The offending tree.
My “weekly” vow for WeeklyWilson has now collapsed under the weight of a series of random events.
First, there was the tornado, an EF1 that hit our court street in East Moline, Illinois on Monday, July 15th.
My spouse had just made an ice cream run to Whitey’s in Moline, which was closing down because of the bad weather. He went to the Dairy Queen and secured 2 Blizzards and was just in time to enter our court as a huge tree went down, taking with it all the power to about 30 houses. It was 7:37 pm. We would not have power again until late Thursday, July 18th.
I went outside to take pictures of the 6 trucks that showed up to try to restore power to our court street (there were 8,000 people without power). The heat index was 106.
One truck broke and another had to be sent. Soon, six were there. Then the tree people managed to pull all of the wires out of the house 2 doors down while cutting up the large tree.
My neighbor, Norma, saw me outside and came outside to chat, which was a good idea until I passed out on her driveway because of the heat (see article about the Gold Coast Art Fair). She went to get my spouse (who was taking a nap and not fully dressed) and I struggled to my feet USING MY FRAIL KNEES, made it into our garage, and promptly passed out a second time.
The house, which had been without power since 7:37 p.m. on Monday night, was fairly hot, so I went to the basement and drank water and was fine thereafter, except that we had no power and it was HOT inside our house. This was only Tuesday, July 16th.
Tuesday night we tried sleeping in the basement. The hide-a-bed in the basement is very old and it was very uncomfortable. It was also very difficult to get out of it and make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night, wielding only my trusty flashlight and winding my way through laundry baskets.
By Wednesday, July 17, we both agreed that we would seek out a motel.
In getting up from the driveway and the garage concrete as quickly as I could, to save face (if not knees), I had done a number on my osteo-arthritic knees. We sought out a motel with a jacuzzi/hot tub and I spent the entire evening soaking my sore knees in the hot water while my spouse enjoyed having TV again.
So, that was the week of July 15th.
We then traveled to Chicago to celebrate my July 23rd birthday in style with dinner at the Firehouse,
On the 25th, Thursday, having bought a ticket to Texas so that I could be seen for elevated liver enzymes sooner than November 22nd , I arrived 2 days after my birthday, and awaited pick-up by son Scott and the twins.
This is where things begin to go downhill, as I attempted to get a luggage cart and pilot error caused the thumb nail on my right hand to be ripped off by a machine in charge of renting the luggage carts.
I know. You’re saying, “How did THAT happen!?”
How, indeed.
That will be a story for another entry.
Suffice it to say that it has given me a newfound appreciation for all those movies where the bad guys torture someone by ripping off their fingernails.
Since the fingernail-ripping “Welcome to Austin” arrival, I found myself locked in the Buda Urgent Care (with 3 other patients) when 2 doctors could not get the locked front door open (they closed at 8 p.m and it was 9 p.m.on Friday night, July 26th) by the time Dr. McIntosh wrapped my injured finger in tape and tried to send me (us) on my (our) way.
Then, while picking up 2 wedge salads at the Buda Main Street Pizzeria, I got stuck in one of their two primitive rest rooms for 40 minutes.
Although I kicked the door and screamed HELP! a lot, nobody could hear me over the music. When I called, all I got was a recording. It was truly not what I needed right about then.
More details on the avulsion incident to follow