Sherry from Springfield here.
Just wanted to let you all know how we (James, myself, family & property) fared during the latest round of nasty winter weather. A tip-off might be that this is our 9th night in a hotel! We lost power on the 12th, like the rest of the city and vacated our home when a tree limb javelined through the roof into James and my bedroom ceiling - about two feet from his head (damn! Could have been a rich widow!
.) I learned a new term recently: "weatherhead." Like probably dozens - if not hundreds - of homes, our weatherhead was ripped out of our roof, creating a second hole. We were fortunate to get a hotel room in the city that night because by Saturday morning, there were almost none to be had anywhere in Springfield. We spent 3 nights there and then my boss got us into a very nice suite here at the sister hotel to the property where I work. James's work place was without power until late Tuesday, he went back to work on Wednesday. I began again on Monday and have been working 10-11 hour days since then. Although my hotel usually caters only to truckers, we are housing probably 50 employees and family members whose homes are either totally inhabitable or remain without power. James has been at our house every day, clearing debris and keeping our pride of cats company. We are keeping the house comfortable with a kerosene heater during the night. For the first few days after the storm hit, we had to drive 13-14 miles to a gas station in Rogersville that still had kerosene - although they were rationing it to 3 gallons per family for a while. Now it's not a problem to get it locally. We were also fortunate to get electricians to the house yesterday to repair the weatherhead. Ended up that the meter had also been fatally damaged, too. James had them reroute the wiring down against the side of the house, so that hopefully this kind of damage won't ever happen again. So, at a minimum it looks as though we will end up with a new roof, a new bedroom ceiling, and probably new siding too - since a good section had to be torn away to fix the meter and wiring.We've had a couple of other incidents related to the storm, also. One of my beloved cats was run over in front of our house last night. She was hiding under a neighbor's relative's car when something apparently spooked her and she bolted into the street directly in front of an uncoming vehicle. My neighbor Shelly witnessed the whole thing and I can take some small comfort in knowing that Holly-Girl didn't suffer. Shelly was good enough to bag up Holly and call James's cell. She wanted James to tell me about Holly's (also known as "Butterball" since everything about her was round) death - and not while I was at work. Of all my animals (20) there are some who would have broken my heart a little less than losing Butterball. She was weird and quirky, but very sweet. She is survived by her sister Ivy. Considering the number of cats we have, it's been a minor miracle that none of them have ever been struck by a car before in the 6 1/2 years we lived at our current address. It's always been a known risk.
Additionally, we have a temporary guest: a pigeon is living in our hotel bathroom. I rescued him from an icy death outside our first hotel last weekend. I was coming back from a grocery store and noticed this pigeon sitting on a curb at the rear of the hotel. I wondered why he was just sitting there in the sleet, not moving. So I stopped and got out of the car. The poor thing was pretty much covered in ice - wings, back, and tail. The only things he could move were his head and feet. So I took him to our room to thaw out. He's still with us. I'll release him downtown when the weather is better. I've non-affectionately named him "Shit Factory" - as in: "How ya doin' this morning, Shit-Factory?" I figure he's got to be a male, since he's quite aggressive. He doesn't break the skin, but my hands are covered with red marks from his pecking at them when I'm feeding him. My two pet mice are warm and cozy in their tank underneath the sink.
Tonight, my son spun around on some ice and slid his car into a ditch coming home from work. There it remains until we can get it towed out in the morning. Dane is fine, but he sure is hard on cars! At 19, he's been in one minor accident, burned up the engine in one car, was involved in another accident that resulted in some pretty severe damage to his vehicle and the other party's, and now he's IN A DITCH. *sigh* I guess this is why young men have the highest car insurance premiums, huh?
Anyway - now that we've done our part, we're simply waiting for City Utilities to do theirs. It may be a few more days before we can get back into our home. Many of the power lines on our block were torn down. Since it's an older neighborhood, a lot of the lines are looped through back yards and surrounded by large trees and vegetation - most of which is down, with limbs and debris covering everything.
I hear that Fayetteville is okay. Is that right? You guys didn't get ANY ice or damage? Oooh - we're jealous!
We doubt we'll make it to this Saturday's meeting. Too much to do here. James will be playing lumberjack with axe and saw for a while and I'm working 6 days a week. All of us - humans AND animals - are exhausted and stressed. We need to concentrate on getting life back to some semblance of "normal."
We'll be thinking about you. Have a great meeting, ya'll.
