HAIL! OH, HAIL!

 

HAIL! Oh, HAIL!  

April 28, 2021

One year ago today.....

The tsunami hit the California coast and prompted a lady living on the coast in Pacifica, California to exclaim that for the first time in her life the water’s edge splashed onto her glass windows and knocked on her front door. She had experienced a tsunami…..

Living in Oklahoma we may declare or groan that we just experienced another spring tornado, or rushed to take shelter from damaging winds, but we define our experiences with exclamations.   

At 8:57 p.m. on a rainy April night, I shrieked words that cannot be published nor replicated with any sense of normalcy.

It had been a grey green day in central Oklahoma, one that makes us weary and alert at the same time. My phone alerts were on, as they are in the spring time, but by evening the threat of storms had driven east and we relaxed in our safe dry homes.

On Facebook I was glued to pictures being posted of a puppy we had bought online. The house was quiet and I was anxious to meet our new dog in a few weeks.

I stepped into the kitchen to fix a hot evening tea. I had no sooner hit the start button on the microwave when I stepped to the side of the counter to reach for a spoon. In that moment an “ice ball” the size of baseball crashed through our northwest kitchen window sending glass flying. The “ice ball” hit the cupboards holding the microwave, just missing my head by a foot or two. My exclamations were not calm nor respectable, and in fact, were extremely ear-piercing.

My husband was beside me in an instant. We felt the winds and hail bust through our double panned windows, glass shards covered our floor, counters, and clothing.  Nothing had prepared us for this violent storm. No sirens. No television warnings. The ten mile black wall of ice and clouds had not been detected and thus hundreds of us in a small five-ten mile swath of land lost windows, roofs, lawn furniture and saw our cars dented beyond repair, all in the an eight minute storm. 

Leaning out our broken windows this is what we saw.

By 9:30 p.m. the neighborhood was alive with people standing in yards, rushing to check on each other, garage doors opening, lumber and plastic being dug out of storage bins, and phone calls being made to friends.  

We found enough heavy plastic to cover our two open windows for the evening, and with another roll of heavy plastic we helped neighbors across the street cover their windows. For the next week I found shards of glass under kitchen cabinets, in the nearby carpet and we felt unseeable pieces of glass in our feet. 

By daylight we were in shock to see the overall devastation of the neighborhood. Giant glass knives buried in our yards, tree limbs dug into the ground like spikes, spring leaves knocked off the limbs leaving the trees barren, garden flowers destroyed beaten to death by ice, colorful pots busted and scattered over gardens like abstract mosaics.

Bird feeder flung from a tree, broken tiles and more glass.

In the end, all I could whisper was “thank heavens no one was injured.”

Ten months later, due to the massive window and roofing losses, most of the homes in our neighborhood had been repaired, but many still show signs of the hail along the fence lines, torn screens, and a few windows still boarded up. 

JOY TO THE WORLD

 

Dear Friends, 

Oh, what a JOY to come to the end of this year of COVID.  When the dramatic news of Covid hit the airways, I found myself with friends in La Quinta, Ca. playing golf. Driving to the airport on March 17, we felt the emptiness and fear while driving through Palm Springs. There was NO traffic; No people shopping, No one standing in line and No restaurants open. Even the life sized statue of Sonny Bono sat alone in the city park.. Suddenly, the masks appeared at the airport.

Now here we find ourselves in the same boat as the world. We are all floating down the same stream; a community of the world where we all face the same virus and dis-ease. Jack and I found JOY in the projects we completed in the first few months. Walking the dog became our lifeline.  JOY turned to sobs when our dog, Lucy died in September. Now we find our doggie fixes by walking our friends' dogs.

Golfing with friends in the fresh air has been our life boat. Rather than eat inside for our lunches on ladies day, we found a group of shade trees near the clubhouse where we could sit in our golf carts to chat or enjoy a lunch from the Trails menu. 

As if we hadn't spent enough time outside, Mother Nature saw fit to send an October ICE STORM. The next few weeks Jack and I practiced strength training in our yard, as we cut, carried, and stacked tree limbs, which six weeks later still decorate our yard.. There are blessings even in this mess. We are so thankful to our neighbors for helping, and to the broken brown limbs that have attracted more birds to our feeders. One evening a Great Horned Owl sat at the top of a broken tree and lifted our spirits with his grace. A few days later a Pinkish Dark-Eyed Junco appeared at the feeder. JOY indeed as we identified a bird we had never seen before. Like magic, the third stranger appeared to us; a Great Blue Heron adopted our neighborhood for a few days. What magnificence he shared as we watched his shadow fly over our heads, where he rested on roof tops. To think of what we would have missed if we hadn't been "home". 

 May each day bring Joy to your World. 

 

Sincerely,

Literally Letty Watt

CELEBRATING A DAY TO BE THANKFUL

And the dog barks just as I reach my fingers to the keyboard. Doesn't she know that I have thoughts and feelings to share with friends on this Thanksgiving, but toss and tug will not wait on words or the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Stepping outside into a cool day with sunshine on our backs,  Jack and I play toss, tag, and tug with a Golden Doodle. We could qualify for the funniest video of the day. We are younger because we can still play with puppies. We jump, we run, we make sharp turns, and then we take a Advil. We give thanks that our knees and legs can still move with agility.  

I give thanks that the Macy's Day Parade is being held, even in the light rain fall. Afterall, as my husband says, "Be glad they didn't postpone the Parade this year." I am glad that it is being held for the world to see and hear the music from Broadway musicals.  Al Roker, who is dealing with cancer, looks sprye and happy to be on 34th street. This year's parade is being broadcast so that visually impaired people can enjoy it, too. Perhaps one of the blessings in this year of COVID is that we are all learning to be more inclusive. 

West Indian American Day, Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, Trinidad

 There is something special about parades, from hometown Christmas parades, to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and my favorite the Rose Bowl Parade. They remind me that this is a time to come together, to share  our lives through colorful scenes, songs, beauty of the flowers, fascination with floats, themes from books and imaginative idea, and a time to be  happy together. 

I am keeping an eye on the clock. No, we have no turkey cooking. We have reached a new level of enjoying the day.  My sister and her husband are in charge of bringing two homemade pies from Shari's Diner in OKC.  Jack and I ordered a meal from The Trails Country Club.  At 11:30  I will simply put the two trays of side dishes in the oven to heat, along with the turkey and beef tenderloin.  On my own, I will fix Pepperidge Farm stuffing and open a can of jellied cranberry sauce. The puppy, we are dog sitting, will then clean the dishes for us. 

When we turned the cooking over to someone else, it seemed to ease the day for my sister and I. We can share a relaxed time with our husbands and each other. For that I am grateful. 

Later today we will call our daughter, Katy, in Okc, our oldest son, Michael, and his family in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, and son, Matthew,  in Brooklyn, NY. Like so many families in the world we have not seen our sons since 2019. I am not thankful for that, but I am proud of them for taking this virus seriously and staying safe. 

Over a month ago many locations in the OKC area woke up to frozen and broken limbs and trees. Trees covered with leaves and ice sound like gunshots when they break and fall to the ground. It took Jack and I nearly two weeks of cutting, dragging, and stacking  tree limbs. I have not found reason to be thankful for this blow of nature, until we offered to babysit June Bug, a four month old Goldendoodle, for the week of Thanksgiving. Suddenly, our cut tree limbs have become the greatest toy for a chewing puppy. Jack took time to cut up limbs, some heavy some light for her to chew, and several have found their way indoors. Suddenly, bark takes on new meaning when it is a puppy barking with surprise at a new discovery or tree bark all over the living room floor. I texted my sister and said,  "We have a puppy dog visitor. Please dress appropriately for a dog who wants to chew anything in sight." 

Jonya, my sister, replied, "We will dress appropriately, protectively, and defensively." So our family will celebrate this day and say our blessings that Covid has not struck our family. Our prayers and heartfelt love is extended to all who are suffering at this time. 

MAY THIS DAY BE A REMINDER OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS IN LIFE.

Meaningful Moments

This week has passed in a wintry blur of frozen tree limbs hanging to the ground building igloos underneath.  For a week the weather predictors promised ice and rain, but since when do we put a great deal of credit in their exuberance to share diabolical weather conditions?

We felt the sting of winter and our trees bent and broke before our very eyes. 

In those my moments of awe at Mother Nature's power, I found some amazing moments. 

I love zinnias and enjoy watching the birds freely scatter the zinnia seeds from year to year. They may pop us anywhere in our gardens bringing a smile to my face and the hum of insects exploring their red, pink, violet, burning orange, or yellow petals. With this ice storm I discovered their beauty encased in ice. Isn't nature amazing?

Along with the shock of the ice storm came the experience of waiting in line to vote early at the Fairgrounds. I really don't know what we expected to see at 8:00 in the morning with a cold blustery damp rain falling, but it sure wasn't the line already wrapped around the building on the outside! Being the problem solvers that we are, we drove over to IHop and ate breakfast. Still not believing a line in the weather, we drove by the Fairgrounds and moaned. The line was even longer. 

By noon the weather changed and the sun came out. It seems like another few hundred or thousand people made the same choice. We stood in line from 12:24pm until we voted at 2:35pm. 

I am proud to be an American, and even more proud  that our crowd of people from our county all wore masks, displayed no abusiveness, no arguments, nothing negative. In fact, I enjoyed people watching. Amazing how we all seem to blend as thoughtful caring human beings. Each and every person felt a duty to vote and not make a scene. 

  I'm Proud to Be an American by Lee Greenwood (click here to listen to the music)

And I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free

And I won't forget the men who died

Who gave that right to me

And I'd gladly stand up next to you

And defend Her still today

'Cause there ain't no doubt

I love this land

God Bless the U.S.A.

There is still nothing better than neighborhood friends who step in to help in times of need, and we all need help from time to time. Thank you Charley and Debi for helping us to save one tree in the front yard, by cutting down the damaged hanging tree. 

After several hours of labor over two days, the tree is down and stacked all around the yard. We finished off the night with pizza and a few adult beverages. Cheers! We are thankful for meaningful moments in life.   

Icy Ice Beauties

Sitting in my writing chair
 viewing nature's icy rain

Icy
Tree limbs bending bowing low
 sagging in the howling winds

Icy
Leaves the color of honey
 suddenly encased in time

Icy
Colors of fall clasped in ice
 gleaming like lacy diamonds

Icy
Berries of red and purples
 glisten like crystal baubles


Icy
Red finches dance on feeders
 fluttering tweeting eating


Icy
Cardinals pecking laboring
 on frozen crystallized seeds







Icy
Sculptured hues of greens and brown
 ice beauties sparkling bright












*Thank you Carol Torpey for sharing your colorful photographs.