Flooded Freeper Could Use Help

As many of you may already know, Fellow Freeper Texana_RED's home was washed away in the devastating floods that are hitting Texas right now. Some of you may have seen video of a house in Kerrville floating downstream, then hitting a tree, and disintegrating. That was Texana_RED's home. Some of you may have seen an interview showing a woman on televison pointing to her red pickup truck which was lodged in a tree. That was Texana_RED. She literally got out with her pajamas, with 2 of her dogs. She lost the rest of her pets, and all the contents of her house, and workshop.

Some of you may have met Texana marching around the Governor's mansion after the election, or at the Freeper Inaugural Ball.

With Jim Robinson's gracious permission, I am being allowed to bring this Freeper in Distress Call to your attention. If you would like to send a donation to help, please check the Texas Chapter Board, or Freepmail Sockmonkey or Anymouse.

And everybody else!

Man, you guys and gals are blowing my mind! I just appreciate so much what ya'll are doing that words cannot express!

I am fine - getting alittle exhausted from not sleeping much and having endless lists of things I need to do. I met with the FEMA guys today and have decided I will accept a grant if I am eligible for one, but not a loan even if just has 1% interest.
Right now I wouldn't have anyway to pay it back. I can't even work now because I swcrewed up my left shoulder and arm a couple of weeks ago - hurts so bad I can't even carry my handbag. I had been going to the chiropractor and having accupunture, but it's hurts so bad now I WANT DRUGS for the pain! Three damp weather, stress and not being able to get back out to Doc Glenns has contributed to the pain. But, this too, I will survive. About ready to call the surgeons and tell them to get out the bone saw and just take the thing off! Man, it hurts!

FEMA guys kept me waiting an hour and a half sitting in my car in front of what was my house - this was after I was assured they would be there in 20 minutes. The guy that took the report was a total dufus. Had his supervisor not been with him I don't thi9nk he could have filled out the report. So, if I am eligible for help, I don't expect to actually get it until I'm 95 or so.

Now, I will try to answer some of ya'll questions - if I can remember them all! I am not only homeless, right now I am real close to mindless!

I do have a PayPal - forgot about that when sockmonkey called. The addy is medina@omniglobal.net.

I will staying at my sisters the next few days - until sockmonkey gets back. I have decided to take her up on her gracious offer of a roof ovwr my head. I just wonder if she knows how hard it might be to get me out of that place! A rustic cabin on 25 acres! I will be in heaven! I have always been somewhat of a hermit and wanted to live out in the middle of nowhere, so I might fall in love with the place and never want to leave.

Gracey, got your FReepmail, but for some reason on this computer I can't reply. Anymouse has my cell phone number, as does sockmonkey and COB1. Don't really want to post it here. I have had several people say the same thing about
fight wth my insurance about the tree. The city has already cleaned u p alot of the debris, including the tree that hit my house, but I did take a bunch of pics as did everybody in the neighborhood. The guys from FEMA did say that I might be surprised in what the insurance might be willing to pay since I lost everything even though I didn't have flood ins. So, will wait and see what they way tomorrow when I call them.

Dittomom, are y ou still in Bandera? My sis lives in Medina and I am going over there tonight. Man, I would love to be able to get together if you are still here. Send me an FReepmail and let me know if you are still and maybe we can have lunch or something. I'll be at my sister's and maybe I will be able to reply from her computer.

Whoever (can't remember now) it was that said they had a brother in Bandera, I pray that he and his are safe.
I have heard numerous different things about how bad it was over there - some said really bad, some said hardly any water at all - probably pretty bad though. We are so fortunate that this thing hit at 9AM or thereabouts rather than 3 AM. Had it been much earlier, we would have probably had lots of loss of life. There are so many elderly that lived below me on the creek that are deaf as a post. Many would not have even been able to hear the creek. People 15 blocks from the creek and had never even come close to having water in their homes, had 3 and 4 feet of water. A day care center full of kids got 3 feet of water and it was about 12 blocks from the creek. Scary!

Fred Mertz, of course I remember you! Geez, we had a great time in DC didn't we!

Guido, I did my first response to you because you had said sockmonkey got water - I didn't know that and will definitely offer to help her clean up when she gets back.

Somebody made a suggestion of having a house raising - geez, that would be a ball! Get us some huge ice chests full of
cold brew and build a house! Hmmmm. not sure I would want to live in it after we finished though! LOL! I am not going to rebuild. My property is so damaged it would take $15,000 to $20,000 to just repair the property inself before I could even think about rebuilding. The city might be interested in buying it from me. They own the big field across the street and will be building a new plant within the next few years. And, the city is already talking about having to dredge out the creek and make it wider to handle more drainage. So, maybe they will buy my property. Going to try to meet with the city manager sometime this next week. Also, I am not livew those people in California who lost their house one year to mudslides and rebuild, then the next year to fire and then rebuild.

I have the same address on Ross street - the post office will just hold my mail until I come get it. I have a freeze on my two bank accounts because my check books went with the house. So until all my checks clear and we can figure out how much I have, they are just sitting. I never balance my check books - well, not never, but only about every three or four months.

Guild Ladies - thanks so much for the thoughts on the household items. Please don't think me ungrateful, but right now I don't even know where I am going to land permanently and really don't want a bunch of stuff I have to haul around.
I have seriously thinking of looking for a cheap travel trailer and fixing it up. If I do that, I sure won't have room for much of anything. Besides, I hate to cook and I am perfectly happy not having pots, pans, dishes, etc. LOL! I am surprised I have survived my own cooking this long! Send me a microwave and 8000 frozen dinners and I'll be happy!
The lady at WalMart insisted I buy some sheets even though I told her I didn't even have a bed, so I do have a set of sheets, a pillow, and one set of towels. I wear a six 6 or 61/2 shoe and since I have only the pair I bought with the WalMart card the city gave me, I could use another pair. of sneakers. Hard to say what size jeans I wear - normally about a 5 to 7, but I havwn't been eating much and have dropped some lbs. I am happiest with cotton tee shirts and boxer shorts that will pass as shorts. T-shirts I wear a medium, shorts need to be small. Ya'll really don't need to send clothes - although I do appreciate the offer. I usually shop at the Salvation Army store for jeans, shorts, etc. - that way as my weight fluxuates, I can just take my fat jeans in and trade them for skinny ones and vice versa. Ton's of people have brought me clothes - got more socks and underwear than I could wear in a year. I am so scattered right now, I really don't know what I need. and really haven't thought far enough into the future to know what I'll need later on.

Funny, but the things I really want are the things that most poeple would have at the bottom of their list. I want my band saw that I used only once, I want my RoroZip, my chainsaws, my drills and sanders , my kayak, my camping gear,
my hairbrush and comb (had them since I lost my house to fire in 86). I hate losing all those tools I have bought over the last 15 years as much as losing my house! Crazy, huh!

Well, I have taken up enough bandwidth for now and want to get to Medina before it gets too late, so will say bye for now.
Will check in the next couple of days wth a progress report.

I thank you all so very much. When sockmonkey told me what she was doing, I asked her not to. It is very hard for me to accept money and stuff from friends, so this a learning experience for me. I appreciate it all so much. I know that I would have been alright without help from so manyy people, but all the offers of help has certainly made it easier to deal with. And the fact that you guys - most who only know me by my FR handle care to much to do all this for me is just overwhelming.

Please excuse the typos, misspelling, etc. I am exhausted, arm hurts, don't know how to operate this dang MAC computer,
and am just flat too lazy to make the needed corrections!

I had to do a short post tonight to tell ya'll what TheSarce did! I get a letter from her today, open it up and see a very neatly folded piece of tin-foil. And TheSarce says "Enclosed in genuine FR tin-foil shielding is a ......"

Needless to say, I burst out laughing! Sarce, you cannot imagine how badly I needed a good laugh and I laughed until I hurt. Thank you so much not only for the donation but also the belly laugh I needed so desperately.

I am beginning to get a bit stressed and frazzled around the edges. I am not a very patient person and don't do well waiting in lines. Most of today has been spent waiting in a line for this or that and I was gettin' a bit testy! Tomorrow will be much of the same. Got my paperwork from FEMA and found all sorts of incorrect information on it.

The first line says "Was your home destroyed by the disaster?" and they marked yes. The next line says "Is this disaster preventing you from living in your home now?" and they have marked NO. On the date of birth line they have 00/00/0000. Guess I am either real dang old, or haven't been born yet - I'm not sure exactly if 00/00/0000 is in the past or sometime in the future. Or maybe I am just a figment of my imagination. The letter says if there are any mistakes on the form to call them and make corrections. I did and the guy I talked to acted like he was quite put out with me for correcting their wrong info.

So, today has actually been more stressful than the day of the flood! Ya'll really do need to say some prayers for me now because many more days like today and I may go postal!

Thanks again everybody. I have truly been blessed to have so many people care and offer their help!

I am doing fine - or at least as fine as I can be doing in light of the circumstances.

Thank you all so much for the donations. I am trying to work up enough energy to go to Walmart and use some of those donations on some clothes. I have gotten lots of clothes from friends, but unfortunately most of them are way too big. I have been wearing them anyway and looking pretty tacky. Figured I could get by with that for a week or so, but now it's time to buy few things that fit. And to get a duffle bag to carry it in rather than 5 or 6 WalMart sacks. I truly am a bag lady! Maybe I should just ask WalMart if I can buy one of their carts to haul my stuff in. LOL!

Also have been looking for a new computer - new to me but a used one. Hopefully, I will get that done sometimes this coming week. There are alot of things I can do without, but a computer isn't one of them. Need to start recompiling all the research on the IRS I have done over the last 10-11 years.

Getting ready to go to war (if necessary) with my car insurance company. My truck only had liability so didn't expect them to do anything about it, but my Chrysler got water in it and the electrical system is damaged. They have only offered me a settlement of 1100.00 to fix the dings it got when the water moved it into a post. I vacuumed approximately 50 gallons of water out of the floorboards, it covered all the electrical wiring under the driver's seat that controls the top, power doors, seats, etc. Insurance company is telling me that they can just replace the jutes and harnesses and everything will be okay.
Been to 6 different car dealerships and a couple of mechanics and they all said that is not true. That although I may not have problems now, six months down the road I will. Am having several problems with the car that I never had before and the dealerships have told me my car has no trade in value whatsoever. In fact, a couple of them told me they wouldn't even take it on a trade in.
The insurance company assured me the water damage wouldn't effect any trade in value. Course I am smart enough to know that is not true. I think they think they are dealing with some stupid woman that is so grateful for that $1100 check that I will just take it and go away. I didn't sign anything and haven't cashed the check, so I guess they have another think coming. Seeing an attorney Monday afternoon.

Meeting with the adjuster on my home insurance tomorrow.
They may pay, may not. Won't know until after I meet with him.

Waiting for sockmonkey to return from her trip so we can get together about her cabin she has offered me. I do hope she will consent to allowing me to pay some sort of rent - even if it's just mowing her lawn, washing her car, cleaning her house, etc. in return for her gracious offer.

Also waiting to find out if my property has been condemned, lots of areas around me have been, and if so, will they pay me for it. I already know the city will never issue me a building permit even if I wanted to rebuild there.

My nephew's best friend and his dad bought what was left of the truck for parts, so that took care of that problem. Alfred also walked the creek from my house to the river looking for my kayak with no luck. He's my kayaking buddy and we had been planning on a kayaking trip as soon as we got a good rain. Well, we sure got a good rain, river's are running - but no kayak. Think I am going to rent one so we can take advantage of the river while it's running so high.

Finally got back to the chiropracter so he could work on my shoulder and arm. It's a bit better but have a couple of more treatments to go before it's completely back to normal.

Mainly, I am bored to tears because I have nothing to do to keep me busy. I am so used to having all sorts of projects going that now I don't know what to do with myself. If my sister had unlimited computer access I would be online all the time, but since she doesn't I have to get on and get off quick so that I don't use up her time.

I am most thankful for all my friends and family and that the good Lord blessed me with a sense of humor or I would probably go batty! Or should I say, battier!

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