Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, with just a bit of an unraveled feeling. I was on the porch chatting with John on the phone (he's in MD, I'm in NJ) last night when my phone starting beeping with a tornado warning. My neighbor said there was a tornado on the ground a few miles from here, and I should head to the basement.

So I did, taking my Hitchhiker with me. 


I sat on an upturned bucket in the doorway. This is on top of a huge stone in the foundation of our old house and I figured the timbers had stood for almost 200 years, so it was probably a reasonably safe place.


The wind blew, the rain and hail flew, but the storm was over before I knit three rows. I don't think we had a tornado here in my neighborhood, and luckily not even any water in the basement. 

I did take a look around before I headed back upstairs and spied a strange sight: 


I have no idea how or why this dead snake was there, but I removed it with a shovel. I guess if the worst thing you get from a tornado warning is a dead baby garter snake, things are good. Our weather predictions are the same for this afternoon and tonight, so now I've put a real chair down there, along with some water, snacks, and no dead garter snakes. I may be knitting in real comfort this evening!

On a completely different note, I read a wonderful book, and highly recommend it, but only if you're in the right frame of mind. It's The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs. She has written the story of the stages of her life, and while it is sad, poignant, and filled with cancer and death, that is ultimately not what the book is about. Instead, Nina writes about "how to distill what matters most to each of us in life in order to navigate our way toward the edge of it in a meaningful and satisfying way." That makes this a valuable and luminous book, and one that I think might be able to ease my own fears of death. 

What are you making and reading this week?


17 comments:

  1. Well, I'm not sure what is worse, dead garter snakes or dead mice. We've had a couple of the latter.

    Thankfully, the worst of the storms kept north and west of us. But, we had a few really hard downpours. Steve was out on a fire police call (directing traffic around an accident) from 6 PM til just before 11. He was remarkably dry when he got home. Guess his bunker gear works pretty well.

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  2. Glad you did not have the tornado and hoping it remains the same today! I put that book on my book bingo card yesterday when I saw your Goodreads review. Thank-you Bonny!

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  3. So glad you (and your house) are ok. I (of course) would have freaked out over the snake - dead or alive. We had some rain, but not as much as I thought we would get. Fletch heard there was a tornado in Morgantown (just West on the PA Turnpike), but luckily nothing closer. I now have flood watch warnings coming in via text and e-mail, so I guess we are due for more strong storms later today. Stay Safe!!!

    I'm going to look at that book on Amazon. It sounds interesting to me since I really enjoyed "Being Mortal" when I read that earlier.

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  4. This weather the past couple of days has been crazy! And, as always - your book suggestions are always interesting (and your reviews are so good!)

    Stay safe tonight - and I am so glad there will be no slithery knitting companions tonight in case of basement knitting!

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  5. So glad you didn't have a tornado! We had huge wolf spiders in our 111year old basement which I sprayed to death with hairspray!!! We since found the gap in the foundation they were tunneling through, so we're spiderless at present. I love that green yarn, it's gorgeous!

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    1. There's a tornado warning for our county as I type this, so I'm back down in the basement, but slightly more comfortable than last night. My heart goes out to the people really suffering long-term with this weather in the midwest and elsewhere. We've just got warnings, thunderstorms, and lots of rain, but nothing destructive. I even still have electricity so I can reply to comments!

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  6. The weather has been fierce so many places over the last week! I count myself very lucky to have only have thunderstorms here. I feel so badly for all those folks who are dealing with floods, tornadoes, and general destruction. I hope you continue to avoid all of that. Poor garter snake probably couldn't find his way out, although I must say that would be an unwanted surprise in the basement. I hope you don't have to make use of the chair, but you are wise to be such a girl scout. Stay safe, Bonny!

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  7. Oh, goodness! I'm glad you didn't have to stay down there too long and if you are down there now I hope you are safe and comfortable!

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  8. So smart of you to put a chair and other comforts in a safe place. I hope you didn't have to stay down in the basement too long!

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  9. My mom always had a bag of M & Ms for us when bad weather was expected. We'd enjoy the M and Ms while the tornado sirens went off. Glad you had your knitting. I have been blessed to have been told stories about death by a woman who was in intensive care for a month. She made it sound like she didn't want to COME back to Earth because heaven which she visited, was so wonderful.

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    1. I wish I had had some M & Ms! The stories from your friend in intensive care do sound interesting, and can certainly give solace about the unknown.

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  10. Planning for a safe place to wait out a storm is a good idea. (And I think a safe place to wait out a storm WITH M&Ms is an even better idea!) XO

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  11. You are amazingly calm (or at least you seem so) given a tornado warning and a dead snake, yuck! I hope that you have no further need to go hide in the basement but am glad to hear that you're prepared just in case.

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  12. a dead snake is better than a live one. I hate when I'm inconvenienced by warnings and scrambling to basements! The kids thought they were great fun. Love your hitchhiker.

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  13. I thought about you when I read about tornadoes in N.J. It is a good idea to have a little corner in the basement with a few things. A chair, a flashlight, and a radio powered by batteries are good things to have on hand. Oh and when we scramble to the basement, I grab my purse (insurance cards) and make sure I have a pair of shoes on.

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  14. tornado warnings are always scary - glad yours was over quickly with just that one teeny tiny thing to deal with ;-) and I loved The Bright Hour ... glad you found it!

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  15. We had tornado damage a block away a few years ago... super scary (and SUPER CLOSE)! Glad all turned out OK. Just ordered a copy of that book. Thanks for the recommendation.

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