Grief and Gratitude, Grok - Shifting

[grok]

Tuesday:

Cleanup
Kids and I pick up the outside to prevent yard missiles from being generated. 100+ mph winds can throw a lot of things…. OOooof that was a lot of stuff. The little back yard has been turned into chicken and amateur garden areas and had many years of stuff laying around. Table and bench layed flat on the porch. Potted plants put on top. Made space in the garage for all the supplies and equipment. Hoses taken off. Filled the trash can with old stuff I’m not keeping.

D19 SHRIEKS! ”Dad! Dad! I think I squished a mouse!”
G, “What?! What are you talking about D19?”

There had been some mice I was trying to get rid of from our porch. They had been hiding in a pile of posts. Earlier I had moved the posts since D19 didn’t want to come near a mouse and I saw one scurry away.

D19 excitedly, “I was trying to move this and I saw it and got scared and dropped it and I think it landed on it!” It being a bale of peat moss that was soaking wet and pretty heavy.

Sure enough, when I later moved the bale the next day, there was a flat mouse. She did squish it!

Prep cont
We stock the freezers with 10+ gallons of water to freeze. We fill all the water containers we have in case water service goes out. We have toilet paper and shovel available for digging a pit toilet if necessary.

After checking the latest Milton data, I decide it is still likely to be OK riding out the storm at home so long as trends continue away from us. There is still a lot of uncertainty though and it bothers me. I will check tomorrow’s 5am and 11am data sets. If the trend continues away then we are OK. If it doesn’t then we should leave. I’m looking for consistent trends of a Cat 3 before it hits land and consistent movement south of our location.

XW Messages in the evening

She sends a screenshot of her reply to my mom (who inquired after her safety). She replies to my mom: that she has a place to go, it has room for me and kids, she can take pets and simply drive north.

”L’s mom has two rooms.  If you change your mind I can empty my trunk somewhere and haul pets north east.  It’s tracking further south but still likely to be nasty. “ 

”I can’t take the chickens but I can take the dogs and bunny and birds if I know enough in advance.

An hour and a half later I reply. “Thank you for the offer. I will keep it as an option if I decide it is the better choice to leave. “

I try to validate and thank the genuine offer … but not respond to underlying currents seemingly attempting to influence my choices for her own reasons.

g