If we were having coffee, I might not be a very good hostess as I’ve been glued to the TV and Internet for news of hurricane Harvey which is, as I type this at 2 am on the 26th, pummeling the Texas Gulf Coast. I wish the Weather Guys were wrong. They’ve been saying that this will be the worst hurricane to hit American land in the past fifteen years. They say it is going to prove to be worse than Katrina and most of us remember how bad that was. Most of us remember how the destruction remained long after the storm died.
So grab yourself some coffee. I’m actually having decaf because I need to sleep in a bit so I can get up by seven, but if you’re game for the real thing, grab it. For a long time I resisted getting a Keurig (single cup brewer) because of the waste which was not recyclable and because it turns out to be more expensive than ground coffee. However, my daughter was gifted a new Keurig a couple of months ago and she gave me her old one. I had noticed that they now make the single cups recyclable and some can be composted. We went to Grocery Outlet (in case you don’t have those, it’s a chain that offers groceries at outlet prices and they aren’t seconds or expired, just good bargains. I found a number of different coffee choices for the Keurig that are affordable and come in recyclable cups. I only get them if the price breaks down to about forty-five cents a cup. Currently, you can choose from a medium roast grown in Kauai, some French Vanilla, salted caramel, Columbian dark roast, and a few others.
For those of you that have been following my recovery from abdominal surgery, I’m still not back to normal and it has been five weeks. The whole thing has been complicated by sciatica which has been with me for two weeks and won’t go away. It is much better than it was the first couple of days but it won’t go away. I suspect that it has a lot to do with my limited mobility and with the fact that I’m not walking as I normally do as the incision is bruised on the inside and I’m kind of limping. But it is better. I’m really tired of being sick. I can hardly wait to get to my normal state. I’m able to bend over without pain but I’m limiting the instances for another week as instructed by the doctor. So it’s better but far from good.
How many of you got to see the total solar eclipse that graced the United States last Monday? I got to see it but I was twelve miles from totality so I didn’t get to see the full thing, only about 99%. I watched from my front yard but was feeling particularly weak that day so I didn’t stay out the entire time. I just went out a few times. I want to experience totality. I really do. My niece is planning on taking her family to Argentina for the one in 2019 and has invited me. I don’t think I will be able to save the money by then but it sure would be fantastic! The next opportunity will be in 2024. I’m hoping to find a friend or family member that I can stay with in or very near the path of totality. I have lots of family in Texas (one of the reasons I’ve been glued to the reports about Harvey). And a lot of my friends, both real and virtual, live in the path so maybe someone will invite me. That would be much more doable for me.
Harvey. It hit land on Friday night. Corpus Christi was hit hard. That’s where my maternal grandmother lived all of her life. It’s where I almost moved to ten years ago. When my grandma died in 2007, my two uncles and my mom sold her house and split the money three ways. At that time, I had the cash minus about three thousand dollars. I was also looking for a place to move to as California had gotten way too expensive for me. I liked the idea of Corpus Christi because of family ties and because it’s right on the coast and I love being near the water (not in it, I don’t swim). And I loved the idea of owning my own home. However, three things kept me from doing it. First and foremost was the fear of being in a hurricane. I wouldn’t know how to prepare the house or myself for an approaching storm and I didn’t know anyone near there. Then there was the part about being far from my kids but I knew that could be remedied by air travel. The last obstacle was that I didn’t want anyone (the cousins) to think that I was trying to get the house for less than someone else would pay for it. I knew that my uncles and my mom would have agreed to let me have the house and pay them the remaining three thousand dollars within a year or two but I didn’t want anyone to say I was trying to get it for less. All in all, I guess it was a good decision not to move there but I often think what it would have been like if I had moved there.
I worry about the cousins and an elderly uncle that are all in the impacted area, namely Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and other small cities in the area. I also worry about my friends, many of whom I consider family even though I’ve never met them in person. I hope and pray that they will all come through this hurricane safely. I’ve lost too many people and I don’t want to lose anyone else.
I’ve been reading but not as much as I had been reading. I think it’s because I haven’t found anything I really want to read right now. I have a lot of books on my Kindle (like over two thousand) so I will read something from those titles. There are some newer books I would like to read but there’s no money for them right now. I have a couple of books on hold through the library as I recently discovered how I can borrow digital copies of books! Hopefully one of my holds will be available in the next couple of days. What are YOU reading?
Well, I had better get going. I have to get to sleep and then get up in less than five hours. My daughter and I are taking the boys to get a backpack with school supplies which is being gifted to low income kids by our Gleaners group. This year there’s no money for school supplies or for a backpack for Spencer (Anderson doesn’t need one) so it’s a good thing we have this giveaway available to us, even though we have to be there early and will, most likely, end up waiting in a long line. Whatever they get will be much appreciated by the boys and by their grownups. I usually have a lot of school supplies because I buy when they go on sale and clearance but I haven’t bought any in a couple of years and we’ve gone through most everything.
Oh! I forgot. On Sunday I get to see my grandson, Mati, who lives in Seattle. They are up here for a rafting trip and are going to meet up with us on Sunday before they head back to Seattle. It will be the first time all four of my grandchildren will be together in one place. Picture time!
Anyway, I’ll call it a post and finish up by asking you to hold good thoughts and prayers for those impacted by hurricane Harvey.
#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog linkup hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster Blog. Go check it out and see what else everyone is doing. Maybe you’ll want to write your own coffee share post!
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Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 