Predicament

Sometimes I have to stop and wonder how I get myself into stupid situations. Today was one of the best examples.

Our area has received over 6 inches of rain in the past couple of days. Thank you, Ike. The rivers crested today several feet above flood levels. The park where I walk is surrounded by rivers and as I drove there today, I could see that Mother Nature had bequested her wrath on our city.

I have some issues when it comes to challenging myself. I try to do something every day that scares me. Today was no exception. I threw caution to the wind as I started on my walk. Water was over the path just beyond the parking lot but I was able to easily get around it.

The amount that the river had risen was amazing. It was hard to tell where the river banks had once been as the water spilled over. I was easily a mile and a half from my car when I noticed more water where there was no way around it. I decided that it wasn't going to kill me if I got my feet a little wet. The water was only a few inches deep as I began to wade through it. A few inches quickly became twelve and then went above my knees. I was positive that the water would not get any deeper so I stayed the course.

I hadn't paid attention to how far I had walked until I looked back across the water. I took notice of where the path ahead of me had once been. The water got deeper, almost reaching my special girl parts. This is when I panicked. All thoughts went to the fact that flood waters always mix with raw sewage. My skin began to crawl. I am a major germophobe (I buy hand sanitizer by the gallon).

Somewhere, there is a path where I used to walk:

At this point, I became painfully aware of how people drown in floods. The current was tugging on my soaking pants as logs banged into my legs. I am an excellent swimmer but my biggest concern was that I was going to get my cell phone wet. I had to calm myself down as I took a break from walking. Water was everywhere around me and I could no longer tell where the path had been. I almost cried when I got over the bridge that I was sure would be dry on the other side. All I could see was water.


I took out my phone and tried to keep myself from calling for help but quickly realized that I was the idiot that put myself in this situation. How stupid was I going to look?

I had this brilliant idea that I would climb this gigantic hill to get out of the water. I knew that the cemetery was up there. I pulled myself up and made it out of the water and didn't even fall.

I walked back, passing several joggers as my shoes squished. They gave me the strangest looks when they saw that my pants were wet all the way to my hoo ha.

From now on, I will heed all flood warnings and steer clear of Mother Nature. My mother warned me about getting in the water before I left. I guess mothers are pretty smart when it comes to these things, myself not included.

Weathering The Storms

Mid Michigan has been blasted with one storm after another, beginning Friday night. Friday night the girls and I took everything off the deck so it wouldn't blow into the house. Most of the storm went north of us. The storm was bad enough that it took out the cable and the internet. Our neighbors all lost power, but we still had it.

Saturday night we were watching the most beautiful lightening storm I've ever seen. It was the kind where the lightening is flashing horizontal instead of vertical. It was amazing until we got home and were hit with one storm after another until 4:30 am. Mr. Sign came upstairs to wake the girls and me up to go to the basement. The city sirens were blaring and we noticed that our 200 pound grill had been blown off the deck (we had since put all the furniture back).

Last night we were hit again, this time with tornadoes sighted very close to us. Once again, we got familiar with our basement. Our neighborhood looks a war zone with trees down on every street.

You never realize how cut off you are from the world until you have no TV or internet to give you weather updates. The radio was of little help.

More storms are predicted for tonight. We have already received 6 inches of rain in 3 days with another 1.5 inches predicted for tonight. I'm saying a little prayer that we are able to weather this storm.

Flash 55, Take 27

I had already given you your wakeup call,
so I was surprised when I felt the bed jiggle
an hour later as you got up to leave.

I rolled over chastising you for not getting up
and noticed that you weren't there.

Why did the bed shake?

I think I've been watching too much television.

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If you are interested in attempting to write a 55, you can visit here. If you do one, go tell G-Man that you did.

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This morning I was awakened by the bed shaking, like when Mr. Sign gets out of bed. I rolled over and started to tell him he was late when I realized he wasn't there.

I tried to tell myself that I must have been dreaming that the bed moved and went about getting ready for the day. The local news was on as I was getting dressed and low and behold, they were reporting that an earthquake had been felt in Mid-Michigan at 5:36 AM.

Whew! I wasn't crazy! At least not about this.

April Fools

April 1st was always one of my favorite days. As a kid, I loved to be tricked by my dad. He got me every single year. I remember falling for my dad telling me that there was a dinosaur outside. I was only 4. Give me a break!

My most favorite prank was in high school. I woke my sister up uber early and sat on the edge of her bed. I shook my head and pretended to be distraught. I explained that I was pregnant and didn't know how to tell mom. My sister fell for it hook line and sinker. We began planning and plotting for what I was going to do.

I didn't tell her until the next day that it was an April Fools joke. I'm surprised she didn't kill me when she found out.

I haven't pulled off any great April Fools jokes in many years. Of course I always get my girls. This morning I woke them up and told them there wasn't school because we were having a blizzard (in their defense, the wind is blowing 40 mph). Needless to say, they weren't very happy to find out that I had pulled one over on them.

Daughter #1 is supposed to have her 1st softball game today. The team hasn't even been able to practice outside yet because of our wonky weather. I'm having a hard time believing there will be a game today.

Be careful what you fall for today!

Snow Day?

Yesterday morning I hauled my tired butt out of bed not looking forward to the frigid temperatures. The wind chills had been in the -22 below range. That's -54 to you Europeans and Canadians. Chilly, to say the least.

I traipsed into both girls' rooms and got them moving for the day.

Five minutes before I had to take #1 to school, the phone rang and it was the school district. They have an automated system that emails and calls all parents in our large district when need be. The message said that school was being delayed for two hours. WTF? I mean, I know it's cold, but it's been colder.

I should preface this by telling you that our school district, being urban, rarely, if ever closes school. It's infamous for sending kids to school, risking life and limb of both the students and hard working teachers.

Can you see that temperature over there on the right side of the picture? That is the actual air temperature. Note the time. --------------->

Needless to say, I was perturbed to think that we had all drug ourselves out of bed for nothing.

We all sat around staring at each other, waiting for the two hours to pass. Forty minutes later, the phone rang again. The school district had now closed the district.

I'm one of the lucky people whose work schedule is flexible since I work for family. My heart went out to the parents that had their daily routines disrupted not once, but twice causing them to have to scramble to make arrangements for child care.

I decided to take the girls to work with me. Upon rushing out there, I realized that I didn't even have any work to do. So, now I had gotten up for no reason, drug my kids in sub zero temps only to find that I had driven many miles for nothing. *sigh*

We decided to drive a little further and visit my dad who has recently had surgery so the day wasn't a total loss.

While watching the news last night, it was reported that the reason the district closed was because more than 20 of the buses would not start due to the cold weather. Lucky for us, the district called this morning at 5:30 am to assure us that school would go on as planned. Grrr!!

Bad A$$

No Flash Fiction 55 today. I just didn't have it in me. So you get this instead.

What Bad Ass Rock Legend Are you? *with pictures* created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Ozzy Osbourne! You are OZZY OSBOURNE! Your the 'Prince of Darkness man...You and 3 friends created this tiny thing called HEAVY METAL...you are really funny but produce really ugly kids! Tommy Lee 90% Ozzy Osbourne! 90% Slash 85% Jimi Hendrix 80% James Hetfield 70% Kurt Cobain 65% Billie Joe Armstrong 60%

Ok, why is Tommy Lee listed first, but I don't have a picture? I had to correct the spelling on this little test. Who can't spell "really"?

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We had another snow day today. The second this week (Wednesday was our first day this year and no one really knows why. Maybe the wind chill?). Our state only allows 1 snow day per school year. WTF? We live in Michigan between the Great Lakes, you know, the snow makers of the world?

Anywho, I'm waiting to go out and and move snow around. We have about 5 inches now. We are supposed to get up to 10". I can't wait to play in the fluffy stuff. I say "Bring It"!

Have a great SuperBowl Weekend!

Burrrr...

I survived yesterday working outside without too many problems. Today will be a different story. The wind chill is -1 right now and I'm headed out to the great white tundra.

I have hand warmers in my wool socks, long underwear, 4 shirts and hand warmers for my gloves which we don't wear much since we are putting nuts and bolts on signs.

Today should be interesting. At least we are working at the hospital if we need medical attention.

What's Up?

There's not much going on here in blog world lately. I guess we are all busy.

It seems you are all so busy that you haven't noticed that in my blog mania, I've changed my template yet again. I'll forgive you this once. I don't know why I obsess about keeping this here rag fresh, but I guess it's for all of my peeps. When I transferred everything over, I lost all my widgets. Grrr...


So, have you been having the crazy weather we have here? It was 15 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday and we had about 18 inches of snow on the ground. By Sunday, the snow was all gone. Monday, the temp was 61. Today, 51 and lots of rain on top of all the melted snow makes for some very wet basements.

I've been trying to cut back on my fat and carb levels. I think trying to quit both at the same time is making my head hurt. I usually eat nuts on my way home from work. (Not THOSE nuts!!) I stopped eating them based on their high fat content. Man, I miss my nuts (hehe!). But, on a good note, today I got over 100 grams of protein in using only 950 calories. I rock!

I have no nice way to wrap up this here maniacal post, so I'll just bid you adieu.