2005-06-06 - 1:55 p.m.

WOW I was right that was some Storm coming! It was errily sunny and bright after the torrential rains and I had a feeling that was only the beginning of the storm . Lucky we still have power as we've had brownouts.

From the NAtional Weather Service:

THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE ACROSS
BROOME AND TIOGAA COUNTIES. THIS IS A DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK
SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS!
A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM EDT MONDAY EVENING FOR
CENTRAL NEW YORK AND NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA.

Not sure how far tiogaa and Broome are... but we are in CNY area.

Odd just this morn around 6:30 AM I cut out a picture with a green sky into a postcard, that had an AD on the other side for a cute antique shop called OZ and ENDS in Chittenago. I have been having fun CREATING POSTCARDS from materials I find wherever I go and then sending them to Katerina and Soren. In that postcard I strangely wrote to Soren a quiz about the signs of a tornado! It was silly trivia (so I thought) and I told him it was a test of what he learned from our experiences in Western LOUDOUN (WHICH REALLY IS HIT BY TORNADOS!!! ANd our home there is in this odd pocket that sees them annually in the Fall)

I was just going with the WIZARD of OZ theme. Funny there is currently a Tornado watch here! The postcard is sitting in my car which I intended to take for a drive to mail it this afternoon. Hmmm.... won't be heading out for a while!

I hope we maintain power as on rainy days its nice to be able to let the girls watch a few videos. They are now watching ELMO and friends in PETER AND THE WOLF.

Ahh.. but nap time soon after that! I just nursed Alexy to sleep on my lap as I wrote. Off to the main task of the day I am avoiding (which explains why the tremendous burst of writing today: ) TO CLEAN MY PILE OF CRAP ON AND EXTENDED TO THE SURROUNDING FLOOR AROUND MY DESK in about a THREE FOOT AREA! Its out of hand (or out of file cabinet HA HA!) You'd think a tornado hit it!

But I can't stop writing!! I have to note this: The differences in a big storm here and in our home in VA are a great contrast. Here it is somewhat anxiety producing with the added sensory experience of hearing the emergency call from the FIRE DEPT siren which is located only a few blocks away. Added to that the sound of engines and their horns blowing as the trucks take off every few minutes, in addition to the pelting of rain that is splattering on the windows and its really a full sensory feast. Looking outside the white flowers off all the trees in bloom were earlier swirling such that Raitlin exclaimed "It snowing!" I commented "Yes- you were told you'd see snow in Syracuse." but then let her know those were flower petals. The wind was whipping all the trees which are uncomfortably close to the house here. People in cities and suburbs tend to plant trees close to the house if they want to be able to have them at all! There is really not much choice in that....Westely in fact is planning on REMOVING a whole row of LOCUST which are RIGHT NEXT to our house that I am sure the neighbors like as they offer them a nice view. This is not an old STONE house though, and is in fact wood. When he went up to cut a branch and discovered CARPENTER ANTS living in the tree he became inspired to cut it down. He said having it so close is asking for trouble with a house as trees close by will bring pests, including squirrels who want to come inside! I said, remove the trees and those carpenter ants might REALLY want to come inside since there is no other habitat! Hmmm we'll see.....He thinks if the trees are gone so will be the pests and potential for them to come into the house. It will uneqivocally make it easier to keep gutters clear- and full gutters turns out to be a source of a problem with water drainage that caused some roof/ ceiling damage here! YES ALL OLD HOUSES HAVE ROOF PROBLEMS! This one is not so bad though! In Loudoun when we have a storm it always ended up being pretty fun. The view there made it just fascinating to watch. We never had the distracting noise of emergency vehicles. (To be assured, there would be NO RESPONSE to any call regarding power out for DAYS AND DAYS....and if someone there needed an ambulance- WELL God help them! It was always a time when we lit candles, cooked around the wood burning stove and played games together. We would go to the basement and play board game after board game and wait until the storm passed. Oh and we would HAVE to eat all the ice cream in the house AT ONCE so it wouldn't melt and be ruined! Then we'd have the fun of going outside and finding out what tree branches fell and just how far the benches and outdoor toys were flung. Having days without power just became a part of life for us. It seems different here when not daily living like in a different century! The naturalness of it doesn't strike one here. Of course here we don't have crops in the ground, and a stock of meat in the freezer, and a wood cookstove. Here its amazing that the flicker of power seems to me more disconcerting. Here the bustle of noise outside makes a storm NOT a time to marvel at the beauty of nature even when it is tumultuous. The noise of man made inventions is so much louder that it drowns nature out. The beauty is lost amidst houses where the clouds only darken the sky and create an absense of light without the array of sights of lightning and the incredible swirls of the grey and black clouds. Here I wouldn't note if the sky turned green as when I look out I can't SEE the sky but only the base of the old trees which are so close, the busy main road outside, the cars whizzing by and the other houses. Its a different experience. And there is one distinct sound which I actually miss: that very loud, echoy, pitter patter of rain pelting on a metal roof. Its strange how that sound can be a familiar and comfortable one to me. When I think of it it brings me back to reading of MEG MURRY curled up in A WRINKLE IN TIME in the opening scene of her curling up on her bed in her attic bedroom. As a teenager I lost myself in all of Madeline L'Engle books and for me interestingly the experience of the old house brought to life that moments of my reading! It was likely the converse of the writer! When I first heard the rain pounding on the metal roof of our old house I immediately fully understood what the words of that moment in that book were attempting to capture! WE planned on heading to VA for a few weeks this coming SAT. I just realized that I have made Dr. appointments for all the girls which are in conflict with those travel plans. I really should get ALEXY in for her overdue immunizations so don't really want to have to re-schedle her appointment. I am pleased after all the frustration and work of this to have the girls appointments scheduled but I'll see what I can do about RE-SCHEDULING them to accomadate heading to VA. Other good news: HArdware for the crib arrived today! YAH Alexy will have her crib set up just a few months before her first birthday which happens to be the age at which we moved a few of the girls out of cribs into toddler beds! That's Ok though as I think we'll leave her in the crib longer than they were in it. I am sure it will be more comfortable for her than the playpen- although I swear babies could care less where they sleep! They play then zonk out right on the floor if you let them! She in fact seemed quite happy when she used to sleep in the lined dresser drawer at my friend Rosita's house whenever we traveled there this past year. Rosita would say "Let's take advice from our grandmothers: This is what they used to do with infants! NOt everyone had cradels...." and she's laughingly tell me how our friend Sandra was so worried about me coming to her house without any STUFF for the baby! That thought made me think of just how OPPOSITE I am from many of my closest friends! Westley made that comment in relation to my friendship with his sister. He said "Do you realize just how opposite you two are? You couldn't FIND two people more different ABOUT ALMOST EVERYTHING" I am sure he is right, and I pointed out that he too is just like his sister in many ways! There is something to be said about OPPOSITES attracting and in a sense each offering something to the other! See if Westely WERE here I am sure this task of cleaning and organizing my desk would be DONE. OK- so he would likely HAVE TAKEN OVER and done it for me if I asked for help, but sometimes that is a good thing! He's great at stuff like this whereas I- Well I am STILL WRITING..... But Procrastination can be the impetous for many great creative works right? Hmmmm... maybe I should stop writing in my journal and work on some more substantial piece of writing at my next urge to avoid this big, overwealming mess of stuff I JUST CAN'T THROW OUT, but haven't found a place for yet!

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