I'm Back!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm sure you've heard--or experienced Nashville's "Big Freeze." Well, here are 15 random things related to that:

1. We were without power for 5 1/2 days. We spent those at Stephanie and Nicky's along with a few other "displaced" seniors with no other place to go. 

2. Once we got home, we had power, but no WiFi which means no tv. It wasn't a complete disaster--although that Saturday was 8 days long!! Butch was on the fence about his trip to El Salvador because he didn't want to leave me with whatever might happen. I told him that whatever happens is going to happen whether he's here or not. 

3. On Sunday--in the wee hours of the morning, Butch and his friend, Jack did head to El Salvador. Me, with no tv became a cleaning fool. I cleaned 3 of our 4 glass doors and screens on our fireplaces. It's something I don't think about. It's awkward and a dirty job, but I got it done. I also cleaned out the drawers in the pool bath--sorted through and got rid of old beach towels. I cleaned out a couple closets in the back hallway. I cleaned the edges of the moulding on all of my cabinets in the kitchen--no fun, but it needed it. Anyway, you get the idea--a lot of nit-picky stuff.

4. I was able to make my phone a hotspot, so I could at least have WiFi and watch Netflix. But, I could only do it about an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening. I'm used to doing more than one thing at a time when I'm watching tv, but when I have to watch on the computer, then I cannot also be editing pictures or falling down the "font" rabbit hole at the same time on my computer. I went 8 1/2 days without it. 

5. Once the WiFi was back, I spent a lot of time printing pictures and journaling. I'm trying to get ready for my scrapbook retreat coming up a week from today.

6. I bought new underwear after I cleaned out my underwear basket. I got rid of 13 pairs. Victoria Secret had a great sale, so I bought some new ones. I have a total of 19 pairs. That means I can go somewhere for 19 days without having to wash underwear. Also, my girls don't like to hear this--these are the last underwear I'll ever have to buy!!

7. I spent 2 hours--yes, 2 hours cleaning out my jewelry. I was ruthless. I'm getting rid of a lot. When the whole gang is here on Saturday, I'll have it laid out for them to pick through. I still like most of it, but the bottom line is that I tend to choose the same pieces all the time. I'm hoping someone else will get some use out of some of it.

8. I spent quite a bit of time doing some things for Morgan's baby shower. I used to do big events ALL the time when I was in the height of my FUND raising years. Doing this little shower brought back all of the anxiety I didn't even realize I had back then. I make lists and check them dozens of times. Did I ever mention I'm a little obsessive? It's going to be fun!

9. I've read 5 books during the past two weeks. A couple were memoirs that were audio books. 

10. Butch said that he was glad he wasn't here as he would have been climbing the walls. I agree with that. What saved me was that I went to lunch with friends and even saw a couple movies. If I had to actually stay home the whole week, I would have been going stir crazy for sure. 

11. The night before Butch was to come home, we had an hour and twenty minute FaceTime conversation. That was fun--we had happy hour together. FaceTime definitely makes me feel like the person is with me.

12. I paid attention to how many tree services contacted me--9 brochures in the mail, 2 front door calls and 3 texts. I had no idea there were that many tree services in Nashville. We are on the list with our arborist. Since we don't have anything that's an emergency, I told him just to put us on his list. 

13. We came out of this storm relatively unscathed. We had plenty of trees/branches down--I am sad about losing a dogwood tree, no telling what the water bill is going to be from running 11 faucets for 9 days--double that for hot AND cold--not counting all the water we've lost from the pool since we apparently have cracked pipes (don't know that damage yet), but my prayers were answered. I prayed that any damage we have would be outside and not INSIDE the house. I didn't want to have to deal with that mess!

14. Unfortunately, Butch had to miss the Super Bowl as he was on his way home. Steph, Nicky, Mindy and Justin came over. I loved that--perfect way to end a long week--seeing my family!!

15. Oh, and one last thing. A police officer came by to do a "welfare check." I thought Steph sent him. He mentioned crossing us off his list, so maybe it was just a list of seniors that were without power. Nice to know someone is paying attention to us.

Scrapbook Saturday

Okay, here it is--the end of my December Daily album. It was so much fun to make--can't wait until next year.

In the layout, I included the sign I make for "beverage bar." 

In the pocket are cards that I had the family fill out at our Christmas Eve breakfast.

Here is where I used the DEC title that I made. I also made the fireplace. The story is about what we do every year on Christmas Day: Disney parade with Nicky's Bloody Mary's, Christmas brunch (this year--sometimes it's a turkey dinner) and then everyone goes home--by 1-ish! Butch and I change our clothes, clean-up and nap. After that, I start my Christmas "take-down" by disassembling the dining room. 

I made a section for special cards I received this year.

This one is from an earlier page, but since it was in the middle of the layouts I hadn't yet posted, I wasn't sure whether I've posted this one or not. I was too lazy to figure it out!

I could not resist adding all of the festive stamps this year.

This is the end page of this album which concludes with our New Year's Eve "fancy" dinner.

And as they say, "It's a wrap!" 

I'm well in to 2026 now!

Me on Monday

Well, we came home on Friday evening. We got the news around 1 p.m. that our power was back. After 6 days, we were excited!! Butch went home to check on things. By the time he left, the temperature in the house was almost 50 degrees--heating up nicely.

When he got back to Stephanie's, we discussed our plan. Since it was already 4 pm, we decided to wait for Nicky to get home and Steph to finish work to have happy hour with them. We packed up our stuff and by that time, they were both ready to PAH--TEE! We weren't sure if they were celebrating as a normal Friday night or the fact that we were leaving!! (It was so sweet--later, Butch texted them to thank them for their hospitality. Steph replied that it was kind of lonely with us gone!)

We got home around 6 pm--unloaded the car, continued laundry (Butch had already started a load earlier), wiped out the refrigerators and put all of the food away. By 7 we were finished and in our jammies sitting in the family room staring at each other! We started a fire and tried to talk! The problem was, we've said it all! We had no internet which also meant no tv. We were able to make our phones hotspots so we had music. We each sat there in front of our computers doing our own thing.

Saturday was the longest day of our life!! I was able to watch a couple things from Netflix on my computer. I read--a lot! I couldn't scrapbook because I couldn't print pictures or anything else for that matter. 

Butch was leaving for El Salvador with his buddy, Jack very early the next morning, so we just went to bed early. Next morning, we picked Jack up at 4:45 for the airport. When I got home, I had breakfast and watched something on Netflix. I had already decided that I couldn't bear another day with nothing to do. So, I planned to call Connie and invite myself over to hang with her and Amanda for awhile. 

As it turned out, I became a cleaning fool! I cleaned out the pool bath cabinets and drawers. I cleaned out one of the cabinets in the hallway--except for the top shelf which I couldn't reach (no way am I getting on a step stool!). I cleaned between the washer and dryer, then underneath the dryer. I was on a roll! 

When I finished the cleaning, I had a late lunch and discovered that our internet was back! Not trusting that I could count on it, I went upstairs and started printing stuff so I could scrapbook today.

While I was upstairs, the Ring sounded. I looked at who was at the door since it was 5:15 and getting pretty dark. It was a police officer. So, I just answered with my phone to see what was up. He said that he had received notification—we were on some list he had—that since we’d been without power for so long, we needed to be checked on. I guess that’s what they call a welfare check. I don’t know if he was going door to door, but he made the comment that he could check us off of his list. I’ve watched enough Datelines to know that just because a young guy is in a cop’s uniform doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a real cop. He could be a fake and “after” some little old lady!! Love that I can handle everything through the Ring without ever having to go to the door! Much safer for sure.

I came downstairs shortly after and decided to have a bowl of cereal for dinner while watching some tv. About 7 p.m. the power went out--again!. I sat in the dark figuring out my plan: was I just going to bed, or should I go to Steph’s. It was only about 5 minutes and the power came back EXCEPT—no internet which meant no tv. This morning it’s the same. At least I printed those pictures!! 

I meet my friends at 11 am at Panera for lunch before the movie. So, hopefully when I get home from that, everything will be up and running again. I’m just sad Butch isn't here to change all the clocks!!! We each have defined roles!! No, really, I miss him already for other stuff--like talking!! 

Something for Sunday

January by the Numbers:

Movies Seen: 7

*****The Housemaid

*****Marty Supreme

*****Song Sung Blue

*****David

*****Is This Thing On?

***The Choral

***Dead Man’s Wire

Books Read—18 

5 star books:

It all Comes Back to You

5 Love Languages

A Very Punchable Face

The Boys in the Light

The Tell 

The Comfort Book

HIs and Hers

The Last Black Unicorn

Podcasts:

Scrap Gals (3E)

Paul Burell Royal Tea (5E)

Ted Talks (4E)

Classes

Ali Edwards-December Daily (4E)

Lunch Out—9

Dinner Out:—3

Happy Hours—2

Bridge—2

Documentaries/Movies/Series  

TV Specials:

Final Twist (1)

Netflix : so many good ones!

*****House of Guiness (8E)

*****Evil Influencer 

*****The Sons of Sam Tapes (3E)

*****John Wayne Gacy (3E)

*****Red Joan

*****Wham

*****Ted Bundy Tapes (4 E)

*****Anna Nicole Smith

*****Jeffrey Dahmer (3E)

*****Memoirs of a Geisha

*****Runaway (8E)

***Myth & Mogul: John Delorean (3E)

*****11/22/63 (6E)

*****`His & Hers (6E)

*****Elizabeth Smart

*****Secret Mall Apartment

****The Manhattan Alien Abduction (3E)

*****The Carman family deaths Doc

*****Take That (3E)

Paramount Plus:

Landman (4 episode)

48 hours

Scrapbook Pages Completed: 

Finished my December Daily—roughly 20  pages and my AYM layout

Trips & Events:

Poker night/Serrato

Birthday happy hour/Steph’s

Boozy Bingo

Geo-caching with Mindy & Justin to Charlotte, TN

Bought a new computer and went to a class.

Jordan and Robbie’s wedding in LA

Came home to no power—stayed at Steph and Nicky’s for 5 days.

Scrapbook Saturday

Okay, here's the next part of my December Daily project. 

We had our annual ornament exchange on the 18th. I made a shaker of this page. 

The 19th was my Charles Dickens party. This is one of my favorite "events". 

I took a full size picture of the table. My favorite thing to put together.

We left right after the Dickens party and headed to Atlanta to spend the weekend with Sandy and Greg. This gingerbread house lifts up.

More pictures and the story of our time with Sandy and family.

I made another pocket to hold various parts of the story of the 23rd. 

Here are the tags.

Christmas Eve--morning and evening activities.

Next week, we'll wrap it up. 

Power Outage Update

As you read this we are at day 6 without power. We've been staying snug and warm at Stephanie's and Nicky's while our house is a chilly 40 degrees. We're making the best of it. But please pray for Steph and Nicky. I'm pretty sure they could use that right about now!! Only kidding, they are being good sports--actually better than that. They are going over and above to make sure we're welcome! 

We don't know when this is going to be over. Nashville Electric has crews from 5 states helping around the clock--although they were a little slow to get that help. There are still 110,000 people without electricity--including us. All of our friends have had power for a couple of days now. Surely it will be soon for us. 

Even though the temperature got to 34 yesterday, it's taking a huge dip tonight and heading back towards zero. We have all of our faucets running, so hopefully we'll be okay. No telling about the pool--everything is frozen including the pool surface. 

My poor fish in our pond--I'm afraid they're done for. In Nashville, we only need to have an 18" depth for fish to survive the winter, but I'm pretty sure with these near zero temps, it's frozen to the bottom. Makes me kind of sad as we had a nice little school of different sizes. We even had quite a few babies that made it this year. 

I thought I would show you a few more pictures. 

The pictures don't do it justice. This is our front yard. The trees are covered in ice. It's really beautiful--all sparkly in the sunshine.

This is one of the roads near us on the way to Steph's:

They just cleared enough for one car to get through. It's like going through a frozen tunnel. 

And this one is so pretty--I pulled this from Facebook:

The Nashville skyline from across the Cumberland river.

I guess that's it for now.

It's Always Somethin'!

For once, we didn't have any snafus with traveling out to LA for Jordan and Robbie's wedding. Well, except I was sick and missed just about everything except the wedding. It was beautiful. Everything was perfect--exactly how Jordan envisioned it. 

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Robert (Robbie) Loakes. 

I was supposed to be with them during the "getting ready" part of the day, but since I had been sick, I was determined to keep my distance. Jordan and Robbie are on their 2 week honeymoon in New Zealand and I certainly don't want her to get sick during that!

We had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant. The food was delicious. 

Now, on for the "snafu"! Of course we knew about the terrible weather happening in Nashville. Frigid temperatures and so much ice! We lost power at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. As of today (Wednesday--day 4) we are still out. We've moved in with Stephanie and Nicky for the time being. 

Butch has been over to the house to break up the ice in the pool. We have no idea how all that is going to fare. We are concerned about the whole "works" system. We'll see. 

Lots of big limbs down, but not whole trees for us and nothing has hit the house.

The thermostat inside is holding at 40 even though it's currently 23 outside despite much lower overnight temps. 

It's always somethin'!

I'm not sure when I'll be back to blogging regularly. My heart just isn't in it right now.