FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY....HURRICANE IVAN....

...caused massive devastation to this Ohio Valley area. Who would have thought, that a hurricane could travel up the east coast and then head to and hover over this valley??? Well, it did, leaving 6" of rain in a two hour time span.

Our high school football field...underwater!

This normally dry creek bed, was a raging river!

Flooding cut off this access route near my home.

We really had no warning that we were going to be inundated with water, and I was hit hard here at home also. My basement had almost 3 feet of water and my losses topped $20K. I was devastated.

Everything hauled into yard - to be disposed of.

Remnants of the water damage. Disgusting!

My office area was devastated...lost computer, client files, etc...

Dampness as it covered the walls!! Couch, chair - all ruined!


We do not live in a flood zone, so my homeowner's insurance wouldn't cover a single loss. I was furious. I should hope we NEVER have to go through a weather event like that in the future. thankfully, thedaughter and her friends all chipped in, plus my best friend - as seen here, as we made a fun time of cleaning up!!

We gave her a chair with wheels and she went to town!!

Five years later, it was sunny and warm - 80 degrees. Not a raindrop in sight!! Later.............

AHA...AND THE TABLES WERE TURNED...

This is an interesting video, with Adam Greene of OpenLeft a blog site confronting the attack "journalist" from clusterFOX news, Griff Jenkins - outside a building where members of ACORN were meeting.

Jenkins is a fukktard of gargantuan proportions anyway, so this was a delight to my eyes to see someone literally catch him off guard. Note how Jenkins decides to rant on about Adam Green being from the PRESS. Yay, bloggers are now considered legitimate reporters!!



Memo to self **next time interviewing anyone, take along my own RED CARPET!

If I watched O'Reilly, it would be interesting to see what kind of SPIN the blowhard puts on this video, if he has the nerve to air the entire mess. We all know "the SPIN stops here" with O'Reilly - so EVERYTHING MUST BE TRUE.

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We were hit with some fierce storms last night, causing major damage throughout the valley. The first storm was not a direct hit here, and thegrandson and I watched the black clouds from the front porch, while chatting with the neighbor and wondering what the end result would be for us. Initially, we had mostly lightening and thunder, as the storm skirted around us, the first barrage of rain started, yet only lasted maybe one half hour. The second storm was hot on the tails of the first - and the picture above is a funnel cloud that formed not far from here. There were no reports of it touching down, but when you live in a valley of many hills, a tornado sighting is a rarity. The second storm inundated us with 3" of rain in an hour, causing major flooding just south of me. The street to my daughter's house was closed due to high water as were many others nearby.

On June 14, 1990, we had the Wegee and Pipe Creek floods which killed 26 people, several whom I knew...so we are a valley of "creek watchers." That was a case, called a "one hundred year event", where a storm stalled over this area and dumped 6" of rain with 4" being dumped in the first hour. It was a horrible time for so many. To this day, if we are hit by torrential downpours, the flashbacks reappear.

This time my basement stayed dry - that makes me a very happy camper. Some neighbors got hit this time, which is strange to me, but I won't question it at this point.

So much to do and I seem to be spinning my wheels. Have a great day and catch ya.....later...........

We are supposed to have equally hard storms again tomorrow night - so if Mother Nature could be appeased in anyway - I'm open to suggestions.

Christmas - WONDERFUL...Christmas Eve - SUCKED!!

I plan on blogging and adding pictures to Flickr in the next couple of days about Christmas, but chronologically, I am forced to start with the Christmas Eve Day from HELL!!

Everything was planned, we (theson, thegrandson and I) would head to Pittsburgh to finish shopping and then go to theDonald's for evening dinner and gift exchange. But oh no...as theson came downstairs in the morning, he and I were talking by the basement stairs, when the furnace kicked off - I HEARD WATER IN THE BASEMENT!! Continual rain from the evening before and forecast for the entire day - and we have a flood in the basement. My nerves do not handle a crisis like they used to. Water is coming up through the drains, through the vent to the furnace...and there is at least 6-8 inches throughout. Now, basket case that I am, I cry!! This is NOT the day to have such a problem. I call the city crews to bring a pump - and the morons didn't even have a submersible - and said there was nothing they could do, and left. So, off to the hardware store, and theson buys a pedestal sump pump, hooks it up, and we start pumping water out - but it isn't making a dent - as the water is coming in at the same speed. $%^&*()#$%^&*()!!!!!!!!

Trying to deal with the "water" issue, I beg theson to settle for running to the local mall to shop, but he has to stick to tradition and we ended up going to Pittsburgh. I thought I would have to call 911, as I was having anxiety issues myself. My sole purpose in life seems to be to WORRY. All I could think of was the pump actually doing its job and then burning our house down while in Pittsburgh. As it turned out - that was never an issue, because the water level remained the same.

Theson did everything humanly possible to alleviate this problem, and when we went to bed (the rain had ceased) the water level was down about 1 1/2 inches. When we got up Christmas morning, the pump was still running with very little change. After presents were opened, thedaughters friend came over and was scoping out the creek behind the house - as I told him approximately where the drain pipe came out into the creek. He couldn't find the damn thing, so we all went out to check - after scooping mud and debris, we located the pipe - he reached into the pipe and it was 100% blocked with creek rocks. As soon as he scooped all the rocks out, it was like a geyser - and the daughter said the water level went down incredibly fast.

I now know what neighbor kids have been playing back there, and maybe they thought that was a cute idea to "block the pipe", but I have now lost about $5000-$6000 worth of property, and no way to prove their vandalism. Furious beyond belief is one way to describe my feelings.

But thanks to thedaughters friends they were here early this morning, and we all chipped in to get the muck and garbage, and ruined items out of the house and to the landfill.

Water still pooled at bottom of stairs.
Still some water and stuff ready to go to landfill.

I had a sofa and entertainment unit, which were totally ruined - so the guys had a blast sawing both into pieces, in order to be hauled away, as seen here.

Jaime and theson really enjoyed the destruction.
Saying goodbye to entertainment unit.

We started the cleanup process about 10 am this morning and finished up 3 pm. That entailed three runs to the landfill and a lot of hard work, but the fans are running (the dehumidifier was destroyed also) and I have a workable space to finish getting rid of more "stuff" later. I now have to find someone to come in and deal with mold prevention, and what is it doing now........raining!! I'm tired and in considerable pain, but have to get some food ready for the rest of the family is visiting this evening.

More about Christmas later - hope everyone had better luck than me. Later............

Please define "CERTAIN DEATH!"

The news agencies (all of them) have reported on the status of Hurricane Ike - as potentially going to cause "certain death." I am not illiterate nor ignorant, and I actually know what this infers...but does the media??? Really????

CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and all the other letters, have their reporters in the "hit" area - ready to give us on the spot coverage - AGAIN!! I wonder if "certain death" only applies to a select group, group(s) that DO NOT INCLUDE reporters. After Hanna hit in the Gulf of Mexico last week - and from what I am discerning, Ike will be much harder - I can envision reporters "blowing away" in front of our eyes. I have said before that I am quite the news junkie...but I do so prefer NOT to see death on the screen, from a live reporter.




As this storm progresses northward, it appears we may get some offshoot from winds and rain. (Located near the PA-WV-OH border.) When Hurricane Ivan tore inward on September 17, 2004 - we were inundated with 9" rain in three hours. I had almost 3 feet of water in my basement and lost almost $20,000 in property. My nerves are always on edge when I hear of a big rain or storm coming.




This was my best friend Jean (passed away 10-17-07), helping me clean up the aftermath of basement flooding. We had waaay too much fun - trying to make the best of a bad situation that day (and several days thereafter).

OK, gonna run for now - I have seen short clips of the Palin interview and I'm going to see if I can find a video clip of the entire video. My understanding is that since it is being released in installments, that may be a dim hope. ** Just a note, I was NOT impressed with what I heard so far. She is very mechanical and repeating lines spoon fed to her it appears. We shall see though.

Did anyone catch the Poliotical Forum televised last night? Some interesting points there!

TTFN - things to do!! Everyone have a good one.

Winter flooding...

Normally, this is a football practice field, but with all the thawing snow and torrential rains, it is now home to these Canadian geese, who flock here all year long. The funny thing to me is the "No Trespassing" sign sticking out in the background. Damn geese must not read English. Oh no, does that give them free medical, education and voting rights? They are illegal aliens of a sort. Probably didn't even show their passports crossing the border, imagine that!!

This is normally a "creek bed" with no more than a trickle of water in normal weather. I honestly think I have had enough snow and flooding for this winter. Now our illustrious "weather person" is saying that if the next cold front hits us "just right" on Friday, we could get a foot of snow - surely he jests!

Grandson report for today...no better, just a lot redder. He didn't even budge off the couch, just a couple of times to go pee. He drank plenty of fluids today, but wouldn't eat a thing. I managed to get him to eat 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich this evening. He sees our family physician tomorrow and if we are not happy with that appointment, we have decided we may head to Columbus Children's Hospital. Again, if I were to start ranting about the medical services locally, you would never return to my blog!

Enough for now, more updates later. Stay healthy and TTFN.

There's STUPID, INSANELY STUPID...then ME!

This disgusting mess resulted after I blew out a 9 oz. jar candle, and I was waving the smoke away with my hand, and...belted that damn candle across the kitchen.



The first picture is the "side" of my pie safe which I use as a pantry and also where I had placed the frigging candle. The next picture is the wall beside the pie safe, on to the kitchen counter and was all over the once clean dishes. The final shot is the front of the dishwasher.

I have most of it cleaned up (or scraped up), and thedaughter tackled the floor and fronts of cabinets. I now have most of the shit off my dishwasher, but will be cleaning it for days, I'm sure.
Oh, and I just loved having to re-wash all the cursed dishes again also.

It must be old age, but I let everything worry me. Earlier this week, we were on "flooded basement" watch, as we have had torrential rains and flood warnings for days. This makes for sleepless nights...my heart starts racing - guess "anxiety attacks" is a better description. When facing a calamity I have no problems, but to sit and wait for one to happen is downright torture. And my touch of OCD, lets this WAX debacle really set me off. Thedaughter is like, "sit down and relax, we'll get it!" But I have to tackle it RIGHT NOW! Of course I have to bitch and squawk the entire time too. I am truly a delight to be around.

Since it is tax season and I am set up in my kitchen, I like to have it all straightened up - ALL the time. So that entails double duty. Needless to say, after dealing with this shit, I am doing no more returns for the day - how could I - after scraping all this wax off and scrubbing - I HAD TO REDO MY NAIL POLISH!! I am such a bitch.

Think I'll find some kind of pill to take...everyone stay healthy and TTFN.