Storm Diary VI
Entry six, of seven.
I have mentioned that my children were slated to attend two birthday parties the weekend following the storm. One of those, on Friday evening, went on more or less as planned. The other, on Saturday, did not. It would have been held at Dublin Park pool in Madison, and on Saturday much of Madison County was still without power. So we did other things on Saturday. The child whose party was cancelled on Saturday is a neighbor, so my children delivered her gift to her on Saturday afternoon.
In addition to those two parties, the other birthday I was concerned with, the weekend after the storm, was Cora's. My baby turned eight this weekend. I knew what I wanted to get for her; one gift, I was able to get on Tuesday -- she wanted the set of dolls from the movie Tangled that included Maximus (the horse) and Flynn (the, er, prince). I had that. I wanted to get her a shower head; I picked that up at Lowe's on Friday. I wanted to get her an ice cream cake, and I had a LivingSocial coupon for a half-price ice cream cake at Bruster's -- but Bruster's is in Madison, and we had this whole experiment in pre-modern living thing going on throughout all of the greater Madison area, and into Limestone County. I wanted to get her a Bible case with handles, so that she can carry her own Bible to church, but Family Christian Store and Lifeway are both in Madison, and my attempt to find one in Athens was one big fail.
I was worried that Cora's birthday would be disappointing. I was reminded of Ashley Rose's 3rd birthday, the year that Cora was born -- newborn Cora had to go to the emergency room to have her shunt tapped, and Ashley Rose celebrated turning 3 in the exam room at the Riley Hospital Emergency Department, with a cupcake that the nurses provided from somewhere, while doctors stuck a needle in her sister's head and -- heads being so highly vascularized -- Cora bled all over the place. Things like that are just a great way to feel like a total failure at this whole "parenting" thing.
I didn't want a disappointing birthday.
Sunday, I woke my birthday girl and her sister and her sister and got them dressed for church. After church we called in an order for the birthday lunch Cora had chosen -- Papa John's Pizza. Sean dropped me at Publix and went to fill the gas can so that we could put gas in our borrowed generator. At Publix, I bought an ice cream cake out of their freezer and had them write Cora's name on it, and I got Cold! Drinks! for everybody. I also bought a 10-lb bag of ice, and put the whole thing in an insulated grocery bag. We went home and ate pizza on Toy Story themed paper plates, with Toy Story themed napkins. While the others were finishing their pizza, I snuck back to the bedroom and wrapped the presents I had. We lit a candle, sang "Happy Birthday," and served huge slices of ice cream cake all around. Cora opened her presents, which included a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday train from big sister and the Toy Story coloring set I'd bought to substitute for the gift I couldn't find. She also had birthday cards and gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and folks from church.
After days of drinking warm bottled water, I have to say, that ice cream cake was really, really, really good.
I hope that Cora remembers turning 8 with pleasure, and not distress.
When we were finished, I put the bagged ice and the remainder of the ice cream cake in my generator-powered freezer.
Then I went to check on the freezer in my garage.
If I had cleaned it out the day before, like I had initially planned; if I had brought the generator straight home, instead of delaying... I might have saved some of that stuff, but by Sunday afternoon it had all completely thawed. Oh well. Like I've said, I'm not too worried about the food. I remember Ashley Rose asked me about food at one point, during this little adventure, and I told her not to let it bother her. I told her to think about Psalm 37:25 if she needed reassurance:
I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
So I threw out the food from my garage freezer, double-bagged, and was very grateful that the garbage collection had run on Friday as scheduled. The mail and the garbage collection have not failed us through all of this, and I have been mightily impressed. On Saturday, in fact, Cora received a birthday package from her Uncle Marcus and Aunt Kim and cousins -- it came with a disaster care package for me that included cleaning wipes, baby wipes, more Via from Starbucks (coffee! The disaster essential nobody ever mentions!) and matches. Some I kept, and some I donated at my church.
Sunday afternoon we went to Bible class. The kids probably actually had lessons; in our adult class we had more of a strategy session regarding the disaster, and what was going on with various church members, and how the church was resonding. On the way home I refilled the gas can. When we got home I plugged the toaster oven into the generator and reheated the leftover pizza and barbecue for supper, followed by the rest of Cora's ice cream cake.
Ordinarily, on Sunday night we have family movie night -- we eat pizza or subs and watch something on Netflix. Lately we've been watching Season 2 of Lois and Clark. Well, back in early March we were watching Season 2 of Lois and Clark. We missed three weeks when Cora and I were in Birmingham, and then when I got home, our DSL modem had died, and we had no internet connection, so we couldn't watch it that Sunday, either. Then in the middle of the following week we got hit with a monster storm, and guess what? My children have now missed five weeks of a prized family activity. They are really missing Superman.
We played a board game instead, by lamp light, and went to bed.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
I have mentioned that my children were slated to attend two birthday parties the weekend following the storm. One of those, on Friday evening, went on more or less as planned. The other, on Saturday, did not. It would have been held at Dublin Park pool in Madison, and on Saturday much of Madison County was still without power. So we did other things on Saturday. The child whose party was cancelled on Saturday is a neighbor, so my children delivered her gift to her on Saturday afternoon.
In addition to those two parties, the other birthday I was concerned with, the weekend after the storm, was Cora's. My baby turned eight this weekend. I knew what I wanted to get for her; one gift, I was able to get on Tuesday -- she wanted the set of dolls from the movie Tangled that included Maximus (the horse) and Flynn (the, er, prince). I had that. I wanted to get her a shower head; I picked that up at Lowe's on Friday. I wanted to get her an ice cream cake, and I had a LivingSocial coupon for a half-price ice cream cake at Bruster's -- but Bruster's is in Madison, and we had this whole experiment in pre-modern living thing going on throughout all of the greater Madison area, and into Limestone County. I wanted to get her a Bible case with handles, so that she can carry her own Bible to church, but Family Christian Store and Lifeway are both in Madison, and my attempt to find one in Athens was one big fail.
I was worried that Cora's birthday would be disappointing. I was reminded of Ashley Rose's 3rd birthday, the year that Cora was born -- newborn Cora had to go to the emergency room to have her shunt tapped, and Ashley Rose celebrated turning 3 in the exam room at the Riley Hospital Emergency Department, with a cupcake that the nurses provided from somewhere, while doctors stuck a needle in her sister's head and -- heads being so highly vascularized -- Cora bled all over the place. Things like that are just a great way to feel like a total failure at this whole "parenting" thing.
I didn't want a disappointing birthday.
Sunday, I woke my birthday girl and her sister and her sister and got them dressed for church. After church we called in an order for the birthday lunch Cora had chosen -- Papa John's Pizza. Sean dropped me at Publix and went to fill the gas can so that we could put gas in our borrowed generator. At Publix, I bought an ice cream cake out of their freezer and had them write Cora's name on it, and I got Cold! Drinks! for everybody. I also bought a 10-lb bag of ice, and put the whole thing in an insulated grocery bag. We went home and ate pizza on Toy Story themed paper plates, with Toy Story themed napkins. While the others were finishing their pizza, I snuck back to the bedroom and wrapped the presents I had. We lit a candle, sang "Happy Birthday," and served huge slices of ice cream cake all around. Cora opened her presents, which included a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday train from big sister and the Toy Story coloring set I'd bought to substitute for the gift I couldn't find. She also had birthday cards and gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and folks from church.
After days of drinking warm bottled water, I have to say, that ice cream cake was really, really, really good.
I hope that Cora remembers turning 8 with pleasure, and not distress.
When we were finished, I put the bagged ice and the remainder of the ice cream cake in my generator-powered freezer.
Then I went to check on the freezer in my garage.
If I had cleaned it out the day before, like I had initially planned; if I had brought the generator straight home, instead of delaying... I might have saved some of that stuff, but by Sunday afternoon it had all completely thawed. Oh well. Like I've said, I'm not too worried about the food. I remember Ashley Rose asked me about food at one point, during this little adventure, and I told her not to let it bother her. I told her to think about Psalm 37:25 if she needed reassurance:
I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
So I threw out the food from my garage freezer, double-bagged, and was very grateful that the garbage collection had run on Friday as scheduled. The mail and the garbage collection have not failed us through all of this, and I have been mightily impressed. On Saturday, in fact, Cora received a birthday package from her Uncle Marcus and Aunt Kim and cousins -- it came with a disaster care package for me that included cleaning wipes, baby wipes, more Via from Starbucks (coffee! The disaster essential nobody ever mentions!) and matches. Some I kept, and some I donated at my church.
Sunday afternoon we went to Bible class. The kids probably actually had lessons; in our adult class we had more of a strategy session regarding the disaster, and what was going on with various church members, and how the church was resonding. On the way home I refilled the gas can. When we got home I plugged the toaster oven into the generator and reheated the leftover pizza and barbecue for supper, followed by the rest of Cora's ice cream cake.
Ordinarily, on Sunday night we have family movie night -- we eat pizza or subs and watch something on Netflix. Lately we've been watching Season 2 of Lois and Clark. Well, back in early March we were watching Season 2 of Lois and Clark. We missed three weeks when Cora and I were in Birmingham, and then when I got home, our DSL modem had died, and we had no internet connection, so we couldn't watch it that Sunday, either. Then in the middle of the following week we got hit with a monster storm, and guess what? My children have now missed five weeks of a prized family activity. They are really missing Superman.
We played a board game instead, by lamp light, and went to bed.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.