Just a brief recall

 

Sept 27 is the one year anniversary  of Hurricane Helene. Here the bridge in Swannanoa is shown in an aerial view soon after the storm - the highway is US 70 and had lots of sludge left all over it from the Swannanoa River flood. In the next weeks we found the dust it created was another problem to deal with.

An earlier view of the bridge and water still standing on the highway.

There are certainly more horrible things on the news these days. I bring this back up simply because this disaster impacted myself, and my neighbors so much. 

Cold December morning showed some people still living in tents and sheds.

Free food, water and supplies (cleaning, hygiene etc) were available at different  sites eventually.

Though the damage occurred on Friday, FEMA and other helpers didn't arrive until Monday. The rescue teams were looking for survivors from many mudslides and washed out buildings.

Imagine no cell service, no electricity, no water, not even ability to drive on the nearby interstates to leave the area!

Here at Black Mountain Town Square there was a daily meeting M-F, to discuss the status of water, sewer, cell service, available food and supplies. How the Public Workks people were trying to reestablish water lines was a big topic, as everyone was using "grey water" to flush with, and picking up bottled water for drinking. 

Blue Ridge apartment  residents gathered with small charcoal grills and cooked as much meat as they could, which was thawing from lack of electric power. They didn't have any water stocked up either.

It didn't become available the first 2 days. I remember going to the police station and telling them 70 some elders were at the apartments without any water, and being told everyone was in the same boat.

 The electricity was off for 13 days at my apartment, so I went to stay with a relative when highways were again open. I was able to watch these town meetings through Facebook posts. They were led initially by a young woman from the Forest Service, and she did a great job facilitating, then the town leaders took over. Eventually Asheville also had these kinds of public service meetings on line.

For months following my return to my apartment, there were still meals, water, laundry services, and showers available. Many people had lost their homes, and FEMA was really slow to provide trailers. They said they would need to be placed above flood-prone properties, but that's where people owned their lands.

It took me until March to obtain the funds to replace my lost food from FEMA.

I'm not angry about it, just realize the slow wheels of government agencies which were stretched to the limits.

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Waiting for energy

 

Recent tornado in south-east Utah, near my son's home in Cortez CO. It was on the ground Sept 12 for quite some time, and destroyed 3 homes out in the desert. But I haven't heard anything from my son because he's on vacation elsewhere. 

That's some energy from nature.

My energy of healing is what I was going to talk about, but I've been much too much focused upon that lately, and quite honestly I'm tired of it.

So resting and healing is slow at my age. Acceptance is hard.

 

The Blue Ridge Parkway announced that it's open up to the Mt. Mitchell State Park entrance, and you have to turn around and come back the way you came.

BIG NEWS! You can once again travel the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Folk Art Center all the way to Mount Mitchell State Park!

The National Park Service has completed landslide repairs at mileposts 375 and 380, reopening the stretch between milepost 382 in Asheville and milepost 355.3 at Ridge Junction Overlook (near NC 80 and the Mount Mitchell entrance).

This reopening gives visitors access to some of the Parkway’s most beloved spots, including the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, Craggy Pinnacle Trail, and nearby portions of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. 

Some areas remain closed for now, including the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area and sections of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail from the Craggy Trail Shelter to the Snowball Mountain Trail. 

 

Huge Helene Recovery News: Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene, Mount Mitchell State Park has reopened, as has the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville (MP 382) to MP 355.2. The parkway remains closed north of the park, so you must come to Mount Mitchell State Park from the Asheville side.

Photo: NC State Parks.

Like much of western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway sustained major damage from Tropical Storm Helene, with at least 57 landslides in North Carolina, as well as thousands of downed trees. // Photo provided by Blue Ridge Parkway
 

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A storm on the mountains, unknown photographer.

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Sharing with My Corner of the World.

Physical abilities vs thinking I can do

 Ah the drugs...

Steroids continue for a few more days, which means while I'm resting I think of all the really important things I should do. I'm terribly creative. Not quite to wash the windows...but definitely want to get rid of some of the old furniture which is past it's prime.

However, it's the old bod which limits what I can actually accomplish.

I fixed a real dinner last night (first one since coming home.) It meant washing and cutting up the potatoes and boiling them. Then frying the Gardien vegetarian chicken pieces, and adding a Mandarin sauce (thankfully from a pouch.) I then skipped making the salad or green veggies, because I'd been standing at the stove turning those darn fake chicken pieces for 10 minutes already.

There isn't a clean pot in the house (since some had already been used and not cleaned when I got sick.)

I did one sink-full of dishes before all that. Then had to sit down and watch a Miss Marple movie.

Last morning at hospital I watched this woman (I'm guessing she was female) do some dancing with mowing...perhaps she was talking on her phone, or just having fun. Of course you have to imagine it.

I'm off to fix my apple cinnamon oatmeal now, having my second cuppa coffee completed. Then I can take my meds. And solve all the world problems. NOT. I avoid reading about them, because I know my brain will lap them up like a hungry dog and decide just how everyone should change. 

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Hope is not a wish but an intention.

STEVEN CHARLESTON

You thought we were done with hospital photos

 But since I couldn't get blogger to download the photos while I was just using my iPad and blogger, and even paid for the super duper version...there are a few photos still to share.

My cave windows.

Room 326, which had the label of 226 on it for the first several days until I asked about it. It was just a mistake on the little dry-erase board.

Under Patient/Family questions, the whole time there was the word "epley" - and I never found out what it referred to. HEPA was the air filter that was recommended for me to have in my home. I never did meet Leah, nurse manager, but the nurse and charge nurse and CNAs were very helpful in many ways. They work 12 on and 12 off...and most commute from quite a distance. I met people from Durham NC, Spartanburg SC, Aiken SC, Charlotte NC etc. They are all contracted through an agency, and thus get paid better than people who work directly for HCA Mission hospital. I don't know how local nurses who are in a union are able to compete.

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I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. -James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)

Back at blogging!

 

In 1963 I flew with Pan Am on the Boeing 707  and DC 8. Those jet airplanes were the change that made air travel more available, faster, and maybe more profitable. But alas, so many airlines went under within a few decades, and I don't remember why.

View of Craggy Gardens from visitor's center on Blue Ridge Parkway, 2013.

The Craggy Gardens picnic area has been inaccessible following the storms of Sept. 27, 2024. This shows how steep the grounds are, which go up behind me as well. 

Sharing with Sepia Saturday and Saturday's Critters. What critters, you may ask?

Found on Facebook this week...

Friday was freedom day!

Late afternoon yesterday I finished every test they could think of, and with a wad of prescriptions in hand, I left the big old medical facility.

I really haven’t done it yet as I write this…but I’m in street clothes again. Shoes! Do you know you wear these little footies with plastic treads when a patient? It’s a big adjustment to have real shoes on after 5 days.

Sorry, photos aren’t posting. And before this gets published in the morning I probably am not going to feel like doing it at home tonight – putting in photos.

OK, at dawn  I added these last two hospital photos, where I had the swallow test with barium...and they said it looked ok. Yay!

A great big thank you to all my Blogger friends who have supported me this week with lots of fun and loving comments!



What I’m seeing!

 

A photograph that loaded Onto the blog! Yay, small things!

This was Dawn on September 10, 2025. The fog is rising from the French Broad River. The tower to the left is probably on the campus of Asheville high school. And the mountains in the distance are in Pisgah national Forest. Somewhere in the same direction is the Biltmore mansion. Not a bad view.

However, that wonderful window faces West so I have to pull down that black blind around Noon before it gets very hot in this room.

This was Tuesday nights dinner a nice piece of roasted chicken, some kind of rice with chicken gravy, And the third serving of those nice green beans I had them Monday night, Tuesday, lunch and Tuesday night. Sweet tea is of course the southern drink of choice. But nothing is salted and they don’t give you any. I’m also craving bread. There haven’t been any except a strange English muffin for breakfast yesterday.

 I

I had my CT scan at 10 PM here and it was quickly over with and pretty easy. Then I got to sleep until 3 A.m. and because of the steroids couldn’t get back to sleep and that was why I saw Dawn Wednesday morning.

Not really complaining I guess, because I wasn’t really in pain. But I was stressed.

Thursday was a better day since I slept very well The night before. But talk about bored! I finally got my heart ultrasound done right here in my room late in the day. I have been scheduled for Friday having a swallowing test. Now they’re checking to see if there is aspiration of food that might be triggering the pneumonia.

Thanks for listening!

Today’s quote:

Hope is not a wish but an intention. STEVEN CHARLESTON

Rebuilding

 A lot of renovation is going on after the storm last year. I saw this work last week when I went to pick up my lunch. Actually the workers announce themselves by blaring their radio music over the neighborhood!

It rained the next day, but the following one, they were back.

I wish I'd seen them put in the roof beam! Bet that was heavy! It looks like an open ceiling rather than pre-built truss-work, but I may be wrong.

I should have taken flower photos on my way into exercise last week...by the time I left it was sprinkling and I was pretty washed out myself! Exercise class is held at a local church, since the Lakeview Center was damaged by the storm.

Today's quote:

When we pause, we are able to observe our interdependence—from a harvest taken from the soil by a stranger’s hands to the electrician who keeps the lights and Wi-Fi on. We are surrounded by the abundance we create for each other.

JOE PRIMO

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And as everyone is thinking sometime today, I remember the awful events of September 11, 2001.

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Writing On Wednesday night from my hospital bed with a view of Pisgah Mountain off in the distance -

Where there is a very nice little restaurant which I plan to visit in a few weeks with my friends. Our plan is to have a picnic and then go to the restaurant for dessert with coffee. It’s too early in the season for the color changes of the leaves so it will just be nice to see our pretty green mountains From the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has only been opened from Asheville down to there fairly recently. (Note I’m dictating on the iPad so there are some punctuation spelling problems sorry)

I may be the kind of patient the doctors want to get out and gone soon because I know what things are going to help and what things aren’t in a lot of ways – because I’ve already Tried a lot of of them.

 I don’t like having heavy duty steroids and so I haven’t slept very well. The people are wonderful as far as offering help and caring about each patient, so I’m not complaining. I just don’t like to be sick, especially with bronchiectasis- Which means my cough needs to be treated differently than other peoples - By encouraging Frequent Coughing to clear the mucus rather than drying it up. So I have a flutter valve, which I blow into and it kind of triggers my lungs to cough. As well as chemicals that I use in a nebulizer at least twice a day when I go home, I will also need to start. Using the little Therapeutic vest which also jiggles my chest so that I cough up stuff.

An amazing thing just happened. Wednesday night I was given a consultation with an infectious Doctor. Specialty Is Infections. So she’s changed a lot of the things that I’ve been prescribed. She was sent by the pulmonologist and is now in charge of what I’m going to be doing. She’s testing for whole new things, but they don’t have to be done in the hospital.

Signs

Sponges hanging in Tarpon Springs FL

A little store in Weslaco,Texas. 1964  (that's the date given on Facebook, but I wonder if it shouldn't be much earlier!)

This sign was on FaceBook a couple of weeks ago, and I saw lots of posts of flight attendants with their stories. So a few days ago I decided to post a photo of myself (I'd "followed the group already.) They said I had to be approved, and when and what did I fly? I gladly told them, because that was what my photo showed. Did it get posted? Nope. And no more posts from anyone either. Good ole FaceBook/Meta took down the site. I'm not even sure of the name, so searches don't go anyway. Glad I didn't divulge anything more than the airline I worked for and when. Whew!

Sharing with Signs2

Health update: having very little sleep, thanks to the steroids with mind racing – but of course I’m solving philosophical problems, galore, and ignoring anything in the news because it would really be frustrating. Yesterday went pretty well with meetings of lots of doctors and finishing off with the CT scan of my lungs today started at 3 AM with a blood draw. Waiting on culture of my sputum sample to define which kind of antibiotic is best. Am I getting used to Hospital life? I hope not. The best news from yesterday was beginning to feel well enough to do a little self-care like a shampoo and body lotion. Again, thank you for all the good wishes. My blog world, friends, you do count as friends.

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Today's quote:

To see with clarity the beauty of how the human soul survives atrocities is to see your resiliency. We are truly beautifully and wondrously made.

PATRICIA JUNE VICKERS

Arches National Park - Ahleimer's photos - part 2

  Continuing to share Curt Ahleimer's photos....though back when I arranged this I actually posted it last month in error.

Sharing with blogspot Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-buffalo-bill-dam-just-outside-of.html

In the southwestern part of the USA, there are miles and miles of things off in the distance, which you finally come to. These sites sometimes are much closer together, and it's amazing to turn your head and see more.

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Thanks for the supportive messages yesterday! I enjoyed an evening read! Partially because the hospital didn’t serve me dinner and the nurses defrosted one for me late, and the tv channels were abysmal!

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Today's quote:

H. sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. 

-Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 16 Jun 1938)