Wednesday BookClub and Giant Storm Plus Thursday's Aftermath
I can't believe how far I've fallen behind on these journal entries. *le sigh*
Last Wednesday marked one of the largest storms of this monsoon season. The torrential downpour was fierce. Wind at my in-laws hit speeds fast enough to blow ceramic tiles off of houses. A majority of trees in the area were felled in the storms' great gusts. Power poles were also felled. Power to 11,000 homes was out on Thursday morning. As many as 800 homes were still without power on Friday morning.
Wednesday also marked the first of a monthly-thing I'm joining called "book club". (Does this mean I'm officially an "old lady" now? Haha!) I was invited by my Mother in Law (MIL). It was mostly chit-chat with ladies, but it was fun. After they talked about the book "Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen, they started asking for book suggestions. I had about 8 books, some I've read, some I haven't) that I suggested. One of my suggestions was picked for the book to read this month: "Summers at Castle Auburn" by Sharon Shinn.
After we ate a light snack, that's when the rainstorm hit. Laura (my MIL), Moriah (My SIL) and I were in the car driving through the rain. We had to detour once because a large tree had fallen across the road. There were other places where the road was flooded. Moriah pointed out obstacles in the road with announcements of "watch out for that branch!" or "don't hit that powerline!" Laura navigated through the puddles and lakes. At one point, the water started splashing up, over the hood of the car as we drove through. The check engine light flashed indicating that the engine might flood... and I learned that if that ever happens and you know you're at the deepest part of the water, to keep pushing the gas or you will flood your engine. As long as you have air blowing out the exhaust, you won't have it flood! Finally, we got to my in-law's house unscathed. Their power was out and didn't come back on 'till 4pm the following day! Fortunately, we missed the main portion of the storm-- those heavy winds that blew shingles off roofs and toppled towering trees. Baxter, my car, was alright even though he was outside for the whole thing. Everyone was okay.
My husband had ridden his motorcycle to a friend's house, and he was stuck there 'till 2am (after the second round of the storm passed).
There were lots of areas without power on the drive home, and I had to watch for idiot drivers-- for some reason, when it rains in Arizona, people suddenly don't know how to drive. It was a relief to come home and have electricity still running!
The next morning, I drove to work and the power was STILL out over there (same area of town as my in-laws). I got sent home... so I took advantage of the time-off to run some errands. I went to U of A and got a copy of my "official" transcripts mailed to the Board of Technical Registration. Then, I went home and caught up on some housework. Since the ground was still soft, I pulled weeds for an hour. Then, I cleaned the guest bathroom, did a load of laundry, loaded and ran the dishwasher and swept the floor. When Jordan came home, I asked him to spot mop the floor and clean the sink and potty in the master bathroom. I also asked if he'd empty the dishwasher. There was a little protesting from him, but he obliged and as a treat, we went to see the Mummy 3 movie (since nothing new we haven't already seen and wanted to see was out). That movie stank! The writing was sooooo bad.
On the way home, we stopped by CostCo and got some dinner and a few items. It took us 20-minutes to get home, even though the drive from CostCo was 4-miles. Apparently, some poor 54 year old bicyclist didn't yield to oncoming traffic and he got hit by a 20 year old girl driving a Ford F-150 truck. Poor feller. Poor girl. I'm surprised that doesn't happen more in that area. Traffic there is the reason I drive an extra 2-miles home from work everyday as a detour.
So that was last Wednesday and Thursday.
Here's my MIL's version:
This is my perspective on the storm on Wednesday that I sent to my family. What is your version as seen from the back seat?
We had a BIG storm come thru here on Wednesday night. About 8:00pm the electricity went out. It was blowing and sounded like a hurricane. We lost 2 trees and tiles flew off our roof! We didn't get electricity back until yesterday at 4:45pm. So we were without power for almost 20 hours. We had a roof guy come look at our roof. It is fine, it won't leak, the tiles just flew off, so we have to replace them is all. Whew! But now we have no tree in our front yard and in the back by the fireplace. I counted dozens and dozens of downed trees and at least 16 houses with tile blown off just on our street. Some people had their cars smashed by the trees. AND GUESS WHAT.... we had to open our garage door by hand instead of with the remote control... now that was a problem...hee hee. The news says that some people still don't have power today. I was in the car with Moriah and Katie driving home and it was VERY hard to drive. At some places the water ran over the hood and we were not in a wash, I thought we would get stuck, but I followed all the directions that they always give you so that you won't get stranded in a flash flood, and we made it to our house. It was like driving Mario Kart...I had to dodge debrie and downed power lines and floating thingys. Good thing I have all that experience on the Wii. Jordan was at a friend's house with his motorcycle and he couldn't go home until about 2 in the morning. The frogs in the river bed went wild and you could hear them from a mile away.
L
Last Wednesday marked one of the largest storms of this monsoon season. The torrential downpour was fierce. Wind at my in-laws hit speeds fast enough to blow ceramic tiles off of houses. A majority of trees in the area were felled in the storms' great gusts. Power poles were also felled. Power to 11,000 homes was out on Thursday morning. As many as 800 homes were still without power on Friday morning.
Wednesday also marked the first of a monthly-thing I'm joining called "book club". (Does this mean I'm officially an "old lady" now? Haha!) I was invited by my Mother in Law (MIL). It was mostly chit-chat with ladies, but it was fun. After they talked about the book "Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen, they started asking for book suggestions. I had about 8 books, some I've read, some I haven't) that I suggested. One of my suggestions was picked for the book to read this month: "Summers at Castle Auburn" by Sharon Shinn.
After we ate a light snack, that's when the rainstorm hit. Laura (my MIL), Moriah (My SIL) and I were in the car driving through the rain. We had to detour once because a large tree had fallen across the road. There were other places where the road was flooded. Moriah pointed out obstacles in the road with announcements of "watch out for that branch!" or "don't hit that powerline!" Laura navigated through the puddles and lakes. At one point, the water started splashing up, over the hood of the car as we drove through. The check engine light flashed indicating that the engine might flood... and I learned that if that ever happens and you know you're at the deepest part of the water, to keep pushing the gas or you will flood your engine. As long as you have air blowing out the exhaust, you won't have it flood! Finally, we got to my in-law's house unscathed. Their power was out and didn't come back on 'till 4pm the following day! Fortunately, we missed the main portion of the storm-- those heavy winds that blew shingles off roofs and toppled towering trees. Baxter, my car, was alright even though he was outside for the whole thing. Everyone was okay.
My husband had ridden his motorcycle to a friend's house, and he was stuck there 'till 2am (after the second round of the storm passed).
There were lots of areas without power on the drive home, and I had to watch for idiot drivers-- for some reason, when it rains in Arizona, people suddenly don't know how to drive. It was a relief to come home and have electricity still running!
The next morning, I drove to work and the power was STILL out over there (same area of town as my in-laws). I got sent home... so I took advantage of the time-off to run some errands. I went to U of A and got a copy of my "official" transcripts mailed to the Board of Technical Registration. Then, I went home and caught up on some housework. Since the ground was still soft, I pulled weeds for an hour. Then, I cleaned the guest bathroom, did a load of laundry, loaded and ran the dishwasher and swept the floor. When Jordan came home, I asked him to spot mop the floor and clean the sink and potty in the master bathroom. I also asked if he'd empty the dishwasher. There was a little protesting from him, but he obliged and as a treat, we went to see the Mummy 3 movie (since nothing new we haven't already seen and wanted to see was out). That movie stank! The writing was sooooo bad.
On the way home, we stopped by CostCo and got some dinner and a few items. It took us 20-minutes to get home, even though the drive from CostCo was 4-miles. Apparently, some poor 54 year old bicyclist didn't yield to oncoming traffic and he got hit by a 20 year old girl driving a Ford F-150 truck. Poor feller. Poor girl. I'm surprised that doesn't happen more in that area. Traffic there is the reason I drive an extra 2-miles home from work everyday as a detour.
So that was last Wednesday and Thursday.
Here's my MIL's version:
This is my perspective on the storm on Wednesday that I sent to my family. What is your version as seen from the back seat?
We had a BIG storm come thru here on Wednesday night. About 8:00pm the electricity went out. It was blowing and sounded like a hurricane. We lost 2 trees and tiles flew off our roof! We didn't get electricity back until yesterday at 4:45pm. So we were without power for almost 20 hours. We had a roof guy come look at our roof. It is fine, it won't leak, the tiles just flew off, so we have to replace them is all. Whew! But now we have no tree in our front yard and in the back by the fireplace. I counted dozens and dozens of downed trees and at least 16 houses with tile blown off just on our street. Some people had their cars smashed by the trees. AND GUESS WHAT.... we had to open our garage door by hand instead of with the remote control... now that was a problem...hee hee. The news says that some people still don't have power today. I was in the car with Moriah and Katie driving home and it was VERY hard to drive. At some places the water ran over the hood and we were not in a wash, I thought we would get stuck, but I followed all the directions that they always give you so that you won't get stranded in a flash flood, and we made it to our house. It was like driving Mario Kart...I had to dodge debrie and downed power lines and floating thingys. Good thing I have all that experience on the Wii. Jordan was at a friend's house with his motorcycle and he couldn't go home until about 2 in the morning. The frogs in the river bed went wild and you could hear them from a mile away.
L