Happy Birthday, Gams!!

[Quettalee]

I hate to clutter your personal space with a bit of news that should prolly go somewhere else, but not only are the biddies very serious types (of course) here at our library, but seems my terminal will self-distruct in exactly 46 minutes and 12, 11, 10... seconds! The timer is right up there counting down its impending doom as I type!

Glad to hear you only got a little dampness, my friend. We have been without electricity since Sunday about 1 PM. Two gigantic limbs down--one taking out the riser-thingy that connects the lines to the meter box on the side of the house. Right now the cable is intact, but at a 95 degree angle where it should be straight. The line to the garage is completely pulled in two. We have electricity two streets over on each side of us, but so far, no juice. And that's not the worst. It hasn't returned at the shop either. Our property damage there will be minimal compared to the Widow's Walk...six full freezers of ice cream soup! Now if we can just make up the three days' (and counting) worth of revenue that we have lost.

Anyhoo, there are sooo many more people so much worse off. We have had the fire pit going since Sunday--entertaining and feeding our end of the street. Actually Mare and I both started celebrating both your birthdays Sunday night around the blaze... and under a very beautiful moon, I might add. She ended up passing out about 3 AM. She felt better yesterday than she should have, but there was no alcohol around last night's fire. The girls came home for a few hours yesterday to help with clean-up, but they are safe and "entertained" with their church-parents. (They enjoyed being at home without electricity for about 15 minutes after the yardwork was finished--boredom set in quickly!)

I hope your day is special. You know I have a package all ready except for the tunes (and in all fairness that would've been done had we not had 75-mile-an-hour winds the day before my off-day)... Here...let me do that eye roll for you.

You know we both love you bunches.

I'll be back as soon as things return to semi-normal around here (and less like a war zone).

Happy Birthday, sis.

Hope everyone else is safe and happy. I promise to catch up when I'm not on a computer that reminds me of an old Mission Impossible opening scene.

Peace and love, my sweets!

[fallenangel]

Happy Birthday Gams. Sorry to hear about the electicity your way Q. We had wind and rain come thru here Saturday from hurricane Ike . It knocked power out for a bunch of people. Mom's is still off. They are saying it may be back on by this weekend.

[Joxcee]

Happy Birthday!
Gams!

---

Ike took out my lights Sunday morning around 8:40am CDT. The winds beat against my house so hard I feared it was going to roll off the foundation. My niece's lights came back on around 11:00pm that night, and my Mom's came back on around 3:00am. My sister and I still didn't have lights and we're just a hop, skip, and a jump down from Mom's house. Monday night, after he got home from work, my brother-in-law hooked up the generator he bought last winter for a couple of hours to their place, and since we share the well, I was able to have water for that short time. We still didn't have lights when he got home this evening, so he got his chainsaw and jumped in his truck, and around 6:40pm my lights came on. He had called the light company yesterday and told them about limbs laying on the lines and causing the wires to touch each other and they never came to check it out, so he took the matter into his own hands. He also said a fuse was blown and had to be replaced, but that went over my head. I don't know if transformers use fuses or if the boxes on some of the poles have fuses in them. Anyhoo, I could have had lights for the past two days, but didn't. I think I may have to throw out food, as my frig doesn't smell to nice.

[katmandu]

Wishing you the happiest of Happy Birthdays Gams, hope it's a great one my friend. ................... awwww what the heck, it's a special occasion, so ...............

[gams]

Awww, thanks guys for the birthday wishes, (and the special occasion smells-like-Vegemite peck on the cheek, Katina....blush.)

Glad to hear you only got a little dampness, my friend.

Wish it were true, Q. Eight inches equals a lot of sogginess, and totally ruined stuff. The basement has no drain, and no sump pump so we're draining off with a borrowed portable sump pump attached to a hose which is running out the window and across the yard....as far away from the basement as possible. Water is still coming in; we get it almost drained - drained enough that the pump has to be turned off so the motor doesn't burn out - then by morning, there's another couple of inches of water to drain. Argh. Our garage/driveway looks like a soggy free-for-all really trashy rummage sale with everything thrown in heaps. All those neatly packed cardboard boxes of clothes, Halloween decorations, Christmas ornaments, family photos, financial records, and whatever else was down there have to be picked through to see what can be salvaged. Ick. What a mess! The rugs and carpet is the worst!

Poor Hubs. He's carried everything up the steps by himself. I've been in therapy for about two weeks for my arm, and any attempts by me to offer help carrying out the ruins have been met with resistance. Good thing for my arm; bad thing for my I-feel-bads; worst for Hubs' calves. They are mooing. LMAO. I haven't seen him this stiff since....well....uhm....nevermind.

Anyhoo, there are sooo many more people so much worse off.

You are right, of course. Our stuff is just stuff. I'm sure I'll collect more stuff to store down there in all too short a period. This time though, it's going in plastic containers!

Sorry for your power-outage at your place and the cafe. And for you too, Joxie. Cool though that you're entertaining and feeding the masses. I'd love to be there around that fire-pit, under the full moon!!!

And a full moon on my birthday; what a treat! BP, my Moonbaby, (she loves the moon in any of its stages...is enthralled with it, actually), pointed it out to me yesterday morning. It was still out there, big and bright, hanging in the western sky, while the sun shined brightly in the east for the first time in days. She said it was a special birthday present for me; I think she was right.

Don't tell me I've missed Mare's birthday! You, Quetta, as Queen of the Board, are also Keeper of the Birthdays....you're supposed to let us know these things. LMAO.

Happy Belated, or Soon to Be Birthday, Mary! Sorry if it's late, or early - they say the memory is the first thing to go, and apparently I've reached that age. (eye-roll)

[Quettalee]

I'm sorry, sis. I wasn't making light of your situation...I just was pressured by that silly timer thingy at the top of my screen. It's distracting me. I know firsthand how devastating flooding can be. (three feet for over 24 hours in my apartment back in '97) I wish we were there to help because Mare and I are about ready to bite nails from boredom. We've cleaned all we can clean by candlelight, the yard is immaculate (not counting the two limbs, of course), the shop is still without juice as well, and although we got rid of the girls and their whinning, we picked up two more "visitors", so now all we both want to do is whine. Damn. And Mare is doubled over with cramps today...so I left for a while.

They are predicting power for us by Sunday at midnight. What can you say. Let the fire-pit burn! And no, you didn't miss Mare's birthday--it's the 25th. It just seemed like a good reason to start drinking (as if we needed one) on Sunday night. And what a treat for us moonlovers. I can't remember when I have gotten to spend this kind of time watching it grow night by night. It seemed to shimmer last night.

Well, the line is long and I really need to move along (I refuse to look at the timer, so I don't actually know my "allowance") but I know it's bound to be close.

Take care, all and I'm glad everyone is safe. Jox, if you're brother-in-law is looking for some extra $$, I can hook him and his chainsaw up on a tank of gas and a good fire pit-cooked meal...that's about it!

[Joxcee]

Jox, if you're brother-in-law is looking for some extra $$, I can hook him and his chainsaw up on a tank of gas and a good fire pit-cooked meal ... that's about it!

He probably would take you up on it, but my sister might not be ready to lose him just yet. If we'd have known what he was up too, we might still be in the dark. I'm just grateful he didn't get electrocuted. :brrr:

[gams]

I'm sorry, sis. I wasn't making light of your situation...

Oh, I know you weren't. I was just venting, you know. I'm not really upset about the flooding...it could have been worse, but damn, damn, damn, it's a whole lotta mess, and a whole lot of work.

I spent one of the last handful of gorgeous summer days Wednesday, sifting through wet boxes. Only three days since the flooding started, and that icky wet musty smell had started to set in. I did countless loads of laundry - a lot of it clothes the girls outgrew which I've been meaning to sort through and give to various friends with kids of varying ages, and take the rest to Goodwill. I put the calls out as I did laundry, and bags of freshly washed clothes were picked up yesterday evening.

It would have been easier just to trash it all, but I hated to throw all that stuff away. Nothing like a bit of I-gotta-get-this-done-now to finally make me get around to doing something I've been meaning to do for ages.

Three more loads tonight, and I think that's the last of it, down to the winter coats we'll be needing all too soon.

Hubs took a big load of stuff to the dump this evening. I sweet talked the guy on the phone yesterday, and we were able to dump it for free (lmao and eye-roll). Really nice guy, and when Hubs got there all he had to do was give his name. Normally they charge 14 cents a pound; our load would have equalled about $80.

Most of the Halloween stuff is okay; I haven't got to the Christmas ornaments yet.

There's still a bit of water down there in one corner, and Hubs disinfected the rest with a bleach and water solution....don't want the moldies growing down there. Ick.

Joxie, glad to hear you've got the power back, and that your brother-in-law didn't suffer injury in the process. He shoulda waited, you know. Dangerous stuff that electricity.

Quetta, maybe you and Mare should invest in a generator. OMG, I can't believe you'll be without power until midnight on Sunday! When we went for three or four days last year without electricity it was a major pain in the @ss. We stayed at a friend's house who still had electricity, was out of town for the weekend, and generously offered us their house. Hubs bought the generator after that, and we haven't turned it on except for once to make sure it worked. I'd send it if I could.....along with those home-grown cherry tomatoes.

You could write a generator off as a business expense? Maybe you and Jer chip in together? I bet you'd be doing a brisk bit of work if the cafe were open and everyone else was still without power....not to mention you'd be more comfortable....and not have to put up with the library biddies and their ticking clock.

Regardless, hope you are feeling the power soon, and I've got the 25th written on my calendar!

[Quettalee]

Nothing like Mother Nature's "touch" to get some of that put-off-too-long sorting and tossing finally started. Shame that's what it takes sometimes. When I got flooded in '97, I had only had my own apartment--all by myself--for about two years. So I hadn't really had time to accumulate too much clutter. And my good friend Bryan went while I was at work and got all my wet clothes (everything--including all the hanging clothes--but my top, "intimates" drawer) and ran them through the laundramat...laundrymat...?...whatever...$60.00 worth so they would be not only clean, but disinfected--since the creek water was mixed with sewer water. I'm not sure they were totally disinfected, but I accepted them back with open arms and hugs and great appreciation. And in the midst of losing my apartment, my furniture, all my shoes, food...blah, blah...I was looted! Someone stole my vinyl collection while I was at work. The doors were so warped they wouldn't close all the way and someone came and took my records. You know there were some classics.

I don't know. We are still without power today. We spent a little time at the shop yesterday...cleaning, waxing the floor, making signs. We still have stuff boxed up in the garage from the Labor Day yard sale, so we plan on taking that down tomorrow and having another sale--as much for something to do and public relations as anything. There is a big fossil festival going on at the park and the weather is suppose to be gorgeous, so it will probably be packed down there all weekend. Maybe by miracles, we can open on Sunday for brunch... Jerry is trying to decide about trying to run one freezer off a generator...but now it's Friday and he can't get a delivery...so....??

Good news about the Halloweeny stuff...you know I have already been through mine trying to decide what I can part with! I couldn't let my sis go at half-decorating speed while my garage is overflowing with an abundance of spooks, ghouls, witches and such.

And so the timer ticks...gotta make a couple more stops before my time runs out...

Take care, my friends and I'll hopefully be at my own desk next time I log in. Not sure I'll have a chance to be here tomorrow since we are spending the day at the shop.

[Quettalee]

Hallelujah and let the coals die down!!

We got our home-juice at 6 PM and Jer called about the shop about 9-ish. Mare went and picked up our freezer stuff from its holiday getaway and we just got back from the shop. It's about the most beautiful sight I have ever seen--all lit up and twinkling in the moonlight!

I have lots to do yet, but I wanted to stop in and let everyone know that Cup of Sunshine is open for business again at high noon tomorrow.

I'll be back to catch up.

Smooches!

[gams]

Yay!!! Hallelujah and let the coals die down!!

Uhm....whatever that means; must be a Southern thang. But it sounds like something good, so I'm happy for you. It must be such a relief, and hopefully at high-noon yesterday, everything was back to normal in the Cuppa Sunshine Tea House!

Smooches back atcha!

[fallenangel]

Glad to hear you got the electic back on. Mom's came on Thursday. Course all her food in the frig had to be thrown out.

[xengab]

Sorry it's late Gams,but happy birthday to you from vlad and I.Hope it was a good one.Hugs.