Good morning friends! WOW! I just realized that August 10th was my last entry here on the blog. August 10th was also the day our city endured a derecho, an inland hurricane with winds up to 140 miles per hour. WOW. Here. In Iowa. Crazy. Our city of Cedar Rapids seems to have been hit the hardest.....so many trees gone. Someone said we lost nearly 50% of the city's tree canopy.
That morning I got up and worked through my usual routine of walking the dogs and prepping for the day. My "window guy" had just stopped by and measured for 4 new windows for my studio. As he was leaving, he said there's a storm headed our direction, should be here early afternoon. So I put away some of the outdoor furniture, and closed the patio umbrella. Little did we know that would be the least of our worries. Ha!!! My kids had just happened to stop by to say hi, and they ended up "trapped" with us at the house for hours. No power, no access to roads, all blocked in by trees and debris. Our next door neighbor's chimney blew off their house. WHAT?
We Patricks were very fortunate. We came out of it relatively unscathed. Most of our damage was cosmetic....a broken window, a little damage to the top of our chimney, fence, and gutters in the front. And LOTS of debris. Leaves and twigs and trunks and branches....all over the place. We went 10 days without power, and a month without internet.
We still have a lot to be thankful for. We have loving neighbors, who, in the following days, banded together to help each other clear debris and clean up the best we could. Since we were without power, we all started grilling meats and using up food that was about to spoil, and sharing it with one another. Every evening, we got back together to eat after a long day of cleaning and hauling. I am so thankful that my kids ended up getting "stuck" at our house, and were not out on the road at the time. We are glad our doggies were able to hide in the basement with us while we waited it out. And to think, we were worried about the patio umbrella. Ha!!! Sometimes, priorities have a way of showing themselves.
Now, we are about a month and ten days post storm, and we are settling back into some sort of routine. My hubby, who works from home, had to beg and borrow some internet for about a month before we got ours back....he's home again, and we love it! (our anniversary is coming up...and we are going to really be counting our blessings this year!) It's going to be a long wait for getting repairs done....all contractors, handymen, tree trimmers are MONTHS BEHIND because the whole city needs their help. But we are going to carry on. We'll make it.
So that's where I've been, friends.....to those of you who follow along on Facebook and IG, THANK YOU for your kind words and messages, and thank you for your business as well!!! With all the art shows cancelled, online sales are keeping my little business afloat....so I THANK YOU. I'll be following up with some more joyful pics soon. My August journal is now a September journal...and I have some pages to share with you here. Stay tuned! Much love, and gratitude, Dori and family