hell week(end)!

I'm sure everyone has seen or heard of the horrible storms that ripped through the south this weekend. If not, come back to Earth.

Unfortunately my little town was part of that carnage. Luckily we had no reported tornadoes, though some of us here believe we may have experienced a few, but we had enough wind and rain to hold its own against some of the hurricanes I've been through. I mean, it was rough.

My yard has several large trees in it - 16 to be exact - and thankfully none of them fell during the nearly 24 hour deluge. Just a couple of small limbs and about a million pinecones now litter my drowned lawn. Overall my little parcel faired well.

My lawn furniture, however, did not. Now I know that most of you are saying "why didn't you put it away before the storm hit?"...and you would be fair in saying it. But in my defense, we have had storms as severe as this one where my outdoor furniture survived. So I honestly had no idea things would get as bad as they did. I didn't really watch the weather beforehand, but from the bits and pieces I did see I don't recall mention of the tropical-storm force winds we would experience. But I digress.

So needless to say that my lawn furniture is no more. The chairs are still intact - though bruised and beaten - but the poor table didn't survive. It fell victim to the fury that is Mother Nature. I fell victim to the fury that is Home Ownership. I spent an hour picking up about a million tiny glass fragments out of my grass. Yeah, fun.

As if the storm wasn't enough, someone very near and dear to me - and someone under 40 - suffered a mini stroke yesterday and is now left with a paralyzed face. Luckily he didn't lose the ability to speak or walk, but he now has to live (for 3 weeks to possibly 6 months!) with a face that is half out of commission.

The condition is known as Bell's Palsy. I consider myself to be somewhat intelligent, but I can honestly say that I had never heard of this until yesterday. The doctor told us that it is facial paralysis, and that it's part of the broad spectrum of the stroke family. Basically the nerve running down the side of his face - from his forehead to the bottom of his neck - has "died" due to what they believe to be a viral infection. So he's on steroids for the next ten days until the virus clears so the nerve can begin to rejuvenate. That's where the 3wk-6mo period comes in. I pray his recovery time is much closer to the 3 week mark.

So there you have it. Definitely going into the books as one of the worst weekends I've ever had. But, life moves forward and so do we. Now I have to go...for some strange, unknown reason this weekend's tribulations has opened the flood gates of my creative mind and story ideas are pouring through faster than water through a broken levee.

Happy Writing all!