Marking Another Event Today

You know what today is?  The second anniversary of the Great Flood of 2016.

My life has changed so much, my house has changed so much.






The house as we evacuated.   The water rose about 6 more inches and then went down pretty quickly compared to most other flood events.  By day three we were able to walk through the house.  Our problem on day two was getting there with the residual flooding in the streets.

We tried to keep the dogs out of the water, since we thought the water would not continue to rise.  We are not in a flood zone after all.

The weekend started with Frank and I deciding to head to Orange Beach AL for our anniversary celebration.   He wanted to ride Skidoos in the Gulf.  You can see the storm coming in as we looked out from our hotel balcony.














The storm gets worse as time goes on.  We are looking west, toward Louisiana.

We decided to come home since it would not stop raining.  And over the next 24 hours, the water rose


.














During the night as we looked out over the back yard, it was obvious the water continued to rise.

It was terrifying, just terrifying.











One of my favorite inside photos is of Chloe refusing to get out of her bed as the water rose around us.  We thought the water would stop here.

But it kept rising.

When we evacuated and were picked up by the Cajun Navy, the boat glided down Jones Creek which is usually just a trickle of water down a deep sided canal base.

Here is Chloe trying to figure out where the heck we were going!

We all were thinking that.  

I don't need words to describe this emotion.  The next hours were unbelievable as we searched for a vehicle, a place to stay, even how family members were doing.  Thank goodness Greg and Dee were able to find us.  They graciously offered us and the dogs shelter in the RV in their back yard.  We stayed with them for almost a week.  I will be forever grateful to them.

This is the day we were able to get back to the house.  The darkened bricks are where the water line was.  That is chest high on Frank and he is just under 6 feet.

And this was our home for the next 8 months.

I am so glad the physical part of all this is over.  I will carry the emotional part with me till the day I die.  I still have flashbacks and panic attacks on some nights.  I still have images in my head during moments when the rain is heavy.  And in the midnight times, walking down the darkened hallway brings the feelings of water swirling around my ankles.

From just about any part of my house, you can see where the area from which the water rose.  I find myself casting my eye in that direction often.  So far it has kept its distance.  

I am not sure it will never happen again.  I don't think we can run from it, we didn't expect to flood here in the first place.  I thought we were safe.  

But I can truthfully say, I would not do this again.  Ever.  Under no circumstances, would I put myself through this again.  

10 Year Blog-iversity

I just realized I forgot that on it was on 10-20-17!

I pushed the button on the first post on October 20, 2007.  Can you believe that?

I started simply because I wanted to do an online journal.  I had tried just doing the word document but it was cumbersome to post photos.  And boring.

I have met really fabulous people all across the world.  I consider a lot of them friends as if we could just have dinner on any Friday night.  And sometimes I even have had dinner with a few them.

 You spent a whole year with me in the worst days of my life. 

And shared some really happy days with me.

You were there when I got this guy.

An this "innocent" guy.

and some REALLY fun times!

You shared some cool creations with me.

And some fabulous classes and learning opportunities.

When the world was right, all these sweet dogs were alive.  Now just one is left.






You cried with me through every loss.

And we have traveled the world together!

Thanks for following and reading and spending time with me.  I love you all!


I love it, don't intend to stop.

And the famous last words of that very fist post were:

Beware, I love to tell stories!

Anniversary in the Rain

Here's a unique thing  about our area that you probably don't have happen.  The caskets are popping up out of the ground!  Yep.  And the water moccasins are out in full force.  And piles of fire ants float on the moving current.  It is interesting in Louisiana when it is flooding!

Andrew's  brother's house is under 2 feet of water tonight.  It took him most of the day to get home from the plant.  He works nights across the river and when he left work, the house was fine but the roads were being closed.  

We were supposed to be on the beach today for our anniversary.  Basking in the sun, surf and sand.  I had a bottle of some sort of concoction I was going to take down to the beach tonight and drink with the big fishes!

44 years.  How did I get so old?  I was looking at the back of my hand last night.  Veins.  Wrinkles.  How diid I get wrinkles on my hands?

So since we aren't on the beach, and we are flooding everywhere, I called Bonefish Grill and asked if:

1:  Are you flooding?
2:  Are they open?
3:  Do we need reservations tonight?

She laughed and said, as long as she has servers, they are open, and we definitely don't need reservations tonight of all nights!

So we will meet some friends over there, maybe grab me some lobster since they will have a glut of them.  And maybe a nice glass of wine........or a bottle of wine. 

And you know Frank doesn't drink, right?  So it will be ALL MINE!

Duvet Cover Part 2 (or maybe 3 or 4)

 Thank you all for the wonderful well wishes for our anniversary!  It was fun hearing from so many people about their long relationships.  So few of us these days!



We had lunch and exchanged cards.  You will not believe what happened.   Read what the card says and it is even funnier.  We even bought them at different stores! 

After lunch we went to Dick's Sporting goods and looked at some kayaks.  Found this nice set up, but didn't buy anything.  Still looking.


OK.  Back to fabric.

I soaked the back of the Fish Duvet Cover in soy milk and iron sulfide.

And I had Frank chop up a dowel and an old implement (like a shovel) handle.  But obviously not small enough, because it would not fit into any pot I had available.  And I had to sacrifice my old turkey roaster.

I figured if I become famous for my incredibly beautiful ecoprints it will be worth buying a new one come Thanksgiving.

So here I am, I wrapped some leaves from Paula's yard and my yard.  Paula contributed a gorgeous purple leaf crepe myrtle, sycamore, hackberry and tallow.  From my yard came some bush I  can't remember, a palm frond, two caladium leaves and two huge iron plant leaves.

I wrapped my eco-bundles and they are currently boiling away in the turkey roaster.

I had an amount of fabric left over so I took my dye pot, smooshed it all into the bottom without rinsing out the mordant.  I added some ice from the freezer on top and sprinkled some Fire Red, Bright Yellow and Skye Blue Procion dyes over the top.

Now I am waiting.............the boiling needs to go on forever!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Today is our anniversary!  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  My mother made my dress and my bridesmaid and best friend's dress.  Frank's mother had near fainting spells because I did not want to marry in a church, so I relented and asked the Presbyterian Church at the end of the street to do the ceremony.  But that didn't make her any happier.  It seems that the Baptists really hate the Presbyterians almost as much as they hate the Catholics.  Of course the church people in my family were all Catholics, it should have tipped me off as to what the next years with that woman were to be like.

It was a pretty day.  The church was beautiful as well, Frank's curls were rampant!  Diane used to call him the Little Jewish Boy when the humidity was high.  And that was in 1972 when all the rage was long hair on the boys.  He was never able to have long stylish hair because of those curls, so when the styles changed, he gladly took the lead on short hair!  But check out Greg's long hair!  And the beauty that Diane was! 

My reception was at the Hilton Hotel by the Moisant Airfield in Kenner LA.  You know it today as Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans.  It was decidedly Italian with lots of alcohol.  My relative stole all the silver trays after the reception was over and my father had to bring all the stuff back to them the next week!

There we were, married and poor.  Barely a penny between us.  He was in school at LSU and I was working for my doctor uncle.  I was making $300 a month along with the gifts of food from my Aunt Edith.  We somehow made it all the way to today.

That is 43 years.  And a lot of water under the bridge!!!

I Am Thinking......

And that could be very very dangerous!

I am thinking that I want to see how many quilts I can get quilted in one month.  And I may have to wait until September.  I may slip a couple in before then, and acually see how many I can get done before then.  Oh, heck.....I don't know what I am doing yet!  LOL.

I have that Quilt From Hell on the frame at the present time.  I still need to rip out one and a half rows of lizards and see if I can get the tension back to normal.  Then the rest of August is full, our 40th Anniversary and the fun we will have celebrating with friends and Carrie.  Forty years is a long time, I think, now a days when so many people are working on their second marriages, and quite a few are working on their thirds even.

Carrie gave us a weekend in one of the plantations in Natchez MS.  We are excited to be heading there to celebrate and have it scheduled for one of the August weekends.  More on that later.

And this week Frank is taking care of the babies while I am off at that 4 or 5 day retreat.  So I won't reply to messages unless I have a decent signal, which, I am not sure will happen.  Boondocks are closer to civilization than I will be!

See ya, soon.

glen

Celebration!

Hair is learning to be in a different routine.  But it looks good already.  It will take a few cuttings to get it even again.  Don't read into the last post that there was ever any argument with my wonderful Senora Celia.  She is an accomplished stylist.

For our anniversary today, we have reservations at Tsunami overlooking the Mississippi River.  It is a rooftop restaurant in the Shaw Center downtown  About 7 stories up.  This is the old water tower from the top and from ground level.

 Tsunami is a sushi place and neither of us eat sushi.  So we had chicken teriyaki and pork loin something or other.  But we went for the view.  The best part of the meal was the molten lava chocolate cake with cold ice cream and fruits of the luscious variety!

 

Then I spent some time playing with the fountains and seeing what the water looked like in the camera lens. 

Frank is on the other side of the water wall, if you can see him.  If not, here he is:

Happy 39th Anniversary!

Are you looking for 39 more?

glen