Tuesday's Tornado

I don't know what to say.  The whole experience is still a little surreal.  Each morning I wake up to birds chirping and everything sounding fine until I go outside and relive the destruction.

On Tuesday, at approximately 5:05 p.m., I shuddered at work as I watched dark green clouds fill the sky and the words "Tornado Warning" light up everyone's cell phone.  All my coworkers and I wondered if we should seek a safe place to hide as we saw strong winds, lightening, and hail burst from the clouds through the atrium glass window.  We were scheduled to begin an award ceremony in an hour, and we wondered if the award recipients and their families were now in jeopardy as they were most likely driving to our campus.

The storm ended about a half an hour later with little to no visible damage.  Those that drove and braved the storm had stories to tell about traffic and fallen trees, but we dusted ourselves off thinking that was the worst of it.

After the ceremony ended, I tried calling my mom only to learn that her landline was out of service.  I then called my husband to learn that he couldn't reach home.  Both sides of our road were blocked, and emergency crews gave us the bad news that no one would be able to get to their homes that night.  On the contrary, no one would be able to leave their homes that night either.

I panicked, but what could I do?  My mom left me a quick message with her cell phone to say that she and Little Lewie were okay, but after that message, she wasn't picking up the phone anymore.  I stayed over a coworker's house and attempted to drive home that morning.  Still no luck....

On Wednesday evening, reality hit.  The news reported that an F1 Tornado touched down in our town and then traveled another 9.5 miles, leaving behind a path of destruction.  The Tornado came ripping through our road, and trees and telephone poles either snapped like toothpicks or were uprooted like removing candles from a birthday cake.  The woods behind our house was destroyed.  Our trampoline and swing set took flight and then smashed.  Favorite trees in our yard came down.

Our driveway

Trees in our yard.

Trees that came down from across the street.

Our missing trampoline.

Remnants of our swing set and trampoline.

Trees from the woods by our garage.

When the emergency crews and construction vehicles finally allowed Lew and I to drive home, I couldn't help but cry over the war zone that was once our beautiful neighborhood.  There was car damage, house damage, and everything in-between.  Words can't explain how I felt when I was finally able to hug my mom and son.  They had lived through a tornado!  The storm I saw at work was nothing in comparison to what they had been through.  My mom said she heard what sounded like a freight train, and then she and my son immediately climbed into the closet underneath the stairs.  (We don't have a basement.)  The house shook, the storm windows blew into her bedroom, and her bedroom door kept on banging fiercely as now the wind and air pressure started popping out ceiling tiles in the kitchen.  It was the scariest five or six minutes of their lives, and as you can imagine, my son was beside himself--crying, shaking, and hyperventilating.  (He still doesn't want to fully talk about it.)

The following are pictures of our road  just a few houses down from us (after two full days of cleanup...)  Most of our town and surrounding towns look just like this.

Now that the cleanup has begun, I am both thankful and upset.  We are blessed because we are all safe, and our home was spared.  I am upset, however, because the cleanup will take many, many years before we can forget, and even then, there will still be a scarred landscape.  My son has now lived through a freak ice-storm, several blizzards, two hurricanes, and now a tornado in his nine years of life.  This is not normal.  Climate change is real, and I'm afraid for Little Lewie's future.  I wish climate change wasn't part of a political platform.  It's not a Democrat issue or a Republican one--it's a human one.  The human element in all of this cannot be ignored.

Our electricity is back up and school is scheduled to begin again on Monday, but more severe thunderstorms are scheduled for tomorrow.  I will do my best to comfort my little guy, and my mom and I might need a little comforting too.

The March Blizzard of 2017 - a.k.a. Why I Don't Like Snow Days

Just when I thought the word "snow" had left our vocabulary for a while, Mother Nature surprised us with 16 - 20 more inches of the stuff.  This meant not one but TWO days off from school and work. Snow days, of course, sound exciting, romantic even, but in keeping it "real," I'm not a fan of them in our house.

Here are my top reasons why I don't like snow days...

1)  We feel claustrophobic. During yesterday's blizzard, our governor mandated a travel ban for all people other than emergency personnel.  So, not only did this mean that we were "stuck" inside our house, but it also meant I would spend the next twelve hours bickering with my husband who insisted he still needed to go the grocery store to pick up chips and ice cream.

2.  We get irritated by our 800 square foot home.  Our "tiny house" has one TV, period.  I strategically planned it this way, so that we're not accustomed to sleeping with TVs in our bedrooms or isolating ourselves into different rooms throughout the day.  Still, when the three of us are home at once for a twelve hour period (or longer), there's bound to be some arguments.  I want to do my meditation video, Lewie wants to play his Xbox, and Big Lew wants to watch his family-friendly selection of TV shows--The Last 48, The Walking Dead, and Intervention.  Needless to say, our happy living room becomes a battleground of the wills...

3.  Being inside the house makes me lethargic.  I don't mean slightly tired.  I mean downright lazy.  Everything from climbing the stairs to my bedroom to pealing my butt off the couch takes an extravagant amount of effort.  Thus, nothing ever gets done on a snow day.  Not ever.

4.  Being inside makes me hungry.  Heck, yesterday the three of us ate an entire week''s worth of groceries.  We feasted on everything, especially unhealthy food like fried chicken, ice cream, early chocolate Easter candy and potato chips (just to name a few).

5.  The house needs to be deodorized.  After two days of lazily sitting around, good hygiene goes out the window.  Showers and brushing teeth become optional, dirty clothes are piled up, and the sink is filled with used, crusty, germ-infested dishes.  Again, because my energy is at an all-time low, there's no motivation to do anything except to sleep and pretend I'm living somewhere else; a bungalow in Hawaii sounds perfect right about now.

6.  I feel like a bad parent.  Snow days, for me, usually equates to days off from work and "free time" with my son.  In an ideal world, I should be serving chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, followed by reading,snow activities, hot chocolate, and board games.  Instead, my laziness manifests and I find myself serving cereal and feeling lucky if I accomplish one of the said activities.  Since we had a "blizzard" this time, there was no going out to enjoy the snow.  Having our face getting pelted by hard ice pellets is where I draw the line.

7.  I need a chiropractic adjustment.  With 20" of snow in the forecast, we knew waiting out the storm would be bad.  On four separate occasions, we went out to clear the sidewalks.  In classic blizzard fashion, there were snow drifts--some areas with 1 to 2 inches with other areas collecting up to 8 inches.  The snow was hard and HEAVY.  After the second round, my arms and back felt bruised and battered.  Our living quarters turned into an emergency relief station equipped with ibuprofen, Arniflora (arnica) gel, heating pads, and blankets.  Our kitchen chairs became drying racks for soaked coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and socks,

This gel is a savior in our house.  We rub it onto all of our sore muscles.

8.  Good help these days is hard to find.  We had to hire a new "plow guy" this year.  After some calling around, we settled on a gentleman that lives up the street from us.  Since we knew the storm would be bad, we told him to feel free to come out to plow our driveway twice.  That didn't happen... On day one, he was nowhere to be found.  On day two, he came roaring in, trying to push all 16 inches of snow at once.  It didn't work.  Heavy snowbanks were piled everywhere, and there was still a mess to clean up. The only answer was to dig ourselves out; my back enjoyed that!

This is our driveway after shoveling for about an hour...

Yes, snow days are not glamorous in our house.  We don't spend the day baking cookies and sitting in front of a warm toasty fire.  (We don't have a fireplace.)  We spend the day relaxing our sore, tired muscles on the couch while watching Lewie play Minecraft on the Xbox.  We spend the day binge eating, leaving a trail of wrappers, empty cartons, and dirty dishes around the house.  We sleep, we bicker, we complain.  I almost didn't write this post; I didn't want to sound too negative.  Still, there is a silver lining at the end of this post.  Despite my aversion to snow days, Little Lewie still LOVES them.

What do you do on a snow day in your house?

The Winter that Never Ends

This year the weather has been interesting.  Thankfully, we've been spared from blizzards, hurricanes, super storms, and the like (for now), but the months of March and April have not exactly been easy.  Cold temperatures, snow, and ice storms have been frequent, and just when we think warmer weather is here to stay, we get this:

This weekend, we had temperatures in the high 60's and 70's.  For the first time this spring, my tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils finally managed to push their way through the rock hard ground and show their colorful pedals.  On Sunday, we decided to go hiking at an environmental conservation area called White Memorial Campground, and there, the forest seemed to be awakened too.  Squirrels were playfully running up and down trees, birds were diving over our heads, peepers were calling for mates, oh, and bullfrogs were grunting too.  I must admit that I never heard bullfrogs before during mating season, but my oh my,...if you're curious, this is what they sound like:



It was a fun weekend, but now we're back to the cold.  Our winter coats and hats had to come out once again. (Have I mentioned that this unpredictable weather has been making everyone sick in our house too?) Since the weather has mostly been cold, I scheduled our annual Easter Egg Hunt with friends at my house for the first week of May...  Boy, I'm sure glad I did!

On the way to school, April 16,2014

A fake smile from my five year old that's not too happy about our ice storm.

Spring Ahead?!

Okay, in my last post, I was ready for the soft warm winds of spring, the first buds of daffodils and tulips, the familiar sounds of birds chattering, the excited yelps of children playing in the park, and the days when I could finally leave my long, heavy winter coat behind in the closet for good...

Today was no such day....

We had 16+ inches of snow today.

I should have known.  March roars in like a lion, and that's exactly what it did.  So, now I have to follow my own good advice.  "Be patient," I say to Lewie when he wants something NOW.  "Good things happen to those who wait."

So, now we are in a period of waiting...waiting for the warm weather to arrive, waiting for my husband's knee to heal, waiting for the opportunity to hike, pack picnic lunches, and play outside until the sun goes down.

Today I should have started my spring cleaning, but somehow I couldn't; it's not just about cleaning; it's about opening windows to air out the house and getting rid of lingering germs--the germs that are still chronically making us cough, sneeze, and sniffle.

My own voice keeps halting my inner dialog, "Be patient, be patient, be patient."  What easy advice to give, but what hard advice to follow...

What are you waiting patiently for???

An Interesting Fall

It's been an interesting fall.  In most of September and October, we had much warmer weather than normal, which meant that are leaves stayed green and didn't fall off our trees.  (We definitely didn't have one of those gorgeous, colorful falls that New England is known for...)

Then, after a balmy 60 degree week of weather, we have a freak snowstorm, which brings 12 inches of heavy, sloppy snow.  (This October storm was definitely a record-breaker for the state of Connecticut since we usually don't see snow until late November or December.)

Now our weather is back in the 60's (unusually warm for November), and there are still leaves on the trees (also unusual).  The trees in our backyard and all over the state look sad and injured; many lost limbs because the snow was too heavy for their delicate branches.

So, our fall has looked something like this:

Pumpkin picking on the third week of October.

The March Farm pumpkin patch.

"I'm ready for a ride Daddy."

"I'm ready for a ride Daddy."

Our first snowfall...the last Saturday of October!

I'm so glad I bought the snowsuit and boots early this year.

"Look Mommy.  It's sticking to my glove."

The pumpkins from the March farm pumpkin patch.

"Time to build a snowman!"

This weekend was the cleanup.  We had large branches down in our front yard, side yard, and backyard.  While it was tough work to remove the branches, we did have fun.

1) My husband had the chance to go to Home Depot and pick out a brand new chainsaw.  (He was like a kid going to a candy store.)

2) Little Lewie enjoyed playing in the leaves.  In fact, he loved them so much that they became "Lewie's leaves."  I wasn't allowed to rake his leaf pile. 

3) We tied Lewie's plastic kiddy pool to the back of our mower.  It helped us move the large branches to our front yard.  (The town is supposed to come and pick up the branches.)  It also made a great ride.  It was like water tubing but without the water!

4) Lewie had fun taking pictures with our camera.  The last picture is either of me or our trampoline.  I'm not sure which one he was aiming for...

 

  

  

  

A Stormy Halloween in Connecticut!

Wow, so after four very LONG days, we finally have our power back.  We lost it during Hurricane Irene too, but this time, with 20 and 30 degree temperatures at night, staying at home in the cold and dark just didn't work well.  After spending one night of having my husband and I and Little Lewie try to snuggle together in our queen bed, we realized that it just wasn't going to work.  For one, my husband was pushed off the bed by Little Lewie, and so he was forced to make his way to the couch.  Then, when Little Lewie woke up at 5 in the morning coughing and shivering, I just knew we had to do something. Something.  Even I could feel the chill in my bones.

The next morning, Halloween morning to be exact, we went to Friendly's in the next town over (one of the few places with power in the area) and started making phone calls to hotels.  We had tried the night before but with no luck.  Every hotel in the area (and probably in Connecticut) was booked.  This time, our second call--a call to the Omni Hotel in New Haven--was the charm.  Sure it was an expensive hotel--$200 per night--but we had no friends or family to stay with since they were out of power too!  We also found out that our entire town (98%) was without power, and they had cancelled trick-or-treating activities.

We made reservations to stay at the hotel for two days, and then went home eagerly to pack our bags.  To us, heat and a nice hot shower just couldn't come fast enough.  We reserved a room with double beds; the agreed arrangement was that Little Lewie and my mom would sleep in one bed and my husband and I would sleep in the other. 

While my mom, Lew, and I felt displaced from this experience, Little Lewie loved it and probably had the best Halloween ever.  Once at the hotel, we dressed him up in his little vampire costume, and brought him with us to my place of work.  (My college was open and running, but my husband's college was closed due to no power.)  After he had fun entertaining everyone at my work, we did a little trick-or-treating in New Haven.  (This part of Connecticut felt like it hadn't even been hit by the storm.)  He would very carefully select a piece of candy and then ask if he could go into the person's house to "see" it.  After trick-or-treating, Lewie got to enjoy riding up and down the elevator of the Omni Hotel over and over again, scaring unsuspecting passengers with his very grown-up growl.  (Yes, he took his role as vampire very seriously.)

Now our power is back, and Little Lewie had a make-up Halloween party at his pre-school yesterday--another chance to wear his costume!  The experience definitely cost us some money, but all in all, I feel blessed.  For one, we were very lucky to be able to stay at a hotel and still be able to celebrate Halloween.  (I was even able to show my mom a few nice restaurants in New Haven--an experience she never would have had otherwise.)  And two, we are back home safely and soundly to our happy, warm house.  I'll never take our home or electricity for granted again!

My little vampire sitting at my desk at work.

Little Lewie at the hotel.  (I couldn't peel him away from the elevator even to take a picture!)

Captivated by the elevator.

Getting ready to scare his little friends at his pre-school Halloween party.

Posing in our yard.

This picture speaks for itself.

 And for the grand finale, a short video clip of his roaring/growling in action: 

(Very scary and only for the brave of heart!)

Still No Power after Hurricane Irene!

Hi Everyone,

I'm happy to report that we finally do have power after Hurricane Irene!  A crew from New Jersey hooked us up on Friday, and another gentleman from AT&T got our U-verse running on Saturday.  I wrote a blog entry during the week on another computer but was unable to post.  It was difficult to be without power.  I didn't mind not watching TV for the week, but I didn't realize how 'addicted' or 'dependent' I'd become on using the internet!  It was tough not to be able to blog, answer work emails from home, or even get updates from friends and family.  I LOVE my computer, and even more, I LOVE my electricity and internet access.  I'll never take these for granted again.  Anyways, here is my mid-week rant about having no electricity and another tree falling in our yard (we had one fall on the house only a few months before)--the tree mess is still yet to be cleaned up!

As many of you know, Hurricane Irene "visited" the East coast last weekend and caused quite a bit of destruction.  For Connecticut, we had lots of  beach erosion, fallen trees, and knocked down power lines.  While we don't live anywhere near the beach, we did have another tree come down in your yard.  Fortunately, it missed the house, but as it fell on the side of our house, it took down our power lines and the pole on our house that attaches the power lines to our meter.  After hearing a large thud in the afternoon, we looked out our window only to see the mess--the scariest part is that even with the power lines being knocked down and entangled in the tree, we still had power.

To be safe, we called our town's emergency number.  After they came in record time to survey the damage, they decided we needed to shut our power off to avoid a fire.  Now, here it is...day five after the hurricane, and we are still without power.  We've been told it might not be restored for another ten days...  The frequent trips to my in-laws to take showers, the visits to the laundromat, or the daily trips to get ice haven't been my idea of fun, but it certainly has made life interesting this week...  At the same time, this week was Little Lewie's first day of pre-school.  Not only is he trying to get adjusted to a brand new classroom and brand new teachers, but he's also trying to make sense of our lifestyle change--no lights, no TV, no baths, and even no cooked meals, to name a few.  He's been telling everyone..."Fall down tree and no TT."  The translation is "our tree fell down in our yard, and now we can't watch TV."

Finally, Little Lewie has been a little traumatized by other changes.  I tried to give him a bath this week at my in-law's house and he screamed bloody murder.  With his strength and persistence, there was no way I could get him in the tub.  He still wouldn't go in after we put toys and bubble bath in the tub either.  Then, today, I took him to a laundromat for the first time.  Once we stuffed everything into the dryer and left to go back to the house, Little Lewie started to sob hysterically.  "Clothes Mommy.  Clothes!"  I guess he thought we were leaving our clothes behind for good.  Poor thing.  I do hope things improve next week...

Here are some pictures of our "fall down tree":

We're very lucky the tree didn't hit the house!

It's hard to tell in this photo, but we have at least three other trees that are ready to fall down too!

The glorious pole to our meter that came down with the wires.