We are taking advantage of Summer Vacation by participating in every activity we can find without the benefit of rest and relaxation. I'm going to share Thursday. I am trying to think of a theme name for this, but nothing as wild and crazy as this Thursday starts with "Th".
My daughter dropped off her three year old while her seven year old headed for tennis camp. Yes, lemonade in pajamas. I had made plans for the evening so I had done my hair and was wearing a decent summer casual outfit.
When she picked up her daughter from tennis, she asked if I wanted to go with them to the amusement park to get lunch since she and I had purchased summer meal passes. Of course I said yes.
Every single time I go to the amusement park, I get pulled at security, while my family stands in front of the booth pointing and laughing. They go through my bag, even looking into my change purse and glasses case. All I carry is my car keys, a tiny change purse, sunglasses and some Kleenex, maybe baby wipes. Every single time. This time I asked the nice security officer if he knew why. We sent my keys through, fine. We sent my glasses through, fine. We sent the whole purse through, fine. We sent me through, fine. We sent me through with my purse and every bell and whistle goes off. We decided that the combination of the metal in my keys, the metal in my glasses, & the metal in my arm combined reaches the danger level! So from now on, a child will carry my purse. We did have a lovely lunch. My pass allows me two meals per day, four hours apart. Unfortunately we have never had time to use the pass twice in one day yet. Thursday the kids split the chicken fingers and mac and cheese, my daughter had brisket and fries and I had the burnt ends and huge cup of grapes. We all got a square of delicious honey corn bread. Of course we all shared, buffet style. We are trying to try every restaurant in the park. My son introduced me to the benefits of the drink pass where I can get a glass of whatever I want (I always want lemonade) every 15 minutes while I am at the park. I would hate to imagine how many restroom visits I would make if I used my drink pass every 15 minutes! We had to leave the park after the kids did two rides since we both had other plans. We were at the gate to leave when a seagull decided to let go right over my head. I thought at first someone threw an ice cream cone at me due to quantity and weight of what fell on my arm. Then my daughter broke the news of my hair. Luckily there is a restroom right there and I was able to run and submerge my arm in the sink to rinse off the "gift". There were no hand towels so I used damp toilet paper to try to washout my hair, leaving wet toilet paper residue in my hair. We dashed home so I could rewash my hair and style it into a stringy mop so I could meet a friend, who saved me a seat and attend - History Happy Hour sponsored by a local museum, held at the local Wine Post! The speaker is a long time quilt historian and collector and I used up the battery on my phone to take as many photos as possible.
The two quilts above were from the mid -1800's.
Shoo Fly patch quilt from the early 1900's
One of the most beautiful crazy quilts I have ever seen. Do you see the crocheted border?
This 1930's Dresden Plate is made from feed sacks and 30's cotton prints.
There were many more quilts, but I won't make you see them all. My phone battery died around this time. I was hearing a thunderstorm warning around this time and there was a lot of lightening. Did my friend and I heed this warning? Of course not. We made plans to go to a local restaurant for supper.
It had turned colder so instead of chicken salad, we ordered breakfast for dinner. And when we got our food, everyone else's phones went crazy. There were now tornadoes in the area, along with driving rains and lightening about every five seconds. The towns warning sirens went off. The restaurant did ask us to pay our checks before they lost power, discussed where we were to evacuate if the tornado was headed toward the restaurant and invited us to stay all night if possible. We finished our dinner, saw a pause in the storm and made a break for it. It was an interesting drive to my house, but we both made it home safely. I would not advise anyone to repeat my actions. I would like to say God sent me enough signs, starting with the seagull poop explosion, the steady lightening which should have scared me, the driving rain, the flickering lights, the constant sounds of sirens and phones. But did I listen? And to make matters worse, I drove through too deep flooding on my own street which I have watched others do and shaken my head.
There have now been six tornadoes confirmed in my area. One dipped by my daughter's house in a neighboring town - clipped off the tops of all her trees sending them into neighbor's fencing and filling her yard with other people's lawn furniture, trash and trash cans. Poles were down on her street, the streets were all blocked, but she never lost power. My son on the other side of town had no damage but lost power for 18 hours.
South of us, the tornado started by my church and cut through the countryside flattening barns, tearing out poles, tying electric wires in knots, flooding basements where families were sheltering, ripped off roofs. It is a huge clean up operation, but thankfully there were no injuries. It is now almost 48 hours since the storm and some are being told power will be back by midnight, other areas have no idea. Local Mennonites were feeding workers and families today at a fire hall in the area.
In my town, the Walmart was hit by lightening which has made everyone into huge whiners. All online orders are canceled (it took out the computers). Walmart was closed for, gasp, 36 hours. It opened late this morning but computers aren't working so you can only shop in person, no returns or anything else, food stamp cards don't work and I am not sure if you can only use cash or only use credit cards. Plus the frozen and refrigerated food sections are in a dumpster. We do have two local grocery stores, but that has not stopped the complaints.
In conclusion, I do swear the next time we decide to have a tornado, I will not be at the winery or a restaurant. I tempted faith enough.
* The National Weather Service has has now confirmed 8 different tornados that evening.
