Freelansing

From the stay in Cullman:
The Lake House


Sunflowers?
Love the background color


Single Poppy
for my Sister


From the power outage:
The Beach
(sorry about the shadow)


Hmm...Flowers on a Starry Night?


Started with just black and white and then played with color. Maybe should have stayed b&w


Ugh...my vase is out of proportion with the flowers

Before the storm...

Tdawg got his hair cut. Friday was supposed to be their prom.

Tuesday...still a mess

We have been part of the fortunate few who have power. A lot of people still don't. Including a lot of businesses. The utility company said that the industrial parks will be last. That apparently includes Cletus' work and mine.

I had to go in this morning anyway. Thanks to our resourceful IT dudes, I did payroll by generator and lantern. So much for the illusion of my glamourous job. Ha ha. Well, at least we will all get paid!

Who knows when we will get power at work. Even so, the facilities folks say it will take several hours to get everything back up and running. Sure hope I will have a job to go back to. This week long outage is killing the small businesses!

Sunday Evening

Stopped at my in-laws on the way back home. Took them the essentials: bread, ice, gasoline and six cheeseburgers. They were thrilled! They lost power and a tree. But otherwise, they are fine. The rest of Harvest, did not fair so well.

Ronnie went over on Monday to help out. They worked hard all day and barely made a dent. Numb people trying to pick through the rubble hoping to find a treasure.

This used to be the Piggly Wiggly. The employees were in the back of the store in the coolers (only part still standing). They kept the manager from being sucked out of the door.


Next door was the Sur Sav pharmacy. A convenience store, pharmacy and gas station in one. It is the pile of rubble to the left of the vans.


Across the street...Anderson Hills subdivision was hit hard

Sunday...back to the 'hood

Oh no...rain! Well, hopefully it isn't raining at the house. Once we get back, that is our only obstacle. One leaking triple window and some mushy drywall. Hopefully a painless fix from Window World.

Wondering what we are going back to... One of the hotel guests lost their house in the tornado. They were trying to figure out where to live. Another guest took the kids and camped out at the hotel. Her husband stayed behind. He called her to let her know that even though the house survived the tornado, it later burnt down.

Another reminder...puts everything in perspective. Family is ok. And that is all that matters. Stuff can be replaced.

Saturday...Wally World

Amazing how a hot shower and a hot meal can make you feel like a new woman. I am woman hear me roar (with a cold shower) or purr (with a nice hot one). I am definitely a low maintenace woman. My kingdom for a hot shower. Yes, I took several LONG showers!

So it was a major shopping day. Had to get the essentials...plus request from my in laws. So by Sunday, we had the truck packed with extra gas cans, a generator, bread, water, ice, extra undies, books, drinks, tshirts...

Then off for some fun mini golf and skee ball.

Day Three: Friday

Early am...we hit the road. Still no power. And still a LONG line to get gasoline in Tennessee. We went up to Murphreesboro. Nice sized town, outside of Nashville. I must say right now: Thank You Holiday Inn! They were so so nice and let us check in early and take a scalding hot shower. Halleluja! I feel like a new woman!

Spent sometime watching Fox News. Oh my. The pictures out of Tuscaloosa are stunning. We really did dodge a bullet. When you look at the maps, wow...one of the tornadoes was on the ground through the whole state of Alabama! They showed google maps and you can see how it changed the landscape.

Ok, off to lunch and the movies. I'm ready for some normalcy.

Pictures don't lie

Thanks to a Facebook shutterbug, on 231/431 in Hazel Green looking south at Meridianville. Yikes! Must have been the four o'clock storm.