Shishkabloggin' (II) by Edwin Allen Henry Blackwood (II)

. thanks to DPChallenge for the picture of the post.

writing to reach you

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

'Sup my brothers and sisters?

Here is the email my dad recieved about ECHO the other day after he sent an email to them expressing our concern and etc.

"Below is a copy of the e-mail that our Director Martin Price sent ot our Board of Directors on Sunday. As of Wednesday we still do not have Power on the campus. We are accessing our e-mail from off campus.

Thank you for your prayers and concerns.

Since writing the following I learned that two trees fell on the big greenhouse where Charlie formerly had his technology demonstrations and did considerable damage.
This morning I drove down to the Edison home and spoke with its director to see if we could help. About 10:30 this morning Some ECHO staff and perhaps 35 of the work team members left to help them clean up. The director was ecstatic that we would do this. She is calling the News Press so the whole county can see two nonprofits helping each other. Ironically she was scheduled to be at ECHO today to discuss how we and the Edison Home could collaborate. They lost many wonderful treews.
Now, for what I wrote last night:
What a last minute scare everyone got in Lee and Charlotte county (the county that starts about 8 miles to the north of ECHO). Most people had made their decisions about margins of safety based on the range of movement and size of Hurricane Charley. About an hour before it reached the weatherman took a risk to his professional career and gave a forecast that differed from the national hurricane center. He said it was turning toward Lee county. It had also suddenly in less than an hour jumped from a category 2 to a category 4 hurricane. He drew an arrow of one possibility that went right over ECHO. He said the tidal surge could be twice the ten feet at 20 feet at the shore. I had Jim Butler, one of the ECHO managers, and his wife Dru with us in our home. Dru had major surgery two days before and was hurting, so we had her in bed. Jim also brought a 93 year old woman that he looks after. When the new forecast hit we all rushed to our cars and headed to ECHO. The elevation of the floor of the two office buildings were deliberately made quite high. I think 14 feet above sea level--my house is 9 ft 4 inches. Fortunately it started north again but the eye was no more than 30 miles to our west. The storm surge did not materialize for most of the county amazingly.

About 15 non-ECHO people joined us for shelter. Stan stayed in his house, the women interns stayed in the hurricane-proof A-frame, and married interns chose to stay in their housing. All of us were in constant communication by two way radios. No one was hurt and the only building damage was that the roof of the duck pen blew away. Yes, the ducks got wet! Some time during the night water appeared on the first floor of the A-frame. It could not have been a flood because the water has been higher many times. We'venever had this problem in 23 years. My guess is that the hurricane force winds blew water some place that it does not normally blow. Anyway, we are tearing out the carpet.

Five or six trees, several of them 20 or more years old, around the A frame blew down. NONE of them hit the A frame. Other tall trees blew down. I have no count, but we could have lost 75 banana trees.

In God's providence the previous week the largest work team every to come to ECHO, 58 college age student leaders led by past intern Tim Rapp, were here. So they helped us prepare. Fortunately they were staying at the Methodist Campground which was away from danger. The next day, yesterday, they came to the farm and worked all day clearing the considerable number of fallen trees. The fruit tree arboretum was little damaged, probably because they are planted so close that Danny has to keep them pruned very low.

It was strange for everyone in both counties to go home to darkness and, usually, having no phone. Amazingly Bonnie and I had power restored the next afternoon. They had said that rural areas would be last in line. We have no phone. I'm at a friend's house who does have phone but no electricity for my first check of email. ECHO has no phone and no electricity. We are telling the office staff to take the day off tomorrow but thoe rest of us will be there."

Whew! A sigh of relief there (well, really 'twas when I read David's latest post, but 'twas extra 'sighful' [?;)], er, relieving, when I got the email from my dad).

Well guys. 'Tis been a few days since I last posted. Sorry about that. I was away all weekend so I wasn't able to do it then, but I did try to update last night, but the internet messed up and all was lost when I was done with everything except the song of the post!!!! (note: 4 exclamation points used for that extra emphasis) Of course, don't it always happen dat way? Instead of attempting to remember and rewrite last night's amazing thoughts, writings, and hilarity, I'll just write a completely new post (as I am now doing).

Arg!

Welp, that's about it!

Wait - one more thing - I watched a really good movie today - Hardball, with Keanu Reaves - great movie! I'd give it about ***** out of 5*'s! It was really a good movie. One bad thing - it has a lot of cussing (because most of the movie takes place in the ghetto), but we have a TVGuardian, which cuts out the bad language, so 'tis good for me! But, besides the language, 'tis a real swell movie. I'd suggest you see it (if you don't want to because of the language, then either come to my house to watch it, or watch the tv version, maybe). 'Tis about a guy (Keanu Reaves) who coaches a baseball team from the gheddo, but only because he gets $500 a week to coach 'em, and he needs money to pay off some bookies who are looking to kill him if he doesn't pay up. That's the basic plot by me. I can't tell you too much, because 'twould ruin it forya. But, 'tis a really good movie, and you certainly don't hafta like baseball at all to like it. And, for you s, there's (obviously) a nice romance plot in it, and for you action-crazy guys, there's some guns (not too much though). Charity, me wondrous sister, really liked it too. It made me tear up - just that should make you run to your local library, movie store, or whatever to get it! ;o)

Love,

*Lumberjack*

song of the post:
Breathe In (edited version - I don't quite like the edited version as well as the origional, but 'tis still pretty good) *Frou Frou* (thanks to Acid Planet for the clip, and to redHERRING (I think) for the editing) (note: from now on, I will be putting the "thanks to" for the music right below the media player, as I did today)

quote of the post:
"I think a funny joke during an earthquake would be if you straddle[d] a in the floor and as it got wider waved your arms about and shouted 'whoa! whoa!' as if you were going to fail in." Thanks to *Scott Porter*

verse of the post:
"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst." *Amos 8:11-13*

allen left to contemplate other things at 12:53 AM

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.me.

. Allen Blackwood .
. email .
. AIM screen name: iOnTheBackburner (AIM) .
. 18 February 1987 .
. Indianapolis, IN, USA .
. Purdue .
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