Hard Week for Northern Illinois

[Gloria]

Last Monday we had a sudden storm and the power went out for over 800,000 homes. We were lucky; our power was back on within 9 hours. My daughter wasn't so lucky. Her power wasn't restored for 4 days. She spent one evening here, a couple more evenings at her in-laws, who have a generator. Their power is still not back as of today (Saturday). Other families didn't get power until Friday.

In addition, a wind shear tore through DD's yard and took down a 75-foot cottonwood tree and broke a Norway maple tree in half. The cottonwood fell on a fir tree and ripped it apart. Another cottonwood was felled on the edge of the pond behind her house. Her beautiful acre lot looks like a war zone. Luckily, all trees fell away from her house. They had a vacation scheduled starting today and left with the back yard untouched. They'll deal with it when they return.

I cleaned out my freezer so DD could put some of her frozen foods in it. I'm always shocked at what I find in my freezer when I clean it out. I won't tell you how old some things were, but they are compost for my garden now. My freezer isn't doing well and we're looking for a new one. This is the year of big expenses.

Meanwhile, my portable car freezer has come in handy to hold the extra items that didn't fit in our house freezer. Who'd have thought we'd be using it in our house?

Gloria

[tex]

I'm sorry to hear of all the damage and related problems.

You're gonna get your money's worth out of that car freezer, the way things are going.

I agree, cleaning out a freezer is a little like digging into a time capsule. I desperately need to clean out mine, but as long as I have enough usable space to get by, I keep postponing it. LOL.

Tex

[sarkin]

Gloria,

Your daughter must be so stressed - what a way to start a vacation. What a relief that the trees fell away from the house - but the death of a 75-foot tree is almost like a loss in the family. (Thomas Jefferson turned from experiment with growing trees to growing flowers, around the point in his life where he figured he'd not be around to see how the trees turned out... I'm not quite there yet, I hope...).

I recently pulled a homemade whole-wheat pizza dough out of my freezer while making room for "just one more thing." Not sure whether it was too old for someone else to eat, but since that's no longer even considered "food" in my book, out it went. I should dig deeper.

Great that your car freezer is coming in double-handy, but I'm sorry to hear you have a looming freezer replacement to budget for. Our 'check engine' light on our 13yo car came on this week, and we're feeling pretty good about the $400 fix... I'd much rather have a new freezer than a new car ;)

Hope all in your area have an easier week upcoming,

Sara

[starfire]

So sorry about the troubles your daughter is experiencing, Gloria. I really hate to lose trees and to have all the other stress on top of that is depressing.

Hope things get better for her soon.

Love, Shirley

[MaggieRedwings]

Morning Gloria,

So sorry about the trees and damage done and the loss of power for your daughter. I agree with Tex that digging in the freezer is "time capsule" material. Something we took on the challenge of a couple of weekends ago. Amazed at what was hiding in there.

Love, Maggie

[mbeezie]

Gloria,

Sorry your daughter had to experience that. We lost alot of trees after Ike and it DID look like a war zone for quite some time. We also took off and dealt with things after a few days - that's a great strategy IMHO.

Sara,

LOL on the pizza dough. Who knows what you will find when you dig deeper!


Yeah, it's raining here! It's been flirting with us all week but I just got soaked walking my dog. Hopefully it will continue for several hours. We desperately need it.

Mary Beth