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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Storm

On Thursday, Tropical Storm Andrea blew through our area. And of course, that was the day Bob was scheduled for a doctor's appointment. And that doctor was the foot surgeon that has taken us over a month to get into see. And we had planned to walk there (or to be more exact, I had planned to push his wheelchair there) being it's only two blocks away. The appointment was set for 12:30.

All morning, I was watching the weather reports. It had poured around 4:00 a.m. and since we'd had scattered showers. The weather reports had the rain chance at 100%. Though the stuff seemed to be coming in bands and I figured, if we were lucky, we could slip over there during one of the drier spells.

So, I got Bob bathed, dressed, hooked to his condom cath leg bag, and shaved. I got out our rain ponchos. And packed our bags, so to speak, getting all the stuff I need for him into my purse and his backpack.

Then at about 11:45 a.m., there was a sudden burst of wind. Then it was raining sideways. Beating against the house and windows so hard you couldn't see outside. I heard a loud crash on the front porch. When I went to the front door, I saw that our bamboo roll-up shade had unrolled was flying free like a huge flag. The thing was whipping back and forth and banging into the porch swing which was smashing into the adirondack chair.

So I dashed outside and tried to roll up the bamboo shade, but found the cords that roll it up were gone, broken by the wind, and that wind was blowing, I mean really blowing, I would later learn, 35-40 miles per hour.  There I was, fighting with that shade in the wind, trying to secure it somehow, but the thing kept whipping out of my hands, then smacking me in the face, nearly knocking me over, and I finally gave up.

And then the shade smashed into my four tiered planter which crashed to the floor, dumping all the potted plants and knocking into another table and wiping out yet another potted plant. So I ran back into the house and grabbed the step stool. Because I had to pull that shade off its hooks before it wrecked everything on the porch. To get to the shade, I had to get behind the madly swinging porch swing.

Then there I was, teetering on a step stool, in 35 mile per hour winds and rain, scared shitless, porch swing banging into my back and shade flying at my face and me, trying to reach up and unhook that darn shade. But somehow I did it.

By then it was noon, and I was soaked, and I thought, no way are we going to make that doctor's appointment in this weather. So I called and rescheduled the appointment. And I swear, almost immediately after I hung up the phone, the rain stopped.

And fifteen minutes later, the wind died down.

And it was dry for the rest of the afternoon.

Thus begins another Hurricane Season...

We see the foot surgeon in two weeks, weather permitting.


5 comments:

Theresa Loder said...

Wow Diane you were a busy gal...glad you are alright...Sometimes I let out motor home awnings down ..one over the slide and one over the patio...that wind comes up so fast and I am out there trying to close the awnings and feeling like at any moment I might go airborne..we did lose out awning one year ...it blew apart and ripped and part of it blocked our door to get out...I just cut it apart..
we had some pretty strong wind here too and sideways rain...
Thanks for the post

Take care
Theresa

Tracy said...

Hi Diane, I really enjoy your blog so much. I lived through something a bit similar. My husband of 27 years complained about stomach pain one afternoon. Later that day, while I was at the grocery store, he drove to the ER in agony. That one day turned into nearly eight months in the hospital with a flesh eating bacteria in his abdomen. When he finally came home, it took another year and a half to recover, as he could not walk, was on TPN (fed through veins via ports in his arms) and had lost his pancreas completely, along with only partial function of liver and kidneys. I turned into nursemaid/mother/caregiver/translator/doctor...and a hundred other things, just like you. I know more than anything how scary everything is, but at the same time how I turned into roaring mama lion when faced with medical personnel that were blithering idiots (yes, absolutely including some doctors!!!) and how I virtually turned into a doctor myself, after I finally realized that the majority of the time doctors are just guessing about what they think is wrong! Brandon has finally recovered, and looking back now, I see that the experience brought us so close together that we almost became one person. Please email me if you ever want to chat. I think you are very brave, and Bob is lucky to have you in his life!
Tracy
Tdescombes@yahoo.com

J.L. Murphey said...

Incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, but oh what an adventure. Tropical storms are nasty. I watch the weather channel religiously during hurricane season because I know it will take time to prep for the high winds.

My porch swing can be stabilized with bolts and locking hooks to the porch railing, pots and hangers come down on to the porch floor. Things that are no secured and weigh less than 50-lbs comes inside or put in the shed.I'm glad I don't have roll up shades!

Of course the wind and rain stopped after you canceled the appointment. There wouldn't be a Murphy's Law or Einstein's Law of relativity if it didn't. LOL At least you only have to wait two weeks for the appointment.

Jenn said...

Yahooooo! Diane the conqueror! She goes out with her sword and shield, head slightly tucked - Bonsai! Dodging between rain pellets, and things that slap....a greco-roman soldier...to take on the cycloptic shade monster! Grrrr!
Maybe not so much as Murphy's Law as maybe the Universe saying, the foot surgeon, mmm, maybe not just yet. :P

barbpolan said...

Yes, hurray for Diane! Once again, you persevered at something everyone else in the world would have given up on. You are an inspiration (and a crazy woman woman too).