The New Hobbit Hole

[Corin Stormhands]

Well my cat would have likely tolerated that

Our new cat was a rescue kitty and we think she was previously abused. She likes to sit on your lap, but she hates to be picked up. But she is also not 20 lbs.

[ecurbh]

Thanks for the prayers everyone! I talked to my parents again last night, and they are fine. Although the fire is not yet fully contained, they are starting to get a handle on it, and hopefully will be able to keep it from spreading towards town any more. One helpful factor is that the Prescott airport is a major staging area for the Forest Service firefighting crews in the region, so there was a lot of equipment readily available. My father even gets a couple days off work, since the school he teaches at is being used as an evacuation shelter.

Prescott Daily Courier coverage
Fire near Prescott being held at bay (Arizona Republic)

[HairOfTheDog]

Good morning ecurbh! - Glad to hear things are looking up for your folk's home! What a relief it will be when it is out. Thanks for the update.

Morning everyone! Just woke up! [sip]

[2Jedismom]

Good morning!

I got up about half hour ago after a night of thunderstorms and cramped sleeping with 4 people in one bed! The kids don't care to stay in their beds when it storms and we were all packed in like sardines.

Funny, but I actually sleep very soundly when we're packed together like that during a storm. I like having everyone close by in case the sirens start going off!

[HairOfTheDog]

Good morning!

I am still trying to wake up... Need to go to a meeting this morning... Then I am going to take it a little bit easy.

I can't imagine living in tornado alley, having sirens around that might go off to wake the whole town!

[Corin Stormhands]

Glad to hear your family is okay.

[Corin Stormhands]

I can't imagine living in tornado alley, having sirens around that might go off to wake the whole town!

Heard on our news this year that "Virginia hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in several years."

Our time might be coming...

[HairOfTheDog]

We don't get real hurricanes either. Or real bad floods... lots of rivers, but they flow through narrow places... Too many hills I guess. I love big weather and I live in a land that just doesn't have any.

[2Jedismom]

A few years back, I don't know if you recall, but some tornadoes swept through the OKC area and headed straight towards where we lived. We had seen what had happened in OKC on TV and were watching these storms plowing right toward us. As they approached Tulsa, the stormcams could see the electricity flashing everywhere a tornado touched down, and we were watching it happen live, coming right at us! The storms were terrible and the electricity went out, but we had already prepared a spot in the inside doorway of our garage which was centrally located in out duplex. It had a huge step down and we made a "nest" at the base of the step with blankets flashlights and storm radio. When the sirens started going off, we scooped up the boys and laid them gently in the nest, then huddled down over them. Thankfully it didn't hit us, but it hit the RV park nearby where my folks normally stayed when they would come visit (before they moved here)and just demolished it.

My husband went with our church and an 18-wheeler full of supplies to the OKC area to help clean up. He said that there was nothing left of the houses...that even the foundations had been stripped away, and the street pavement looked like it had been pealed up. He couldn't even talk about it, it was so upsetting to him. Our little nest would have been of little good with this particular storm.

I'll never forget a police officer found a baby, covered with mud at the base of a tree. They showed the officer's car cam showing him sitting the baby on the hood of his car and cleaning off it's face. It was muddy, but fine!

[Corin Stormhands]

We're a little inland (Richmond). But we can get some nasty wind and rain. When Fran came through we lost lots of branches and just about the whole town was out of power for more than a day (we got ours back after 36 hours).

My wife, her sister and husband and I were working the "Faberge" ball which was THE social event of the year. We went to the YMCA to get dressed in our formal attire.

Our main fear from huricanes at my house is that one of the dozen oak trees in our yard will fall. Our neighbors have lost two, and we've already taken out the six most dangerous ones.

[HairOfTheDog]

It is amazing how powerfull they are and how much damage they can do... and where they go is such a random roll of the dice! Puts us in our place doesn't it? They fascinate me, from my safe distance of course!

[2Jedismom]

I love watching the radar on the computer. Give me a radar loop and I'm a happy camper! LOL I wish I could find a "street level" radar...I see them on the news but can't find it at the NWS.

The other day, when the lightning hit so close and I felt it in my hands, the news actually showed the storm right over our street!

[Overtaxed]

"Virginia hasn't been hit by a major hurricane in several years."

You can have ours! :)

[htur_75]

Thanks everyone for the congrats. Sorry I've been away for so long. So many things to do with end of school, graduation, family coming in, cleaning house, etc. etc. My husband and I took his mom back to the airport yesterday, so I can get the house back in order, and back to my routines.

Overtaxed you said "No more school, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!" Unfortunately, I am going to be a teacher and I still have another semester of student teaching to do before being certified. However I get to do the dirty looks now. lol

I'll try to keep up as well as I can, and not go so long without saying hi.

[Corin Stormhands]

You can have ours! :)

We usually share yours. My brother has a house in Nags Head. We'll be there in mid-August.

[Overtaxed]

The house is still there? :)

[Corin Stormhands]

The house is still there? :)

They're on the sound side (actually on the canal) for that very reason. They've lost some gutters before, but they've been very fortunate not to have major damage.

We have friends who lived in Florida when Andrew hit. The only thing she saved was "The Club" from the steering wheel of the car. Everything else was gone.

[Penny1]

Good morning! I am still waking up too....though I'm at work and pretending to be awake! ;)

This is very funny--you watch the movie as you go to sleep, and I have the movie set up as my alarm clock to get me up in the morning, lol.

Seeing all these reports on the SW line parties and such, I find myself getting more and more excited about joining the TORn line party up here for TTT in December. I can't wait! :)

BTW, I couldn't resist checking out fan reactions to AOTC--some fans are truly blind. There was a "rate the movie on a scale of 1-10" thread at theforce.net, and people were rating it "11" and "12" but in the same post saying things like, "there were some problems" or "the acting and dialogue in some of the scenes wasn't very good"....but they still rated it off the scale in terms of quality! LOL!

[Penny1]

Hobbits must be busy today, and I'm itching to chat (I am SO not motivated to work today!).

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

[Overtaxed]

Hobbits must be busy today,

Yep! Doing the same lousy extraction for the next couple of weeks. At least it's good for dieting purposes...the smell of tissue samples in acetonitrile kills my appetite! At least I have some form of a hard drive right now although "failure is imminent."