This is Sunday and I am not only in the middle of Florida, a pandemic, been home for 6 months, live around nuts but lo and behold, Thursday last was a mess. There was nothing going on that I could do a darn thing about and none of it coming from this family but I sure got sucked into some drama.
A best friend Kossack told me it sounded like a movie. Well for all that is interested. Here goes.
Thursday morning I got up and Sierra told me that the cat ..her fur baby was not eating and little drinking.
He did not act sick but he was not his usual self. As the day went on, he was trying so hard to be his old self but was loving on me and Jack more than usual. ( I personally think some animals know who is really in charge and can help them) I think they know who the grown ups are basically.
About noon I called the vet who is about 15 miles away and they are open now but you have to remain in the car while they come and get the pet and check them out. He was definately showing signs of an upset stomach. So I made an appt for 4PM. It was overcast but not raining, I did not know if he had eaten something or had tainted food or what.
Well halfway there it started raining a little. We got there in time ..barely. I called the vet and a tech came out and got Ash in his carrier. The vet called our cell phone as we sat in the car and the rain starting to pour.
I had little sleep the night before. She said, he had a slight temp and overall checkup seemed normal but he was so nervous that they were working with him slowly. Then the tech comes out in the rain and says they can give him some nutirents by shot and hydrate him. along with some nausea meds.. He was very dehdrated. If he wasn't better to bring him back in a day or two. I knew I did not want to do that. I said Give him bloodwork if that is what she wants to do as he mentioned it to rule out viruses or bacteria. So I figured..."We have to do this for her to rule our anything serious". I had gotten my social security the day before.....
This is Sierra's best buddy now during the pandemic and we love the kitty as well. He is so well behaved and actually minds us.
Well the report came back and blood work was fine with elevated temperatures but no bacteria or virus...at least any communicable.
I don't believe in having a pet and not taking care of it. Well they gave us a prescription for nausea and digestion and we were about to drive home when the bottom fell out with a huge storm. I sat there for a good thirty minutes and about to run out of gas. It was hot and sticky so I had to keep the car running for AC. I have a headache now. I am hungry and tired.
The cat is in his carrier and sleeping. Nausea meds must have made him sleepy. I get one mile up the road when the rain lets up and realize after the $ 390 bill they forgot to give me his medicine I had to turn around and go back for the script. It is still driveable but I am soaked from the window being down to give me his meds.
I head home and only about 5 miles up the road when all Hell broke loose with the weather. Trees bending, rain pouring, and I cannot see two feet in front of me past the headlights and FLASH flooding. Now we have debris and hail. So I tell Sierra, we got to pull off. She has rode with me and only me mostly all of her life and said, " Yeah I can't see anything". But there is no place to pull off and I am doing18 miles an hour. I see an assisted living turn off so I turn and we sit in the parking lot and me slowly looking at the gas gauge going down. I know I have got to get home as it is now 7 PM. I am exhausted.
After 30 minutes in that parking lot I start trying to find weather stations on the car radio. I look to the right and it is clearing but to the left...no change.. I have to go left. I take a deep breath and decide to drive again when the rain starts to let up. I am almost at Sierra's old elementary school and Sierra says, " Mom whatever you do don't look to the left.
We were stopped at a red light". She is taking pics. I immediately look to the left and OMG.. a tornado on the ground, not 8 miles away to the north. I see no place to go in the middle of a pandemic. I said to her, " We have to outdrive it and hope to God it is not coming this way. She is cool or pretends to be as a cucumber. I have driven in sudden storms before in Ga and did not relish the thought. I have Sierra try and call my husband to tell him we are safe and on the way but my son said he did not know where he was but the car was here. Ok he must be playing guitar right next door. I suddenly have to come to a stop because there is a pile up in front of me. Ambulances, Firetrucks... Hydroplaning it appeared. Major pile up crash.
I am looking in the rear view mirror seeing where that huge funnel cloud is and it is right behind us. I said, Please God move the wreck so we can get out of here. Miraculously our lane was cleared. I head to the house which is now 5 miles away. I make it home and still have no clue where vet is because it was not raining badly here. The storm was coming though. It was on it’s way. We get the cat settled down and give him his medicine. We are hungry so we start to eat.
Sierra and I just started our sandwiches when there is a bamming on the door. I did not hear it. She did and put her mask on and went to the door when her little friend from across the street collapsed in our doorway. Hysterical. I get up from the couch and Sierra is saying, What is wrong? She is so hysterical I usher her outside on the lanai..I tell her to calm down and tell me what is happening. Sierra gave her a mask before she let her in.
OK.....the kid is crying so I can barely make out what she is saying and I am keeping distance between Sierra, the 13 year old and myself and the rain is pouring. We are on the lanai so we are not getting wet. Glad we were in that area as it was screened in, covered and not inside. I have no idea where my husband is but thinking he is probably next door playing guitar with his vet friend.
Now picture this.. Jack had pulled weeds all day before the storm and had gone to the bedroom and fell asleep with the TV on and could not hear anything and Sierra knew that when she put the cat in HER room which is across the hall. I guess she figured I knew. I didn’t. I still don't know where anyone is. I find out the guy across the street beat the little girl's Mother up, ( He is a Trumper of course ) and her Mother is on crutches and poor poor poor..out of work after being in a car wreck last week and he had beat her up and the little girl was afraid he would kill her. So she ran to our house and her Mama somewhere in all of that called the police. They did not come right away. ( Of course not) They took a long time to show up.
I am questioning the little girl if her Mother needed an ambulance...If he has weapns, etc.
Sierra gets the child a glass of water....and I am trying to calm the child down from a distance. School started that day and Covid is ramped in the schools. I keep reminding her to keep the mask on. She starts to hyperventilate, and my nerves are shot but Hell they have been shot before. THEN it gets real interesting. There is a beating on the front door and the man is yelling through MY door......Joanie ( not her real name) I know you are in there. I said, Do not go to that door. Stay here. ( I was hoping he wasn't brave enough to walk around the house to the pool area where we were , and I was getting madder and madder . I ignore his disturbance. but watching in both directions on that patio to see if he is approaching the backyard where we are....Sierra was standing in the patio sliding door entrance hearing him because when the pressure goes up weatherwise my ears stop and I can't hear shit. We could literally hear him banging on the door from the front door and we were in the backside of the house.
She finally says he is gone. I could hear him calling the child. Still no police so there was no need to call. them ...they had not showed up from the first emergency call. I did not know these people at all just the little girl. Well the police finally arrive over there and I had already found out the child has a grandmother and two brothers she could call for safety nearby. I also tell her to be prepared to stay at Grannie's or somewhere else because the state would probably be involved and to know it is better to be safe and there was a womans shelter across the street and her Mother would get some relief and help.
I was talking calm but raging inside. Sierra was sitting right next to me holding my hand and agreeing . I used to teen counsel years ago for the county in my twenties voluntarily so that mode went into place. I was also a 911 operator.
The little girl is not hysterical anymore and talking some sense. I asked her who was on drugs over there and she said he was as I knew something like that had to be involved. I said, “ Be prepared to find out Mama may on them as well because people on drugs...usually live with other people doing drugs... I know this for sure. “ She seemed shocked but said she hoped not. Her Mom had been off them for 7 years. I kept reminding her to keep the mask pulled over her nose. We sat six to 10 feet apart.
Now there is another beating on the door and it is a cop. I have cops in my yard and I send the child out to talk to him. Well the cop at the door has on NO MASK and I am furious. I said, " You are going to have to stand in the rain because you have on NO MASK. He looked at the sign on the door and it said No mask... Leave. Well he is questioning the little girl and gets her upset again. She turns her head to the wall and cries....as he just told her, drugs were found on her Mama. “ But ,,But, She cried but he puts them there I have seen him. You always take up for him..”
...Our porch light is out and my door is cracked. Well a bee comes in and the cop comes inside my house... MASKLESS to get the bee out. I said, " Damn... Do your job and get this child where she does not have to run to neighbors for safety...and get the damn bee out of here. Why are you not wearing a mask, I asked? No answer. I am not very pleasant.
He takes the little girl with him as Grannie has now arrived. Sierra notices she left something of her Mother's on the table and I have to yell across the street because it is raining again hard to come back and get whatever she left. For all I knew it was drugs. It was Nicorette and a billfold but still. So she comes back and I say, Be calm and go with grannie.
We shut the door and spray the house with disinfectent. I look at Sierra and she looks at me and we just fell on the couch. I said, " Sierra, never ever go to that door again by yourself." She said, I know... I forgot. This is or was a good neighborhood but people are getting nuttier by the day.
I said people are crazy. We finsihed watching the Dem convention..It had twelve minutes left. It was 11 PM. J The cops showed back up with DCF yesterday afternoon and don't know what they did but I sure as hell didn't want to be involved. I am recouping and the cat is better.
This is what I was outrunning before I ran into another kind of storm when I get home.
I despise this governor where things are not getting better and masks are not worn even by first responders in this county. I sent him a tweet yesterday because I was still mad over the mask crap.
I want DeSatan gone and I will do everything in my power to get that POS out of this state. He makes Scott look downright good. Does that tell you anything? Oh yeah, now we are tracking hurrincanes. I think they will miss us but he will be of no help if they hit, I bet on that.
My tweet to DeSantis.
This was not even the one we got the tail end of while driving.
Taken from our car window by my fifteen year old
Getting very close
