Monday:
Hmmmm......spent the night with Becky and Rachel in Cape Girardeau last night. Slept like the dead, except when the sun came up over the cemetery, this dead person woke up.......at 5:30AM!!!!! WHEW.......waaaaayyyyy toooooo early for me, but I couldn't return to the dead.......just kept thinking about the past three days and Life can change in such a very, very short 40 minutes!!!!!! And change it has........
After checking my emails this morning following a shower and the rest of the morning rituals, I answered a few emails that needed quick replies.....and then told Becky I needed to get on out to F'town......the disaster area. I made a brief stop at "My Daddy's Cheesecake Factory" to get one of their wonderful pastries......and one of their very good cups of coffee....using the Kenya, or some other African country's coffee beans....and it is very good, very dark, and very rich and robust. And, then I was on my way......
Once again, only in reverse from yesterday.....when I was within about 20 miles of F
town....I began to see the massive trees down in the National Forest....and then the barns flattened or at least battered very badly.....and then the boat up in the tree that I saw yesterday on my way to Cape....and many, many other odd and unusual sights that can only be seen after a severe storm of this magnitude. And....the closer to F'town that I came......the worse the sights became!!!!
Coming into town, I immediately drove down past our sad looking home and about 1/4 of a mile further up the road. The reason???? Last night after I posted on my blog and posted pictures, I was reading the recent Facebook entries....and making a statement on there about checking my blog for pictures of the disaster....and then I read a statement from a former F'town band student who does not here, nor even near here, now. She was asking if someone would go check on her father who lives alone and is in his 80's....she had not heard anything at all from him since the storm. So, I replied back to her that when I returned to F'town I would check and see if he and his home were OK.
Soooo, arrive at his home, it is very small and not very up to date, I noticed the entire fron was covered in trees and limbs and debris. I got out of the truck and began calling out his name as I couldn't get to the front door......and finally, he came out and managed to get throught the branches of a downed tree and the other debris....and I told him I was just checking on him for his daughter. He was fine, said he had water, but nothing else in the way of services. I told him he could call her on my cell phone, but he said he didn't her number from memory, so I suggested to him that he come up to my home/RV and he could call from there. And, he said he would.
Amazing how Facebook can help in emergencies such as this.....or any other, for that matter. I took some pics of his home to send to his daughter when I can get some electricity and wifi....someday......somewhere.....sometime. And, he did come up to my place, we called....but no answer. I told him I would continue to call during the day....however, I left a message for her when I tried....and within about an hour she returned my call.......and was sooooo glad I had checked on him and that he was all right!!!!
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent in talking with sooooooo many people who came by....some to take pictures of our trees and the damages, others were not-so-good scam artists(?) who wanted to take care of our trees, etc., for outrageous prices, other who were legit and talked about what it would take to clear out the debris of trees, limbs, branches, etc......and then others to just visit and hear my story about the storm.....and to share theirs with me. Amazing.....everyone has a story to tell!!!!!
The 1st Lady returned about 1pm.....and we toured the property together. She was not as shocked as she could have been....told me that I had prepared her well by telling her how terrible it was....and then we began to make a decision on the one tree next to the house....the one that the HUGE branches had been ripped off of the tree and landed on top of my house. We decided if we could get the estimate that we would like to have, we would go ahead and have it chopped down and removed, as long as we are going to have to do MAJOR ground work, landscaping, etc., etc. when this is all said and done.
This afternoon.....we spent in the fron yard, raking the twigs, leaves, et.c, et.c out to the street where they will EVENTUALLY be picked up. Can't do much in this type of work as when the trees are finally removed, we will just to do it all over again. But.....it just seemed like we needed to be doing SOMETHING in the yard.
I did get another call from State Farm....giving me my clain number.....and I asked about the adjuster's arrival. Wellllllllll.....she said it could be from one week to six weeks before I see and adjuster at our door!!!!!!! However, she said that I was in Class 1....think that was the word she used....and I would be one of the first ones to get things taken care of.....THAT is better news!!!!!
I do understand from friends of ours....Sue Dave Hanner.....that this storm has been delcared a CAT storm.....catastrophic storm.......which made things a bit different in the claims area.
We also learned that this is being called a "In-land Hurricane"....between Category 1 and Category 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING....but, I would have to agree with them when they said it DID have an "eye"....and that is when I talked about the few minutes when the winds died down....and then returned from a DIFFERENT direction!!!!! Sooooo, my damages are the result of a HURRICANE.....right here in Misery!!!!!!(WHERE else would this ever happen???????HAHAHA!!!!)
Tomorrow???? Who the Hell knows????? More rains are forecast for the rest of the week....in hurricane ravaged southeast Misery!!!!!! What else is new?????
And sooooo, once again........
LIFE IS GOOD........(not quite "great")....and I hope today was GREAT for YOU!!!!!(I have turned off the generator here in TheHowserHouse on-wheels and do not want to run down the battery here in th laptop.....so to all good night!!!!!)
TUESDAY:
THIS will be short tonight.....I am dead meat, or at least I FEEL like I am. We are back in the sticks and brick.....power IS ON!! About 5:30pm for us....another long story as we were the last people up on Buford Heights...the hill....to get it on, however......most of the town still does not have any power!!
I am EXHAUSTED.....today we dealt once again with the State Farm agent.....and had to change some things on the estimate of the guys who we are dealing with to do all of the chain sawing, cutting, cleaning, hauling, etc., etc. These same guys arrived just after the agent left.....still NO adjuster in sight or no phone calls from him/her.
The tree removers worked enmass for over 6 hours this afternoon/early evening. They left at 7:30pm as they had to leave town as it was time for the CURFEW to being......and they would be stopped and who knows what....as they do not live in town and are NOT to be here once the curfew begins. They did do a tremendous lot of work during this time....think there were 7 or 8 of them with chain saws, etc., etc......and we are really glad the got as much done as they did.....as severe storms are once AGAIN forecast for tomorrow and tomorrow night!!!!! Ahhhh...how I just LOVE living in the state of Misery!!!!!!
We worked all afternoon in the yard, removing small branches where we had not contracted the guys to remove/clean.....and drug all of this to the curbside for the city to pick up. They are working down the street now.....coming our way....and weather permitting, should be at our curbside tomorrow. Think they needed to get this street opened up......it is like driving through a high wall of limbs and brush and stumps and logs on BOTH sides of the street....actually ON the streets!!!!!!!!! Everyone who has come up here on the hill says this is the WORST section of F'town for damages!!!!! Ahhhhh, what a way to live!!!!
Sooooo, it is 10pm....and I can barely type. Please, please excuse all typos, mis-spellings, etc., etc. as my hands are cut, my left hand is ripped open for several inches, and I have cuts, bruises, and scratches all down my legs from the work today and from on the roof......as I did scoot my sagging....REALLY sagging now.....ass around the 485 feet of guttering to try to clean it out before these predicted storms arrive tomorrow so it won't back up and perhaps run into the eaves and into the house. I also spent a hour this evening on the roof patching more holes, and patching where the heavy limbs had been laying these past five days.......and just hoping I saw all of them!!!!!
Pictures will go up next.....so, unless something occurs unexpectedly(and it will...haha), I will have more pics on tonight!
LIFE IS GETTING BETTER.......and, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!! Stay tuned for the continuing Saga of the Sagging Ass at TheHowserHouse!!!!!!
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