Nope, can't go that way.
January, Monday the 23rd, the Birmingham area had been hit with ten early morning tornadoes. Once I woke up enough to find out a tornado had been through our son’s area, I contacted him to see what I could do. Come get the frozen food, he said, if we could get through. We looked at the damage in his area on TV and drove over, making a couple of detours. I took pictures. He decided to send frozen food, and Kate to help with it. Gwen and Catherine could stay and help drag branches to the street. I gave Gwen my blue suede gloves, which she said made the job easier. They had no power, so later that evening, Justin dropped off Catherine and Gwen. I cooked a HH Italian Cheese Noodle, ground beef and onion and canned tomato dish that everyone loved. (I love one-dish meals.)
Lines down, power out, people working in their yard.
Gwen slept in the blue room… she also helped me unfold the cot that Kate was going to sleep on. Catherine had the guest bedroom and Kate bunked in with her.
Tuesday: Kate’s school had no electricity, so she stayed home. We took Gwen to school, using the Interstate to the Deerfoot Parkway Exit. Deerfoot Parkway had been opened, downed trees sawed through, but traffic was often delayed by heavy equipment and clean up crews. We could see the terrible destruction. The school was not marking anyone Tardy.
Can you see the crunched white car?
We dropped Gwen off at 7:58; then we went grocery shopping (mostly for soft drinks and Little Debbie snacks), rested for a while, me with my laptop and Catherine with her embroidery. Catherine had picked out kitty cat transfers from my stash, and a pillowcase, and I had ironed them on. She now has a project to work on whenever she visits my house!
Trees down parallel to the house.
Realizing how early I was going to have to leave to pick up Gwen for her dermatologist appointment and how long appointments can last, I started supper at 1 PM.
Step 1: brown the short ribs and stew meat, saute onions and garlic, add too much chicken broth, two beef bullion cubes, a bay leaf and a can of diced tomatoes, and leave it to simmer until we get home, which will be about 5 o’clock.
We left shortly after 1 to pick up Gwen from school. It was more difficult, with longer waits in backed-up traffic, to get through the areas with the worst damage. We made it to the doctor’s office on time. He said Gwen’s skin problem was a common one, and gave her a couple of shots of steroids in her scalp, which should help with the itching. She also got Rx for samples of a cream and a pill for acne, which isn’t that bad and is not what we really went for. We’ll see if the steriods help.
I called Jerry to go in the kitchen and check the water level in the stewpot… I was so afraid supper would burn up while I was gone, but he said it was bubbling in the middle and there was plenty of water. We finally got home and I got to:
Step 2: Add two cups of (thawed) frozen soup vegetables, a little Basil, and 1/3 cup of Soup Noodles, bring back to a boil, let simmer for 10 or 15 minutes, get out the Whole Grain bread and call it Supper. Everyone seemed to like it and had seconds. For dessert we had chocolate, heart shaped, Little Debbie cakes.
We had washed one load of dark clothes and one of light, in various corners of the day when we had a few minutes available. The girls folded and distributed the clothes to their owners.
I snuggled into my side of Grandaddy’s bed, with enough drugs in me so I wouldn’t thrash around. So endeth the Longest Day.
Wednesday was a busy day. The phone would ring just as one person left to announce the imminent arrival of another. We think, trying to remember all the comings and goings, that Jerry had one therapist (who came while I was taking the children to school and Catherine home) and two nurses: one who comes weekly to check his vitals and the other who evaluates his progress.
I had a firm appointment with Susan, my massage therapist, for 1 PM. The only open space was in the blue room, so we set up there and closed the hall door. Jerry received his visitors in the living room. The nurses consult, read, and then write in his White Folder.
It was still fairly early when everyone had come and gone, and Jerry was worried that his truck had sat up for so long. He had started it once, driven in the alley, turned it around and backed into his parking place; then it wouldn’t start again.
I pulled my car up so he could attach the cables; the truck started right up. He took it out for a spin. I hoped he had remembered to take his cell phone, just in case. In a little while, my cell rang. It was Jerry on his Jitterbug reporting he had driven out Highway 11, and was now parked at the gas station, Raceway, but he didn’t need any gas. The truck was fine and he would be home shortly. And he was.
It had been a long and busy day. Jerry and I polished off the remains of the Short Rib Beef Stew and were revived.
The power was back on at our son’s house and he came over a little later to pick up the frozen food. At first they wondered where the coolers were they had sent it over in. Jerry told them of Kate’s Brilliant Idea: Why unpack the coolers, only to have to pack them up again? Why not just set the coolers in the freezer? Granddaddy was all for it. He was already worn out from taking the paint cans out of the freezer. One cooler wouldn’t fit and the contents were stuck into the chest type freezer wherever they would fit.
You know, my memories of Monday and Tuesday run together, they were so busy. I’m not used (anymore) to getting up at 6, making sure the children had breakfast, and taking them to school. In fact, I never did drive MY children to school. I was Old School and thought they should walk to school like I did. Writing this down has helped me get it sorted out:
Hello! I'm a grandma now, and a stay at home retiree who reads and writes and crochets a lot, and spends entirely too much time at the computer keyboard.
