Flood Aftermath and a Flood of Birthdays

I am very thankful that our home got through the recent flood event in our area of Colorado with nothing more than a little water in our basement. Many in neighboring towns were not so lucky and are now dealing with the loss of their home or business and in some cases the loss of life. There have been eight people reported who lost their life in the storms and there are still six people missing. The news has moved on to other things while the recovery and clean up has just begun in many Colorado towns. My heart goes out to those who are struggling to recover.

As the say on the news...and now on a very different note, my family has had a flood of birthdays just before and during the our week of rain.

My grandson Wil turned 8

My grandson Beck turned 3

He has a couple of more weeks in his cast...I think he will miss it just a little once he gets it off.

I have an ice cream cake in my freezer waiting until we can celebrate birthdays for my son and oldest daughter. My son was stranded in his neighborhood by the floods on the day we had planned to celebrate.  I have been wondering if they would notice a couple of pieces missing if I lose control of myself before we can finally get together.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed to check on me and my family during the floods in our area of Colorado this week. We are okay so far. There are a couple of roads washed out in our little town, but nothing compared to the devastation in Boulder a few miles west of us, Longmont, a few miles north of us and Estes Park, north of Boulder. There are also numerous smaller towns in the area that have suffered terrible damage.

This is a road that washed out early Thursday morning, just a short distance from us. It is at an intersection that I go by numerous times every week. Fortunately, all the people in these cars were rescued.

My son's neighborhood, about 20 miles north of us, was an island for a couple of days. This picture is a couple of blocks from their house. They finally could get out Friday afternoon. They went to a grocery store but found the shelves mostly empty because no deliveries had been made due to road closures. Their town is now under orders to boil any tap water they use.

There is an elementary school about a block from our house. About 75 fifth graders from the school have been stranded by the flood for several days at an outdoor lab camp (sort of an educational camping trip that all of the fifth graders here do). They had to be helicoptered out, leaving all their belongings behind. This afternoon when I drove by and saw this sign and their families waiting for them on the school lawn it brought tears to my eyes. 

When I heard the cheer that went up from the families as they saw the school bus bringing their kids home come around the curve I was sobbing right along with them.

As of this afternoon, there are still stranded people being rescued. The first responders have been heroic as they always are. The community response has been so great that shelters have had to turn away volunteers and supplies.

We have had about 24 hours of not much rain, but it is predicted that we will get some rain tonight and a lot of rain tomorrow. We have already had the amount of rain we usually get in a year fall in just a few days.

 Please join us in saying Rain, rain, go away!

Six Word Saturday

Friends forever, through thick and thin.

Bella, 7, and Addison, 9, were both diagnosed with Leukemia one day apart in April, 2010.
They have been best friends through years of chemo treatment (Bella for 2 years and Addison for 3 years). Their support for one another has been an amazing thing to see.
Addison is the son of a good friend of my daughter, Joanna.

They have both now completed treatment and are working together to raise funds to help conquer the disease they have both fought through.

Best friends forever.

To participate in 6WS click here

Wherein A Good Friendship Becomes a Little Sticky.......

I noticed recently that someone had "unfollowed" my blog. I'm sure it has happened before, but I noticed it this time because my number of followers went from a nice round even number to a not so nice odd one. It feels a little odd to be "unfollowed", but the truth is that lots of my not-so-many-anyway followers haven't been around in the blog world for a while.

It got me thinking about a face-to-face friendship that has become a little sticky lately. I have a friend who is a very kind, very sweet, and very generous woman.....until it comes to anything involving politics. She is very staunch in her political beliefs and surprises me with her vitriol toward those who don't believe as she does or toward candidates of the party opposing the one she supports. It is not that she and I necessarily disagree politically because mostly we don't. What we don't agree about is that anyone who believes differently is a liar, a cheat, an idiot....or worse. During the last presidential election we had "words" when I commented that I thought there were as many "untruths" being told from one side as the other. I admire her passion but I have a hard time accepting her intolerance of differing views.

Since then I have mostly tried to avoid any political topics, until recently when I mentioned that I wanted to see the movie The Butler. She came out with a tirade about how the movie was a bunch of lies, the casting was a slap in the face to any right thinking person and no one with any brains would pay money to see it.....not her exact words, but that is how it sounded to me. After bravely saying that I still wanted to see the movie I successfully changed the subject and we haven't talked since.

I certainly don't want to lose a friend, but I also can't be comfortable in a friendship that makes me feel like I am walking on eggshells in terms of safe topics of conversation. She is not a person with whom you can just agree to disagree. Right now I am just wishing that there was something as easy as an "unfollow" button, but face to face friendships don't work that way.

Have you ever felt the need to "unfollow" a face-to-face friend?