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.

Storm coming and a good talk to share with you

 

After gathering my mail, in 80+ temperature which meant shortness of breath, but with a look around, I saw this storm coming in. (please forgive finger intrusion!)

So Puff and I talked about how we needed to have a dry place to hang out. (No, not Puff the Magic Dragon!)

You must look closely to see Puff the cat...

How's this? One of her owners recently died, so I hope she isn't grieving too much. The two women who shared her care lived next to each other, so it was easy for Puff to get into one or the other's apartments. And I know she spends the night inside with the other woman.

I was sitting down for my dinner before the thunder and wind and rain came. Thank goodness I didn't lose electricity, like some folks on the eastern side of Black Mountain. I hope your weather is reasonable wherever you are!

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David LaMotte has long been a favorite musician for me. But he also is an author, and now a TEDx presenter.

This short talk is from his recent book, You are Changing the World Whether You Like it or Not.

Yes, he is a local man, with a home nearby in Montreat. He has also traveled extensively, and started some great projects. Look at his bio. HERE

As a preliminary thought, he asked people to consider these questions as they listened to him.

What does it mean for you to change the world? 

What is one change you would like to see?

 

Sharing with SkyWatch Friday

Today's quote:

Compassion is an action word with no boundaries.

PRINCE

 

The Gulf of Mexico

Not me...just a granddaughter and her friends, with her mom and another mom!

My daughter-in-law, Michelle (not in these pics) and swim friends of my granddaughter (in white suit just above) went to Destin, FL, on the panhandle, for a last hurrah vacation in August. They left to come home just before Fred the tropical storm hit pretty close to where they were. Then they drove home through Atlanta, while Fred dumped a lot of wind and rain throughout Georgia and North Carolina...and they were back in Ohio by the time the rains got bad (if they did...I'm guessing on a lot of the timing here.)

Last year the same family from OH went to the outer banks of NC just in time for another hurricane to hit there. They have been pretty lucky to not have any real damage where they have been. I'm so happy and amazed. I read forecasts before going places...and am pretty hesitant when rain storms are known to be somewhere. But tropical storms and hurricanes...no way I'd be anywhere near them! I am glad I didn't know about the family being there either time until after the storms had passed by.

And since compiling this blog post, another Gulf storm, Ida, is due to hit Louisiana, about the same time Katrina made landfall on this date 16 years ago. I remember flying from Tampa to Denver early that morning, and how our plane went around the storm and we could see it out the windows (being higher than it was) as we skirted the Gulf coast.  The Gulf of Mexico is a petri dish for creating storms in the summer/fall months.

Today's quote:

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

ALBERT CAMUS

The winter New England storms

Recently I wrote of a hurricane in Galveston TX in 1900.  It was before storms were given names.
But there was a weather bureau established already.

Let's look back another century or two, to the 1700's. 

Winters to Remember---1778, The North Shore certainly has seen its share of "Winters to remember," and many of these were chronicled by historian Sidney Perley in his "Historic Storms of New England." (1891)

One of the most devastating snowstorms in local history occurred in a few-month period beginning in December 1716 & ending in late February the following year.  A series of December snowstorms left five feet of snow on the ground, & by mid-Feb. a base of three feet still blanketed the area.  But the worst was yet to come.  On Feb. 18, a heavy  snowstorm enveloped New England & lasted for four days.  It abated briefly on the 22nd. & 23rd., but resumed on the 24th. with a vengeance.  By the end of the storm, the North Shore lay under 10 to 15 feet of snow.

Many single-story homes were covered.  Residents dug tunnels beneath the snow between their homes & their barns or neighbors' houses.  Those wishing to walk on top of the snow needed snowshoes to do so.The impact of the storm on livestock & wild animals in the area was devastating.  Flocks of sheep & herds of cattle & horses were buried under the deep snow & suffocated.  Miraculously, nearly a month after the storm ended, two sheep were found alive under 16 feet of snow.  They had survived by eating the wool of their dead companions.Starving bears, foxes & wolves hunted down equally hungry deer & ate them. Perley notes that 19 out of every 20 deer in the region were killed in this period.

Perley recounts the plight of two Marblehead men, Thomas Hooper & Valentine Tidder Jr; during a blizzard that hit New England in early Dec. 1876.  The men left Salem on foot for home after dark on a Saturday night despite the fact that it had been snowing heavily for nearly 24 hours.  The two became disoriented & eventually got separated from each other.  Their bodies were found in open fields far from the Salem-Marblehead road.

Two other area men fared better during that same storm, Samuel Pulsifer & Samuel Elwell were trapped near Hog Island in Ipswich & took refuge in the middle of a haystack.  The hay kept them warm & dry for a time, but eventually the haystack was carried away by rising waters.  The terrified pair floated for hours atop the pile, & were headed out to sea.  Eventually, though, they were able to summon enough strength & courage to jump onto a passing cake of ice which eventually took them to an island very close to shore.  There they were rescued by Maj. Charles Smith of Ipswich.

Snowstorms were equally treacherous to mariners.  In a terrible blizzard in Feb. 1802, three Salem ships--The Brutus, the Ulysses, & the Volusia were aground in the shallow waters off Cape Cod.  The crew members of the latter two vessels were fortunate enough to be rescued by local inhabitants.  The seamen on the Brutus were not so lucky as nine of the 14 crew members perished.  One of the survivors, Benjamin Ober of Manchester, came to be buried up to his neck in sand & snow.  He was too weak to dig his way out & his voice was way too hoarse to yell to potential rescuers.  Finally after 36 agonizing hours, he was rescued.  Sadly, he expired shortly thereafter.

 At Ancestry.com this is the source listed, but obviously there are editorial comments of a more recent nature, so I can't say what part of this came from...Geneology of the Swasey Family 1910 by Benjamin Swasey an ebook that is available on line.

I was caught by the name Samuel Pulsifer, because a few generations before, some of the Pulsifer family moved to Louisiana and Texas...and Lucy Pulsifer, who was born in 1807 in Newburyport, MA moved to the area that would become Beaumont Texas.  Well, I don't know how she was related to the poor man in the haystack in 1876 near Ipswitch.

I am reminded that storms are a force of nature, which make humans feel so small and insignificant.  And there are many that happen and aren't recorded and noticed by humanity.  I wonder if in pre-historic days there were ever cave-paintings or carvings to indicate these forces.  I have never heard of them if they existed.