Life Viewed Through an Amber Focus

Has anyone heard from irishlullaby today?  I know Alabama was hit pretty hard by tornadoes.

One of my Australian friends from way back sent me this link today:  http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm

If you move your mouse from right to left over the photos it shows the difference between before the flooding and after.  It really helps in getting an idea of the scope of the flooding there.  It reminds me of the really bad flooding we had a little over a year ago when we were evacuated, only instead of it covering half a state it covers almost an entire country.  It just boggles my mind.  Her area is receding at the moment and her home was thankfully on high ground and she was able to get back in to see that her home is okay, but she is worried as more rain is expected and she will likely be evacuated again.  She's prepared for emergency living, but a lot of people around her are not.

I know I've been really quiet lately, but just wanted to pop in and say that I hope all of my Australian friends here are doing okay, too.  My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Just briefly, we had an enormous three day windstorm here in NW Washington. A giant branch fell off our skyscraper of a cedar tree and hit the house, bounced off and almost hit the car. It was resting against the front bumper, that's how close it came. We still don't have power at home, so I'm not writing too much and won't be online much until we do. Which I hope is tonight. Because I have ideas again, but not enough battery power in my laptop to follow through on them. Thanks for all the prompts everyone. They helped get the creative juices flowing again.

I feel so...I don't know, right now.  Disembodied?  Detached?  It's hard to find the words.  I just...gah, don't know.  I have my third doctor's visit tomorrow for my knee.  I am still in so much pain it's ridiculous.  I'm not writing.  I'm barely reading and even then, it's like, review?  What review?  I'm supposed to leave comments.  I think that's what I used to do.  *sighs*  It makes me feel bad not to be...enthusiastic in fandom.  And I'm missing reading so many good things but I can't concentrate.  I hate being at a loss for words.  Words are my friend and suddenly they're just gone.

( An adventure I did not need... )

We walked over to look at the fire from a nearby area last night and it looks to me like it's mostly out.  There was a bit of smouldering still, some smoke rising, but much, much better.  The news got the amount of acreage wrong.  It was about half the size they first reported it was.  Still 30 to 35 acres is a pretty large amount of land in a nearly inaccessible patch of mountain.  And it was a lot closer to my house than I thought it was.  More like a mile away, but the wind never shifted at all.  In fact it was dead still almost the whole time.  There were no human casualties either.  That's rare for one of these.

The paper's update was pretty minimal:  http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/895003.html

It poured down rain last night which is what we were all hoping for.  There hasn't been any more recent updates than the above, but the fire department has said we are in no danger of evacuation, so looks like our little drama is over.

I'll be posting the next chapter of the Just Another Shop Girl rewrite when I get it back from my beta.  Ch. 3 of That Which One Cannot Do Without will be posted tomorrow and I will be working on that story today.

I made myself a new icon out of my very favorite of the flood photos.  The full sign says Water Over Roadway.  It's my stating the obvious, overwhelmed, irony icon.  The full photo has a man rowing a boat down the street.  I know the flooding was a disaster but everytime I look at this photo I just have to laugh a bit at life and how we deal with it.  If you can't laugh at life, even if a bit darkly, it's not very bearable is it?  I may post some of the better photos later on so you can see the extent of some of the damages.  It's been an interesting week but life is back more or less to normal for us.  Can't say that for all of the rest of the county. 

( Read more... )

Hey.  It's been one heck of a day, people.  Started with a brief power failure at 3:45 a.m.  caused by a massive mudslide.   Power was restored shortly thereafter but it took down the phone, cable and internet connection.  The rain has been so bad and the snow melt run off so high that almost every road has been closed.  The creek that is only .2 miles from our house has completely covered the road in nearly a foot of water.  The main highway is closed.  The river jumped its banks.  Every creek between my home and the river has flooded.  Run off from the foothills has covered vast stretches of land and the highway.  I have lived through many a flood season and have never seen it so bad before.

( More on the flood and a photo )