Hello Everyone. I am sitting here with my back on fire, not just the muscles but the actual spine is feeling like it is burning. I also am very tired, oh and my cat has had a couple strokes, more on that later. Ron is so frustrated he got into an argument with James the tail end I heard James apologized after I heard Ron say “I felt it was more important to do everything I could to make sure we had some parts of the house to still live in to survive than …”. But let me tell you about today.
I tried to find a way to do this post from WordPress or the WordPress app and there is no way I can find, so I am writing this as an email. When I get done with this I have to finish picking up the kitchen and getting ready for the guys to make lunch. James and Ron are still working on the out side of the home, cleaning up the backyard and saving as much of our stuff as they can.
So yesterday Ron went around to the different local laundry mats to find the best one he could for us to go to. He found one in a plaza that use to have a Winn Dixie and it was rather nice / OKAY not too far from us. It opened at 7 am. So I got us up at around 6:20 am. Ron is not a morning person and neither of us slept well last night, both have been up most of the night. Yesterday I had sorted and gathered up all our dirty laundry into about 8 large white large kitchen trash bags. We got there about 7 am, and we were only the second people there. And we loaded up six washers, and started the laundry. The place is manned and secured, has a limited amount of vending machines with soda and smacks and many more filled with soap products. They also had a woman who could give you change. Then after the wash was done we had to find dryers as a lot of the dryers were not working, the guy there said they were working to get them repaired as fast as they could. So the washers cost $3.25 for light load wash, $3.50 for a medium wash, and I did not check the heavy soil wash. I mortally due heavy soil at home, but I was in a hurry so chose light wash for all. But my hope that all would come up at the same time so I could use a couple of the large dryers to do everything did not work as all they washers took different times, but lucky for us we got there earlier than the rush that came in later so that there were enough regular dryers to do all our stuff, which because we were the first ones there we were lucky. So the dryers cost $25 cents for 6 minutes. It took at least 30 minutes to dry each load, a few things were not quite fully dry but my back was killing me standing there watching laundry machines. It took us 2 hours to do all the laundry which is much faster than I could have done it at home, but in a lot of cases it did not wash as well as if I had done them at home.
So we came home with laundry in the trash bags we took and lose clean laundry in the back seat because clean laundry doesn’t compress into trash bags as well as dirty laundry does. Ron and James then brought the clothing in and I threw it on the bed and folded it. Then I cleaned the kitchen for supper. I have not been in a laundry mat since I was in the military back in the 1980s. But it was a real diversity of humanity. We got it done. I will not hesitate to do it as needed.
Then when we got home Ron and James started doing work outside, I was cleaning up inside and folding the laundry. At about 1 everyone went to bed for a nap. Now James and I are in the living room and Ron is in bed for a nap. It is hard for both of us to realize that activity like he has been doing is so much harder for him than it use to be. Anyway it is now 2:42 and this is the first I have had to do any internet posting type thing.
There is so much going on just trying to make everything keep working and going on. We have no idea when we will get power. But we ordered tarps and they should be here today. Life is not easy when you are poor and you don’t have the normal services. Like I am so used to my big monitors and fast computers. Right now I have my very old IPad Air 2. We had planned to get Ron and I new iPads this Christmas but I am not sure what we can do or not, not sure if we will have a home. The IPad is what I am using to blog and read news and my IPhone 12 max is what I am using to watch YouTube and other videos as I can get. I tried to watch TYT my fav morning news show but I can not get all of it to load or play. Until a few days ago nothing would play or load. My podcasts were hit and miss. So I will keep trying. As I wrote on Nan’s blog and thankfully she didn’t object to my adding to my comment on her blog the situation I am under. This is stressful and I am not able to really deal well. Thankfully while he was here during the hurricane James did save my monitors and computers. Sadly a lot of my other electronic gear such as all my cameras, printer / scanner / sound board, microphone, and so much more is all destroyed. I had over over $15,000 in computer electronics in that room, and I have lost it all as I lost the room it self. There is more I need to write and tell everyone, but I I am so out of time. Hugs
And if we did not have enough problems James just came and asked me to send Ron to him. The regulator on the generator had frozen over. Normally the regulator is fine and the bottom of the tank freezes to the concrete. So the guys have shut off all the electric while they figure out what the issue is. That maybe a tank issue or something worse. We just did not need this. Hugs
Sent from my iPad,
Best wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
You all are doing a magnificent job of continuing to put one foot in front of the other within this catastrophic loss. I am so sorry about all this; there isn’t anything else to say. And let us know if we can do something.
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Hello Ali. You are doing all anyone could ask. I love the support and understanding. I may never get to the backlogged comments. Doing them this way is painfully difficult. Thanks again. Hugs
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Scottie … I am sooo sorry for what you and Ron are going through and I wish I lived close enough to help. Hang in there, my friend … things must get better soon. Know that you’re in my heart … which I know doesn’t help much, for words must sound trite at this point, but … I care. Hugs
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Hello Jill. Thank you. It is never trite to care and we do appreciate it. The electric company person said they were going to start working on the front of the line that is still out and work their way towards us. We will of course be the last ones in the line. Makes sense I guess. But hard to be generous when you are in our positions. Things have slowly gotten better. Ron and James are clearing a spot out on the new family room to set up some type of desk out there that Ron can run a few extension cords to so we can power up my systems again. James plugged in our printer expecting it to explode as when it was picked up water ran out of it. It ran. The scanner part is maybe shot. But the rest may work. Everyday we wake up is another day to rebuild. Hugs
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I’m happy to hear the positive note in your words, and VERY happy to hear that the electric company is at least working on it and hopefully before the end of the week you won’t have to go to the laundrymat and will be able to turn on the a/c, cook some meals, and get back to your computers. Thinking of you and Ron tonight, my dear friend. Huge Hugs!
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Hello Jill. I have gotten some dirty looks around here by saying that we are at least alive to rebuild. One guy told me if he was dead he wouldn’t care and I replied his wife might. He just walked away. Yes things are getting better. It is hard to see but we are better off today than just a week ago. We have enough power off the generator to keep the living parts of the house cool, we have enough tarps covering things that. Alight rain wont ruin the walls, we have three new tarps coming that will let us cover the entire roof of the home, we have food and food for the cat. We have to buy drinking water but the stores are well stocked now with drinking water. I am figuring out how to use the iPad to handle WordPress and with in a day or so I should again be able to go to all the blogs I love and enjoy like yours. That is the hardest part sometimes. Everything builds up and gets to hard to do that I miss so much of what I liked in my life. But then again we are together, we have food and comfort, we sleep in the new big super comfortable bed, we are all as healthy as we can be, and even though we are getting on each other’s nerves a bit and we are very concerned about the future and money, we have the ability to stay in part of our home. Thank you for the hugs and the good thoughts. Warm return hugs.
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In my view, and I have been through some crises before, you simply MUST keep a positive attitude in order to survive! Those who would give you a dirty look are giving in to the despair of the moment and while it is understandable, nothing good will come of it for them. I tell myself “Mind over Matter” all the time, and it IS true. You can cope with a lot if you have a positive attitude. Your attitude is perfect … you’re thankful for what you do have and working to improve or replace what you lost. I’m proud of you and Ron, dear friend. Hugs
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