2018

It's been many years since I have taken the time to write on this blog.  It's time I return to reflect on life.   2018....wow!  January 1st of a new year - so much to think about, so much to do.

As I think about returning to writing a blog, I think about what I want to share.  What do I want to spend time writing about each week?  Last year I began a school blog that I write each Friday to share with the outside world all the cool things happening inside the walls of RCE.  I have successfully kept up writing each and every Friday that school is in session - so - I am going to try to write each Monday a little something that is hopefully uplifting - or something I want to remember.

Right now...all of my thoughts are still with Harvey and our flood of 2017.  So my first postings will most likely be something about what we've learned through Harvey.

School had just started - students had been at school for 4 days with the first day of school being the day of the eclipse, which started the year off in a most unusual way!  We should have guessed with the eclipse happening on the very first day that the entire year would be different than any other year.

Thursday night of the first week of school, I was watching the news.  A Hurricane (Harvey), was in the gulf.  At that point it wasn't even a hurricane, but rather a tropical storm.  It was headed towards the Texas Gulf Coast.  The news was guessing on the amount of rain to be expected and all of the normal expectations of a hurricane...but it didn't seem like it was to be too bad...just lots of rain.  Sometime around 8 in the evening, the school district sent out a robocall to cancel school for Friday in anticipation of the storm.  It was unusual for the school district to call it so early.  That should have been a hint.

I had left my computer at school, knowing that Thursday night I hadn't planned to do any work....but with the school closing for Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to have it so I could finish off the training videos I had put off watching.   So off to school I went.

The weather was calm.  No hint of what was to come.  Skies were clear.  I walked into the building, picked up a few things to put them up, and picked up my laptop.  That was the last time I would be in the building for two weeks.

Once home, I picked up some stacks of paper and washed a few dishes.  But over all - I thought why - I'll be home all day on Friday with nothing to do.  I dropped off to sleep with little worries of the next day...

I woke up on Friday with one thing that had to be done.  I had to go to the doctor to get a shot.  It was scheduled at 10...so I picked up a few things and ran off to the doctor.

I got to the doctor only to find out I could not receive the shot, I was running 102 degrees of fever.  The moment they said I had a high fever - I felt bad.  I drove home and went straight to bed  - grateful for a day off from school to be able to sleep off the fever.

I had the TV on as I slept.  The breaking news kept repeating that Harvey was gaining strength and would possible hit the coast near Corpus Christie at a category 3.  I just decided to sleep, hoping that I would feel better in the morning.

Saturday morning the weather was beginning to turn gray.  The news now had the storm coming in closer to Houston and possibly more than a Category 4.  Perry began to put things away.  We had planned to pull honey from our hives, but I was too sick to work with honey.   I went to bed early knowing that the rain was coming.  The news had told us that we were on the dirty side of the storm and there would be a lot of rain.  No worries - we had water, we had food...we were ready for the rains.  We knew the street would  flood...but we were ready to stay put for  a few days.  I went to bed early as I was still suffering from a fever.  The rains had started, but nothing amazing yet.

Evidently, it had rained hard most of Saturday night.  The  storm was coming in near Rockport (closer to Houston) and with more rain and wind than expected.  Sometime around 2:00 Perry woke me up to ask for help to move the bee hives...they were under water.  We suited up and moved the bees.
(To be continued...)