Ho-hum, ho-hum - TORNADO!

 It's been pretty quiet and perhaps even boring around here lately.  I continue to take Mom to her weekly wound-care appointments.  Her toes are healing up nicely.  Her shin hurts and she wants a big puffy bandaid on it all the time.  It doesn't hurt anything, so like a toddler asking for a dinosaur bandaid, Mom gets her puffy bandage changed once a week.  She has dubbed her wound care doctor "Doctor Sweetie Pie", which tickles him no end.  She can't remember his real name, so Sweetie Pie it is.

The home put on a Mother's Day luncheon that was pretty spiffy.  Dad and I came and lunched with her.  Nothing too fancy (but the appetizer was amazing).  I cut up Mom's chicken and salmon for her and she ate almost everything except the asparagus, which Dad helped with.
 

I did not go visit her on Mother's Day.  I figured that after all the brother visits, she'd be exhausted.  John and Mary went and facilitated video calls with Andy and Jay.  Matt went, and then Jerry went.  After Jerry left, he called me and asked if I would like to go to dinner for Mother's Day (my own child having left and moved to Milwaukee in mid-April).  I accepted and we drove up Capital Circle NE looking for a place that was open - more on that in a minute.  

We settled at Longhorn Steak House, which had a line a mile long, but Jerry being Jerry, he knew a way around that and I walked right in and had a seat at the bar, where we were served our dinners.  Country-fried steak for me and prime rib for him.  It was delicious and I really appreciate Jerry thinking of me on Mother's Day.

So... the reason we weren't sure what would be open is that Friday morning, Tallahassee was struck by THREE tornadoes!  Two EF2s and one EF1.  The damage was massive.  Trees down everywhere, power lines and poles demolished.  The power grid took a serious hit and today, 6 days later, there are still areas without power and trees still being removed.  The damage on our city was worse than Kate, Irma and Michael (a cat 5 hurricane!) combined.  For all that, only one person was killed - a tree fell through her house.  The cats and I huddled in the hallway for a bit and heard it go over.  It wasn't on the ground, thank goodness, but it went on by causing damage everywhere even if not on the ground.

 

I had a lot of little debris in my yard, but my next door (adjoining) neighbor had a tree come down on her roof and poke a hole in her bedroom.  The roofer came out to inspect and while he was up there, noticed I was missing a few shingles.

My neighbor will be replacing her whole roof.  We had actually planned to replace our roofs at the same time, but I don't think my damage is enough for a whole new roof, and I can't really afford to pay for one right now, so I'll get my shingles fixed and replace the roof in a year or so.  I'd filed a claim and suddenly got a bunch of claim numbers, which seems fishy to me.  I'll probably cancel my claim and just fix the shingles out of pocket.  

So...  how did Mom fare through all this?  Just fine.  She was rolled out into the hallway away from windows along with all the other residents and they all sat there and chatted until the all-clear was given.  They did lose power and were on generator for a bit, but otherwise unscathed.

Ironically, Family Night, which happens once a month where a speaker comes and talks to the families of the patients while they're having dinner happened the following Tuesday.  And the topic was Emergency Procedures!  I learned that, despite what Mom insists, there is no basement at the facility.  Also, that they have an evacuation plan if needed, going to either Ocala or Pensacola.  For most things, though, they can shelter in place.  I do need to pack a "go-bag" for Mom with three days of clothes and her other supplies and put it up on a high shelf in her closet where she can't get to it.  Knowing her, she'd unpack it and "put things away" and it wouldn't be ready to go if needed...  

Tallahassee is still recovering - there's a long way to go.  Videos all over Facebook show the extent of the damages.  We are lucky to have missed being affected in any major way.