That Hobbit Lady

Don’t you just love it when you think something terrible has happened, and then you find out that you are completely wrong?

This afternoon, we suddenly lost half our water pressure at the kitchen sink.  All the other faucets were working fine, so we had to conclude it was an internal plumbing problem.  Internal plumbing problem means hiring a plumber…not something we want to do, financially, at this point (or at any other point, for that matter!)

We tried a couple of things, checked valves, and ran through the recent history of when the faucet was last working well—only a couple of hours before.  Well, it suddenly occurred to me that while cleaning out the hummingbird feeder, I had switched the faucet head from “stream” to “spray,” and then back again.  So I did it again, and discovered that when switching back to “stream,” somehow I had only opened the flow about halfway.  When I pulled it open all the way…ouila~!  Water pressure!  Just fine.

Now, this is only a small example, but things like this are always happening to me, and sometimes I forget to count my blessings.  So I thought I’d mention this little incident now, and say how gratifying it is when the mountain turns out to be a moehill after all!

We are nearly three months out from the tornado.  I say “The Tornado” because in the collective memory of the people of this town,  no other tornado could possibly have earned the title of THE Tornado.  This was The BIG One, and it did a lot of damage, from which we are now slowly beginning to recover.  But it occurred to me the other day, that as
many areas that were hit by The Tornado, there were many, many important structures that did not suffer direct impact. And that is a very good thing.

So I’m  “counting my blessings.”   Here’s the silver lining:

There are two hospitals in town, and one was on the very fringe of the tornado’s path, almost hit, but not quite.  It remained up and running and available to receive people who were injured in the storm (unlike in the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, where the hospital was one of the major areas hit.)

Likewise, a police station, just missed.  Water towers: all okay.  And City Hall, not even close.

The tornado came very near, but did not touch any of the buildings on the University of Alabama campus—the single largest employer in the city.  Classes were cancelled for two
days, and there may have been some tree limbs down, maybe a few broken windows, but no structural damage.

One elementary school was destroyed, but to the best of my knowledge, all the other public schools survived.

A shopping center at one of the busiest intersections in town was completely obliterated, but the Mall across the street from it suffered only superficial damage.  Across from the Mall is a new shopping area, Midtown, that did not even exist when I moved here four and half years ago. Relatively new, it also was not touched.

Down 15^th Street, a Wendy’s restaurant was recently knocked down and completely rebuilt.
That new Wendy’s, less than a year old, suffered minor damage but was quickly open again. And a good thing too, because we lost a number of nearby fast-food joints:  McDonald’s, Hardees, Taco Casa, Milo’s, Guthrie’s Chicken.  (Not to mention the devastating loss of Full Moon BBQ, and the Hokkaido Japanese Grill.)  Two Arby’s in town were extremely close to the path of destruction, but not hit.  The Tornado passed between them, as if they were goal posts for the winning field goal.

Another  great loss
was the absolute demolition of Krispy Kreme Donuts.  We had only one Krispy Kreme, and now it’s gone.  And there are no Dunkin Donuts in town!  (A situation, which I feel, needs to be remedied, sooner rather than later!)

But nowadays, when you drive past the place where the Krispy Kreme used to be, fund-raising organizations like kids’ baseball teams are out there selling boxes of donuts brought in from Birmingham.  So everybody wins.

To me, it’s a sign of hope.

Yes, a lot of bad stuff happened on account of The Tornado.  But there was a lot of bad stuff that COULD have happened, and didn’t.

We are the people of Tuscaloosa, bent but not broken, and we WILL have our Krispy Kreme donuts! Everything that was lost will either come back (like Krispy Kreme) or we
will have something BETTER in its place.

Saturday my blow-dryer died a violent death.  It has been making a slight high-pitched “wrrrr”ing noise for a couple of days, but on Saturday the intensity increased and increased until finally there was a loud POP!  And then that was the end.

So I need a new blow-dryer.  We look in the Sunday sale papers and find out that Walgreens is having a sale on this one blow-dryer where the price is reduced from $25.00 to $18.99 AND you get a coupon for $5.00 off your next visit.  I visit Amazon briefly to find out that this particular item has very good reviews, so we go off to Walgreens to get it.

At Walgreens they are also having a sale on the 24 pack of Dasani water—which was already on our shopping list!  With their in-store coupon, it’s $3.99 for 24 bottles.  So we buy two, use the $5.00 coupon, and end up paying a total of $3.90 for 48 bottles of water.

Or…if you prefer to think of it this way…eight cents per bottle.  What a deal!

I’m thirsty.  Think I’ll go drink one now.

Russ and I have been following the Casey Anthony Trial pretty religiously.  Tomorrow COULD be the big day, the Verdict.  I hate that I have to go to work!  Afraid I might miss it.  This has become quite an event that is taking up a good deal of our time.  What WILL we do with ourselves when it’s over?

In other news, a new episode of Hoarders is coming on in about 15 minutes.  After that, it’s probably early to bed.

Such an exciting life, no?

With all other things being the same (you haven’t won the lottery or landed the perfect job, you’re not going there to live with your kids or grandkids, or to meet the love of your life, etc.), if you had to pick a place to live, and your only choices were Hawaii or Alaska…which would you choose?

Hmmm….good question, huh?

Gut reaction? I know what mine is. Alaska. And I’ll tell you why.

Mostly, it’s because I wouldn’t want to live in Hawaii, on account of Hawaii being so exposed to hurricanes, and having volcanoes. If a natural disaster strikes, you are poop out of luck, you’ve got nowhere to go! Also, I hear it’s extremely expensive to live in Hawaii.

I am not by nature much of an adventurer, but strangely, Alaska appeals to me for that sense of adventure. Having to put up with the weather would probably be enough of an adventure, don’t you think? I feel like everything out in Alaska is bigger and better and cleaner and newer than everywhere else.

I think I have been greatly influenced by that TV show from the 1990’s, Northern Exposure. I guess I’m kind of hoping that if I ever actually made my way out to Alaska, I’d find that crazy little town. I think it would be fun to live there.

Of course, as Russ has pointed out to me, “The temperature in Alaska is like six degrees!” (He leans on the side of Hawaii, by the way.) He’s also pointed out that Alaska is prone to earthquakes, and it’s also pretty expensive to live there as well.

Sigh…

Way to take the air out of my balloon…

Well, anyway, in all probability I will never have to make this decision. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy watching my Northern Exposure DVD’s.

How about you? I’d be interested in hearing how others come down on this Hawaii/Alaska issue.

It’s been over two months since the tornado, and we are starting to see some clearing of debris, but not too much yet in the way of rebuilding. Here is a short video of one of the hardest hit areas in town. The first twelve seconds or so goes past where Russ used to work.

And now for something completely different…

Today Ken is taking the long drive down to South Florida, bringing the cats to their new home.