to get my favorite tunes onto that tiny little shuffler that is barely 1" by 3".  And no I don't need the one that I can put videos on and I'll never need to have more than 500 songs on it at one time.  I don't need a phone that I can play a gillion games on or shoot a video on, (but it sure would be nice to sign on and get my boarding passes when I'm in a remote area and it's 24 hours before 6:00 AM when my flight leaves).

But the world is already moving way too fast.......so this summer I'm just going to try to chill out and make each day last as long as I can.  I'll listen to my music on my tiny I POD, write a chapter or two on my novel, read, walk............and oh yeah.......keep my cell phone super-glued to my body!