Cemetery Cruising

I know a weird title right? Well back when I was younger I used to go with my Mom and my Grandma to put flowers on graves. While they would do that I would sometimes wonder around and look at all the headstones. Sometimes we went to an old, one room church that I believe my Grandpa helped build. If it wasn't my Grandpa, it was someone from my Grandma's side of the family.

Behind this church was the cemetery. Old stones. Some so old you couldn't even see the name or the date. That is what interested me. The date. When was the person born and when did they die. Sometimes they were so young. Sometimes it was an entire family. What sickness or event happened that all theirs lived were taken withing a short time of each other.



Of course you cannot rule out the awesome stones, mausoleums, sarcophagus, and other tributes to a loved one. Someday I would like to go to New Orleans and walk around the St Louis Cemetery. 




Some of the mausoleums were beautiful, like the one above looks like marble. And of course it is locked. Which makes me think "who has the key?" Now if it was a recent death, there would be no question, but a couple of them were from the 1920's. Is there still family that passes on the key? Or is it left behind in a pile of junk long forgotten.

I will always cruise through cemetery's. I think that it is comforting. But I that there are some haunted cemetery's around that I am not sure I want to visit. Oh yes, I will. Like Dartford Cemetery in Green Lake. Here you can sit on the roof of a large stone building, and will get pushed off.

Happy Birthday Micayla

Well how awful can a mother be. At first I was thinking that her birthday was on Thursday when it was on Wednesday. Then I didn't even get pictures. Not one, not even of her cake. Which was a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. Last week was just a long week. Wasn't feeling good. I know not a good enough excuse.

 So here is a picture of Micayla and Emily screwing around, like they always do. I am really not sure what this one was about.

Here is one of the "majestic" clouds that she seemed to be highly interested in. So I took a picture of them.

Yes my life is interesting. The things that I had planned to do this summer just aren't falling into place.

hmm

Happy Father's Day

Another year to celebrate fathers. This list is to include step-fathers, father figures (such as uncles, big brothers, family friend), or mothers who, for whatever reason, has to be both mother and father to their child(ren).

This is my dad, and his mom. I don't know what they were laughing about, but I know it didn't take much.

Some of us do not have the pleasure of having our fathers with us on this day, either they have passed on, serving overseas, or just not at home at this time.

This is my dad. It has been over five years, but it still seems like yesterday. Once in a while I can still smell his cologne.I catch a glimpse of him, for just a moment, in a stranger, enough to deem a second look. I miss him.

First Bon Fire Of The Year

At first I didn't take my camera out, but I should have. I don't have a good picture of how big the pile was, or how Dan lit it. By torch. I had to go home and get my camera, because it was a good time to play.


We were sitting about 15 feet away from the fire, it was so big we didn't have to be that close.

I tried to capture the embers that were floating up in the air, but as you can see, this is the result. Quite cool actually.

 A random stump in the pile.

After throwing some more stuff on the pile, it kicked up some nice billowing smoke. I am actually quite astonished with myself and my camera that this turned out so cool.

 Another shot at trying to get the ember "spots"

I wanted to capture the blue flame. I think I will need to find some copper and see what kind of colors I can get from that. I heard it was pretty cool.

Seafood Boil Number Two

Naseef stirring the pot in a way only he could.

Another year has gone by and we idly waited for the announcement of the seafood boil. Some more than others,  you know who you are. ;)

I am not a big fan of shrimp, and there were no crawdads, which was ok with me. But put together  some mushrooms, corn, chicken, sausage, potato, and some shrimp you get a tasty, yet somewhat spicy, concoction. Courtesy of Naseef and his New Orleans flavor.

Seafood boil.

I am sure people were looking at me like why do you have a camera and taking pictures. Well simply because I can. I tried to get a pic of everyone that was there at least once.

And the dump.

It was a really nice time, although the weather didn't cooperate like it should in June, it was ok sitting in the garage.

Lots of laughs were had on this day.

The men layering their plates.

Tornado!

 

June 25, 1998

After a long day of work, in a hot place, next to an extremely hot chassis oven, I came home, sat in a little kiddy pool with my 5  year old daughter. Still hot and sweaty, I went and took a bath. I could see the storm clouds moving in, so I opened the curtains wide and waited for the storm to hit. I remember sitting there thinking that I should get full coverage insurance on my car. 

Watching the storm clouds moving in, I thought to myself, as I seen a particularly white, triangular cloud, that's an odd shape for a cloud. Realization set in as I jumped out of the tub, hollered downstairs where mom was working on painting (or wallpapering) the walls yet again, TORNADO! 

I think my mom mumbled, "yeah right" as I ran into the bedroom to throw on something, a nightgown, and a towel around my head, I headed downstairs. I really don't remember to much in those next few moments, but I know I went out and watch it head towards us. It was a slow moving tornado. It would touch down, and go back up, down and back up before it got really close.

Mom was already downstairs in the basement with Emily, who was 6 months, and Micayla, who was five. Dad and I finally made it down there.

All the stories you hear about a tornado sounding like a train is true, it was deafening. We were huddled in one of the corners, dad was standing because I think he was trying to hold up a beam that had fallen, or broken. 

Once it was over we were looking around and realized we didn't have a way out. We heard voices outside asking if we were ok. The one thing mom said was to turn off the gas. The hallway to the basement, they way out, was not there. I called my brother Chris and told him a tornado hit the house. At first he didn't believe, but the I think the hysterical screaming on my part (before mom told me to calm down) made him believe.

Finally rescuers came out and we somehow got out of the basement, I think it was through what was left of the stairs going to the second floor. All in all the house was still standing, the reason we couldn't get out is because the house was knocked off the foundation about two feet. The southwest walls for the laundry room was gone, but the clothes were still hanging on the hanger over the door. Hmm.

The three vehicles that were in the driveway were slammed against the southern part of the house, but you could hardly see them because the hay from the barn was on top of them. The garage was gone, along with the barn and the tobacco shed.

My neighbors house was not so lucky, they had a mod home and it was completely dismantled. No one was hurt to bad and the only casualties were a couple horses.

The American Red Cross was out the next day for clean-up, along with the huber prison mates. They were out helping to clean up. The response for help was, well, overwhelming. I really don't know all who came out to help, but we didn't own all the big machinery. I remember a man came out and offered a home for us. At least my parents didn't have to go searching. 

In a few days time, the only indication that a house was even there was the fresh dirt (which, if you go digging today, the basement is still there. It was my understanding that they filled the basement with debris and covered it. I am sure someone will tell me if I am wrong) and the circle driveway that you can still see if you search Google maps.

I know things are just things, but I remember we weren't allowed in the house because it was unstable, but when the men went back in mom said to grab the photo albums in the corner. Our life. Things are just things, but the memories attached to those things is the loss, like the house I grew up in. Although there were things that I could not recover, there was one thing I needed to recover. It wasn't found until the next day under a piece of machinery (as I was told). This was the urn of my son, Michael Joseph. His ashes were in a brass urn, which got bent and popped open a bit. I took it to a funeral home and without even the slightest hesitation, took him and put him in a new oak urn.

We joke around all the time saying we wouldn't mind a tornado to rip the siding of the house and break the windows, but honestly, I don't want to ever go through that again. I watch the weather, any sign of a bad storm and I am on channel 27, 3 and 15. Also weather.com and the NOAA. I do not want to be unprepared for something to come. My biggest fear is not the damage it causes, but that my girls are not next to me when it happens. Although they are older now, I am still terrified. I have, through the years, calmed down to the point where I am not in hysterics, but not enough where I am unguarded.

The picture of the tornado is not the tornado that hit. After a lot of web searching, I found nothing that indicated that a tornado went through that area. There is a box that sits at my moms house that has all the photos and newspaper articles in it. But I personally have none of my own.