Rain, Wind, and Floods, Oh My!

Tropical Storm Fay dumped over 20 inches of rain at my house and we were stuck inside for two days. The roads near our house were crowned with four to six inches of water. We could get out by our Toyota Tundra, but my Honda Accord would have floated away. The wind gusts were about 50 mph and blew some tree branches down. We were fortunate that we only lost power for a half hour. I took pictures of the yard and the neighborhood. The horses across the street were wading in knee-high water while ducks discovered a new pond.

Now, we’re eyeing Gustav and Hanna. Hurricane Gustav, now a Tropical Storm, is expected to turn into a category 2 or 3 hurricane. He’s heading straight for Louisiana which is where my sister lives. So, if I pray that he goes somewhere else, then other families are affected. I can only pray that he get disorganized or downgraded or for some kind of miracle.
I’m also watching Tropical Storm Hanna who is lurking in the Atlantic and expected to go towards the Bahamas. One of the computer models have her making a loop like Jeanne did in 2004. At this point, it’s too early to tell where she’ll head.
I just know, living in Florida, being prepared for a hurricane is a fact of life.

If We’re Not a 10, Let Us Know

That's the sign I saw at the front desk when I checked in. I don’t think I needed to tell them that they were not a “10” after this experience: I booked a room at a La Quinta because it was across the street from the Ford Amplitheatre where a friend and I were going to a Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift concert. The concept of not having to park in a large lot and then wait in line to leave was a major convenience. We checked in at 3:30 pm and got a what we thought would be a great room at the end of the hallway--not near the elevator. But when we stepped into the room, it was dirty… trash left around and beds not made. So, we took the elevator back downstairs to get a new room. This time, we were given a room on the third floor. Upon opening the door, we were knocked over by the stench of a “smoking room”. We went back downstairs and explained that we are allergic to smoke and had reserved a non-smoking room. So, the front desk clerk, while non-chalent about the whole situation, gave us another room, number 220. Upon trying both of our card keys, the door did not open. So, we went back down the elevator to get them fixed. The front desk clerk told us he would call the maintenance man and he would meet us back at the room. Finally, at 4 pm, we were checked into a clean, non-smoking room, but right next to the elevator.

Getting Lost

I found myself looking down at wet, grey-painted sidewalks wondering where room E-100 was. I felt like I was stuck in a maze and couldn’t get out until I found the next room on the list. Then, I woke up from this nightmare of subconscious imagery from earlier in the day. My son and I had walked the route of his new high school classrooms to make sure he knew where they were and could get to them in the allotted seven minutes between classes. He’s going to a spread-out campus of different sized buildings. At least, he has a better sense of direction than I do. Here’s where a GPS could come in handy. We also spent some time trying to open the combination lock on his assigned locker. It’s ironic because as a student, I usually had trouble getting my locker open. I told him just ask someone for help if you can’t get it open. That’s what I did. Same goes for if you get lost.

The Bleaching Mystery

My son has been blaming our laundry maid for getting bleach spots on his favorite skateboard T-shirts. The laundry maid a.k.a. Dad claims he hasn’t been using beach lately. I started to wonder if our year-old front-loading washing machine was to blame. So, I dug out the 50-page instruction manual from our filing cabinet. Fortunately, two-thirds of it is in foreign languages. I found the troubleshooting questions that included “stains on fabrics”. Some reasons are not using HD detergent; using too much bleach or detergent; and iron in the water. None of those seem to be the problem although we considered getting an iron filter for our hard water.
Then, I was talking to my hair stylist about passing on clothes. My son’s T-shirts are not good enough because they are stained with white marks. She said, “Does your son use benzoyl peroxide on his skin?” I replied, “Yeeessss, he uses Oxy-10 for acne. Why?” She explained that she had the same experience with her sheets and towels when she was using it. You would think the product would have some kind of warning on the label, but it doesn’t. I looked up “Oxy-10 acne” online and found the phrase “may bleach hair or fabrics” and “avoid allowing this medication to come into contact with your hair or clothing.” This is a great web page that tells how to avoid bleaching: http://www.acne.org/faq.html#prevent-bleach. If only my son will follow the recommendations.
The mystery has been solved and the laundry maid has been forgiven.

A Deluxe Gift

My husband gave me a gift certificate for a “Deluxe Pedicure” at a salon I regularly patronize for pedicures. Saturday morning, I went into the salon and signed in for a pedicure. I was told to sit in one of the massage chairs and dipped my feet into the hot spa. When I told the technician that I had a gift certificate for a “deluxe pedicure”, she asked to see it. I told her I didn’t even know what it was. She took it to the shop manager, came back to me, and said, “How about if I don’t tell you what it is and you just enjoy it?” I said, “Okay” since I knew what to expect from a regular pedicure. Then, she asked “Would you like a glass of wine?” I replied “Is that part of the deluxe?” She said, “No, we just started doing that.” I said, “No thank you. It’s a little early for wine.” She didn’t offer me any coffee, tea or water and I didn’t ask.
The technician proceeded to trim, file, and buff my toe nails. I pressed the arm chair buttons to start the rolling and compressing massage on my lower back and to receive the full benefit of this experience. Meanwhile, she exfoliated, masked, moisturized, and massaged my legs and feet. Never before did I have teal and purple gels smeared upon my legs, one of which was an exfoliator made with eucalyptus and the other a mask. Then, she dipped my feet into hot lavender wax four times to form a hard shell and wrapped them in plastic. Wow. When all of that was done, my legs felt like running away because they were so energized by all this attention.
When she asked me what nail color I wanted, I said, “Red for the fourth of July.” She showed me four different shades of red to choose from. I picked the lightest one called “Real Red.” She painted it so perfectly on my cuticle-less toenails. She asked me if I wanted a decoration painted on them. Thinking this might be part of the deluxe package, I said sure. (It wasn’t.) She painted on white, blue and silver glitter fireworks on both big toes. Very pretty. I felt like a pampered queen. I doubt that I will ever spend the extra money for the deluxe package or the decoration, but it was a very special gift that I’ll long remember.

Fires

The fires were really bad here on Monday and I couldn't get home from work. Only one road was open going south, but it was a parking lot from all the traffic fed from I-95. I took another road east and thought I could take my country road south, but could only get so far. The sheriff deputies were stopping people and not letting them through because of the dangerous, smoky conditions. I stopped to visit a friend in the neighborhood and sat with him on his porch. We could hear the helicopters bringing water to the fires; could see and smell the smoke and see the ashes coming into his porch. Later, my husband came to get me on his 4-wheeler and told me to follow him home. Once I was home, I was nervous about the fires coming into our yard. My anxiety reminded me of the hurricanes. We had the water sprinklers going to protect our yard from burning embers. At 8:00 pm, our power went off until about midnight.
Two homes were burned to the ground just 1-1/2 miles north of us. I drove by them and many burned woody areas on the way to work. The charred woods are an unimaginable devastation to the wildlife and rural living in this neighborhood. We're so blessed that we did not have any fires close by.
I saw fire trucks driving down our roads from cities as far south as Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach and as far north as Jacksonville. The radio DJs were asking for donations for the fireman. They needed quick snacks, drinks and--can you believe they needed new socks and underwear? I guess you can't get that sooty smoke out of them so I donated some.
As of today, the fires are 70% contained and there's only a 20% chance of rain this weekend. So, pray for the protection of the firemen and for rain.

Fear of Flying

You never know who you're going to be sitting next to on an airplane flight. While waiting at the gate, I see boisterous children, overweight people, sickly people, etc. On a recent trip, a lady sat next to me coughing during the flight. She apologized and said she'd been to the doctor and it was only allergies. Okay. Then, on the return flight, the young woman next to me was freaking out while the plane was taking off. She was grasping the armrests, tightening her legs and mumbling under her breath all while wearing sunglasses. I noticed she had bad teeth and thought she might be under the influence of crystal meth. I started wondering what she was going to do next--vomit, jump out of her seat or what? So, I touched her arm and asked if she was okay. She said she hated flying, especially the take-off. So, I tried to reassure her that it would be fine and we'd be in the air shortly. Once we were in flight, she was okay and ordered a vodka and OJ. I was wondering if that was going to be okay in her case. Then, when we got ready to land, she reacted the same way. I opened the shade and tried to talk to her to keep her mind off the situation. She told me she was going to see her brother graduate from Emery-Riddle and he was going to be a pilot. He wanted to take her up in a small plane, but she refuses. She needs a lot more practice. Once we landed, she said she wanted to kiss the ground and thanked me for helping her through it. I can't imagine being afraid to fly. It's an amazing technology.