The Flood

Late this afternoon, I tossed a load of laundry into the washing machine right before I left the house. When I returned home, I was dismayed to find that the laundry tub drain was obviously plugged, and water had overflowed out of the tub and onto the floor. I was somewhat relieved to see that it had not trickled too far into the kitchen, and assumed that the rug in the laundry room had done a good job of soaking up most of the water. I only had a few minutes to spare, as I was on my way to Norm's pizzeria, so I strategically placed some towels on the floor before I left again. I was certain that Jim wouldn't mind throwing a few soggy rugs and towels outside to dry when he arrived home from work.

Well, apparently there was a reason that there was not too much water in the laundry room. Most of it had gushed through the floor and into the basement. I never thought to peek down there, but that was the first thing Jim did when he encountered the initial mess upstairs. Oops. It didn't really hurt that our ski equipment was wet, but numerous household items, like mattresses, bed frames, tables, and wrapping supplies were soaked. And our camping equipment. There were also huge puddles of standing water on the basement floor, but neither Jim nor Jacob thought to take any pictures of the debris. They worked all night to clean everything, and now we have numerous damp items scattered throughout the house to dry. I was amazed to see the mayhem that a bit of water could create, and it just makes me thankful that we don't live in an area of the country that experiences natural flooding on a regualr basis.

Rehab

Bev fell down at the assisted living place on Sunday and cut & bruised her face pretty badly. Since she has fallen so frequently lately, and has been even more confused than usual, the nurse yesterday recommended that she go to the hospital. Jim and I brought her to the ER in the early afternoon and she was admitted in the evening. There is not too much more that doctors can do for her Alzheimer's and end-stage emphysema (besides her current myriad of meds), but everyone agrees that she does need to gain some strength in her legs and arms. Bev is being released from the hospital this evening and is being transferred to a rehabilitation facility where she will have daily physical therapy. Only time will tell how she will acclimate to rehab, but it is the same place where she spent some time last summer.

Bev's tablemates at the assisted living residence were excited to tell Jim and I that she was caught lighting up a cigarette in the dining room on Sunday, and got into a heap of trouble! The ladies enjoyed the hubbub, and will miss Bev's hijinks while she is away.

Misbehaving

Saturday was my mother-in-law's 78th birthday. Jim and I went to the assisted living place around 11:30 a.m. to pick her up and take her out to lunch. When we arrived in Bev's room, she was lounging on her bed. Her portable oxygen cannula was on her nose, but, unbeknownst to her (and me), the machine was not charged, and therefore was not running. Bev absent-mindedly picked up and lit a cigarette. I immediately had a mini panic attack and started stammering, "Hey! Hey, the oxygen! The oxygen!" (Yes, that's me. Cool under pressure.) With a quick glance, Jim noticed that the unit was not on, and once again reminded his mother to take the tubing off her face while she smoked. She then weakly tried to grab at an ashtray on the far side of her nightstand, but when she could not reach it, she simply flicked her cigarette ashes onto her bedspread. I watched in disbelief.

Jim told Bev to choose her favorite restaurant for lunch, and she picked the Ram's Horn. Bev steered her walker to her old favorite booth there, and we reminded her about the restaurant's weekend-only non-smoking policy. After she was done eating, Bev concluded that the no smoking ordinance applied to everyone except her, and she reached for her cigarettes and lighter. Jim told her that since we were done eating, we should just leave, but Bev was determined to sit and have her cigarette at the table. She obstinately lit up, once again with her nasal cannula on, and this time with the oxygen flowing. Jim quickly snapped off the O2 machine, and I was so flustered and embarrassed that I stood up and went to the rest room. I could hear Jim asking her why she was doing that, and she kept answering, "Oh, I just want to see if they will say anything to me." Well, plenty of people stared at her, both customers and employees, but no one requested that she put out the cigarette. When I reluctantly returned to the table, Jim rushed out to get the car, and left me in charge of helping Bev to the door. Since there were no ashtrays anywhere, Bev had let her ashes cascade all over the booth, and then tried to smash her spent cigarette butt into a little empty cream carton. Gallantly wanting to make sure that the butt was not going to set anything on fire, she proceeded to dump her entire 8-ounce glass of ice water into the tiny half-ounce container. The table became a soggy jumble of crumbs, ashes, napkins, and placemats, and when the dirty water began to drip onto the floor, I wished I could have darted outside and left my mother-in-law behind. Bev slowly meandered her walker through the restaurant, happily saying goodbye to all of the employees, as I silently vowed never to return to that Ram's Horn again.

Why I Love Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays

I am happy to report that I have become fairly accustomed to reading the Detroit Free Press online ever since the newspaper slashed their home delivery service to three days per week. It is obviously not the same as having the paper version right there in my hands, but it is adequate enough. Oddly, however, I do find myself becoming very excited on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights as I anticipate having an actual hard copy edition of the Free Press the following morning. Doesn't that sound a bit pathetic? Oh well, I suppose old habits are hard to break.

A Star is Born

As I was watching The Weather Channel the other day, I was pretty sure that I saw Adam standing with a group of Vortex2 people as they were listening to one of their daily weather briefings. Luckily, TWC provides videos of these clips on their website, so I was able to examine the tape more closely on my computer. Even though I was 99% certain that the longish-haired guy in the light gray Michigan t-shirt was Adam, I asked him to have a peek at the video and validate my suspicions. Yup, my son was on national television. For all of two and a half seconds.

If you'd like to scope out the clip, just click here. You will have to endure an annoying 15 second advertisement before the video starts, but look for Adam beginning at the 7 second mark. Feel free to stop watching after that, unless, of course, you are a fan of meteorological mumbo-jumbo.

A Matter of Time

Bev was released from the hospital over the weekend and is back at her assisted living place. She was officially diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and had a urinary tract infection as well. The infection cleared up quickly with an antibiotic, and her cardiologist has prescribed some new medications for her heart issues. Bev was unusually confused during this recent stint in the hospital, and kept us curious and intrigued about what delusions she might have next. Not once, however, did she even mention wanting a cigarette. Kudos to the nicotine patch! As is typical with Alzheimer's patients, she is somewhat more rational today in the familiar surroundings of her own room at the senior residence.

Jim dropped in to visit Bev Sunday afternoon and found her smoking while she was wearing her oxygen nasal cannula. With the oxygen flowing. Yikes! She told Jim that she only recalls smoking one cigarette since she returned from the hospital, yet her previously empty ashtray was full of butts. Jim told her that if he catches her with a lit cigarette one more time while her oxygen is on, he will insist that Debbie not buy her any more smokes. And, if any of the assisted living workers bust her, the penalties will be harsh and expensive anyway. Personally, I think it is inane to trust an Alzheimer's patient to remember to turn her own oxygen off and on, and it is just a matter of time before Bev burns her face. And possibly sets the whole building ablaze. And when that happens, it will not be satisfying at all for me to say, "I told you so." It will just be sad.

Success

Jacob and I have been trying to perform this squeezing-an-egg-into-a-bottle air pressure experiment repeatedly over the past few weeks without any sort of favorable outcome. I think many of our failures were due to using bottles that were too small. While at the farm last weekend, we found this dirty, old glass jug in the basement and brought it home. Although it did not go exactly as planned, our egg did get sucked into the bottle after we placed a lit match inside. The egg actually moved rather slowly through the neck, and I attempted to get a picture of that process. As soon as the camera was poised and ready to shoot, though, there was a big POP, and the egg blew apart. Most of it did land inside the bottle, so I consider the undertaking a great success!

Before

After

Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 BLOG

I found out, quite by accident, that Adam's U of M group actually has a blog that they are updating while on their tornado chase. The students take turns documenting their activities, and Adam has written the latest narrative. They have also uploaded pictures to the blog. I have put a link on my sidebar for anyone interested in following their endeavors.

Jacob and I have had fun tracking the VORTEX2 team via The Weather Channel. TWC has a daily "live stream" on the internet, and yesterday we were able to see the U of M minivans drive past Mike Bettes and company on the road. We tried to call Adam to give us a wave, but he did not answer his phone. I'm sure he was busy monitoring radio transmission from the VORTEX2 crew, tracking GPS coordinates, and doing other things more significant than taking a call from his mother. Today they are on the move again, hoping to encounter some severe weather.

Up North, Out West, and Laid Up

We are back home from our weekend jaunt to Michigan's northern hinterlands. While the weather was beautiful for our stop in Holland on Friday, it became progressively worse on Saturday. Our plan was to spend the day cleaning brush from the farm property, but it was raining hard when we woke up that morning. And it was cold - brrr! And windy. The rain stopped long enough in the afternoon for us to move four trailer-loads of underbrush, branches, and such, but when it commenced again, we quit. The weather conditions were not much better on Sunday.

Adam called from Oklahoma yesterday to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. There are no tornadoes on the immediate horizon, but I think the VORTEX2 group is on the move today, trying to position themselves for anything that may arise during the week. Adam is taking lots of pictures and has promised to put them on a photo sharing site soon. He said that the fleet of radar trucks, mobile mesonet vans, and other weather vehicles parked in the hotel lot(s) is quite a sight!

Also on Sunday, Jim got a call from Bev's assisted living place that they were sending her to the emergency room. We rushed to the hospital before we even went home last night, and found out that she had another bout of congestive heart failure. When we got to Bev's room, her condition was stable, and she was in a fairly good mood, even joking about passing out at the dining room table that morning. Today, however, she kindly phoned Jim to let him know that she is in the hospital, as she has no recollection that we had been there yesterday. Sigh.

Here are some pictures from our weekend trip. Hopefully, I will have some VORTEX2 photos to share in the near future.

No, I have no idea what "Fatballs" are.

The wooden shoe factory.

Some cute babies in their Dutch outfits in a park.

Jacob liked this Lotus parked in Holland. Notice the costumed people in the background.

We actually did do some work at the farm.

Jacob did a lot of driving on the cowpaths.

Onekama vs. Oklahoma

On Friday, we (Jim, Jacob, Richie, Nancy, Irma, and I) are heading up to the farm to do a little tidying-up work. Among other things, there are lots of branches & twigs that need to be cleared off the property before new tree saplings can be planted. The temperatures up there have been fairly nice lately, but, of course, cold (40s!) and wet weather is predicted for Saturday. Ick!

Speaking of weather, Adam is now in Norman, Oklahoma prepping for the official start of the VORTEX2 tornado project. Mike Bettes from the Weather Channel is in Norman, and plans to cover the entire 5-week-long event, although I don't know how many live feeds will be shown on television. I know that they plan numerous taped stories and interviews, as well as "live streams" on the internet. I have also heard that TWC intends to broadcast as the armada of VORTEX2 research vehicles and scientists depart from Norman on their storm quest on Sunday. They have also promised to break into Weather Channel programming whenever a tornado is actually spotted, so maybe we will see Adam & his group scurrying their tails off after plunking down some tri-pod-shaped computer probes ("sticknets") in the path of a twister. Adam has said that he will send pictures, including some of these high-tech "sticknets" that his group is responsible for positioning during storms.

I just wonder if there are Oklahoma-shaped waffles at his current hotel.

Breakfast in Texas

Adam and one of his U of M classmates, Mike, arrived in Lubbock on Saturday morning, after driving nonstop from Ann Arbor in one of the university's minivans. They have been busy meeting with the team of meteorology students from Texas Tech that they will be working with during their upcoming tornado research venture. I have put a link on my sidebar labeled "Adam's Tornado Chase" for anyone interested in learning more. The Weather Channel is also providing daily updates on VORTEX2. There is a "Media Day" set for this Friday, so hopefully even more people will become aware of this massive project, and understand how much time (years) and money (millions) has gone into it's planning.

In the meantime, check out the cute waffles that Adam's hotel offers at their breakfast bar!

Don't mess with Texas.

Fishing Failure

Yesterday was our township's annual "Fishing Derby." It used to be geared only to children, but this year it was open to everyone. We have always brought Jacob to the freshly-stocked pond in our nearby park for the event, and this year was no exception. As usual, Jacob expertly cast his line into the water and continually came up empty. We watched wistfully as the people to our right, and then the people to our left, pulled fish after fish out of the pond. We set our bobber exactly like the others did, and used the same sized hook and the same type of night crawler. After two hours, Jacob became frustrated, and looked longingly towards the inflatable bouncer that was situated behind us. He decided that he had no desire to fish anymore, and instead wanted to jump in the moonwalk.

When Jacob was done bouncing, we began to pack up our fishing gear - which incidentally included all the usual equipment, plus an empty plant pot that Jacob had grabbed from the garage to hold his catches. He was insistent that he needed that particular container. I felt pretty silly with my old orange planter sitting next to our tackle box, because, really, we do have buckets at our house. But, I felt a little less humiliated when I saw a girl walk by carrying her fish in a large baggie. I thought about asking one of the lucky anglers around us if Jacob could hold their fish while I took a photo, but by this time Jacob was thoroughly disgusted with fishing and just wanted to leave. I bet when next year's derby rolls around, though, he will be ready to fish again.