I Feel Better

 I clearly was very upset yesterday. I talked to my daughter today. She says they are fine. It takes a long time to go anywhere because so many stoplights are still out. Some of my friends got their power restored. My daughter worked at the main branch in Gary today, all run by generators. She said there were only 4 customers. Her hubby is still home, no power at his work. His son is at college downstate and he is ok, not affected by the flooding.

I am still going through my stuff in the spare bedroom. I need to get rid of a lot of stuff and re-pack what I'm keeping.

I found a picture I did in high school. It's a print from a wood block I carved. I don't have the wood block anymore. I think it got damaged in storage or something. I'm going to give it to my daughter.

I've been looking at the floor plans of that company who is building the new apartments. They have so many different designs it's difficult to figure out what they will be offering. I am concerned that there will not be a good choice available for us. We are hoping for an east facing balcony, so we can see the sunrise, but it seems the layout of the buildings won't work, at least by their preliminary plans. I'm trying not to loose hope. Here are some of their plans 

Also, they are facing the other buildings. Sorry my handwriting is so squiggly. It's hard to write on my phone. I guess I could have used "text".

As far as I can tell, there are four 3 bedroom apartments on each end with one or two bedroom apartments crammed in the middle. Not sure about that. What we know for sure is we do not want to sit out on a patio or balcony in full view of everyone else.

I think the three low buildings are condo style. The are one level with an attached garage facing the street. The back side has patio for each residence. The two building with the ends facing east and west appear to be three bedroom apartments on the ends, as far as I can tell. The ones on the east end will be the only ones with a sunrise view. Since those will be for families, I imagine the grassy area will be a playground. The building circled in blue will have east facing balconies but the view might be blocked by the other apartments. I was hoping to have a set up like we had in Hartford, but I don't think it will happen. I will forever miss my view.

I want to end on a good note. The weather cooled off and the humidity lowered enough I was able to turn off the air conditioner and open windows! Yay!

Well Cr@p

Thankfully my daughter and her husband are safe at home. I kid you not, the whole of northwest Indiana and parts of Illinois were ground zero for a HUGE derecho on Tuesday August 11. It was literally like a straight-line land hurricane that roared in with winds in the 100 mph range, and it spun up a few tornados to boot. My daughter was at work in Gary, Indiana when this terror ripped through. Even though her work is a strong building, there was a real fear the roof would rip off, and she sheltered in the bathroom. The power flickered like crazy and went off, so everyone began the arduous journey of trying to navigate the way home through a tangle of huge downed trees and electrical poles and wires. My daughter said it was bad, really bad. She feared for her life. That broke me. My daughter is a strong person. She doesn't say frivolous things. The normally 25 minute drive home took over two hours. Every city was dark until she reached her own community. Thankfully they never lost power.

The power company, NIPSCO said approximately 301,000 of its 500,000 electric customers were impacted by the storms, making this the largest customer outage event in the utility’s history.

Gas stations had no power. Banks were closed. Many grocery stores were closed. Entire cities were dark. People began trying to find gas for generators. When they found an open gas station, lines a mile long formed. Gas stations began running out of gas. People were needing to drive further and further away. Trees are down EVERYWHERE. Trees needed to be moved before NIPSCO could restore power. Areas were flooded. Basements were flooded with no power to run sump pumps. A whole spectrum of people's emotions surfaced. Some spoke of extreme kindness, others spoke of escalating anger. One person on social media said that if this is any indication of the apocalypse, they will never survive it, because two days was their limit.

Today, two of my friends reported that their power had been restored. Power companies from other states came to help. My daughter worked today at the company's other branch that had power.  

Heavy rains are currently flooding the Indianapolis area.

All the while this is going on, Menasha is still trying to recover from the tornado that plowed through town on July 27th.

The humidity is terrible. Wisconsin never used to be humid. We came up to the cottage in Briggsville often in the 1970's and 80's. In fact, Wisconsin used to be colder. It used to be so cold my first husband refused to move up here, which probably had something to do with him deciding to sell the cottage.

I am looking forward to dryer, cooler weather. In the meantime, I'm packing my most important stuff in  a strong bin that I can strap shut. So if a tornado blows the roof off, I might still have my stuff, seeing as how it seems we live in tornado alley now.

And all that stuff depresses me. I worry about my daughter. I worry about us. My hubby worries about his family in Europe where there is a heat wave. No wonder my blood sugar sucks. I'm trying to get past all this. I really am. I will feel so much better when the humidity clears out and the weather cools. I really do not like summer. I wish we were in a cooler location, like Sheboygan or Manitowoc, but no good job for hubby there.

Updates

 The dental work went well. Both my front upper teeth are repaired and reinforced. Good thing I got in because the edge of one tooth was shattered.

Exciting news. Ripon is finally getting some new apartments, similar to what we had in Hartford. We drove past the site today. We also called and got put on a list to be updated and notified of future "hard hat tours" (before completion tour---sounds fun!) and info on when they will be completed sometime next year. We are really hoping to have a view of the morning sky. And look at those trees! That is an adjacent park. 

The power lines will be relocated

Sunset tonight

Sandhill cranes

 

That's all. It's after 1AM and I'm tired!

Soy and Sulfates

 My bad. 

I was wondering why I had headaches, ocular migraines, mild, but still present, every day. Ocular migraines cause temporary vision disturbances, such as areas of missing text when trying to read. The fix is to take two Headache Relief pills (Acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine) as soon as I notice it. The cure is to stop consuming the offending product. I also thought I was coming down with a cold. My throat was scratchy. Having the windows open might have contributed to that. There seems to be mold in the air from the humidity. 

So I started looking at what could be "something new". Mushroom coffee? That seemed to keep me wired but not appear to contain anything that could cause headaches or a scratchy throat. As a caution I didn't drink anymore.

Next: new bottle of vitamin K2. I'm supposed to be taking calcium. Everyone knows these days you need to take vitamin D3 with it, and most bottles of calcium already have D3 included, unlike when my mom was on massive doses of calcium and she continued to have brittle bones and mini strokes (they said calcium deposited in her brain). But the new info is you also need K2 to actually activate the calcium in your bones. That's a non-informative explanation but I would need to link a long article.

So K2 is commonly made from fermented soybeans. In addition to the K2 being derived from soy, it just so happens the bottle I bought also contains Sulfites. Sulfites are a big no no for me but I never considered them in pill form. The issue for me is normally from eating dried fruit that has sulfites to preserve the color. 

In any case, I'm stopping the K2 pill because of the soy, meaning I will also stop the calcium pill until I can replace the K2 pill with the kind I can take. 

I did not take any K2 yesterday or today and I have no headaches! I also took a shot of asthma spray which cleared up the suspected mold reaction.

A Little of Everything

This post will be a little of everything. 

I bought some Mushroom coffee. I've been thinking about it, but how to decide with all the noise on the internet? I finally bought one at a Marshalls store. The reviews said the taste was good and not "mushroomy". It's ok, probably not something I will buy often, or even again. One thing I found out, don't drink a cup in the evening. I think I slept 2 hours last night. In fact, I just woke up from a nap about an hour ago, because my Fitbit alerted me that its battery was low.

 

The storms were bad in Appleton and Menasha, especially Menasha. A tornado formed a little south from where we used to shop when we lived in Greenville. From there it picked up speed and size. It swelled to over a mile wide F-3 terror that was on the ground for 12.1 miles. It plowed through Menasha and injured 63 people. Thankfully no one died. Downed trees and power lines paralyzed the area. Roofs were blown off and wrapped around overturned cars. Some older homes that weren't bolted to their foundation slid off their foundations and are total losses. People are still displaced there. Some company from Nebraska brought portable showers. People and organizations have been bringing food and water and donations. Someone organized help with washing people's laundry. Others are helping find people's animals. All the while the massive cleanup and reconnection of utilities continues.

The number of tornados in the formerly relatively safe upper Midwest is alarming.

I have a chipped tooth, upper front. I have a dental appointment on Friday. Hubby is off, so I can have the car. Nothing hurts, and it's the edge, so I hope no shots!!!! I HATE Novocain shots. 

Maybe you know we go somewhere every weekend. One day is to shop and the other is to just go somewhere, explore, and take a walk if the weather is good. We have been disappointed to find the South Woods here in Ripon are overgrown. No one is walking out in the fields behind the college this year, either. Maybe it's just been too hot. We can usually find some place within an hour or two away that looks interesting. We have found several beautiful, well maintained places to walk near Madison and also near Green Bay. Two completely different directions. 

Glacial Drumlin State Trail in Cottage Grove, WI

It smelled so sweet there

Rainbow in the clouds (this was on the way home, in Beaver Dam)

Baraboo downtown

Baraboo

Baraboo

Baraboo

Wayside stop in the Driftless Area

Driftless Area

Driftless

Fonferek's Glen near Green Bay

We were walking on the Niagara Escarpment

There is no improvement in the purple orchid.

Purple Orchid

 Some members in the orchid group on Facebook recommended liquid kelp to help my failing orchid. Here are some pictures to take you through the journey so far. 

First, here she is in her former glory, in case you needed to see why I want to save her.

It was some time after this I discovered root rot. Notice the severely wrinkled leaves and root loss.

Here are two root close-ups from June

I tried laying it on moist Sphagnum moss but it only developed mold, so I had to remove the black parts. I also removed the bottom leaf. Notice how the roots look petrified. They would not green up at all, even soaking in water.

I reported back to the orchid group that nothing was happening. A couple members recommended Liquid Kelp, so I ordered some.

Here are the results after only a day!

LOOK!!!! Green roots!!!!!!

Liquid Kelp is orchid crack.

I will update again after something changes, hopefully growth!

Random Stuff

This was not going to be my leading comment, but I decided to put it here. Hubby came home from work on Thursday. Many of the employees went home, too much smoke. My friend who lives west of Madison said factories closed because of the smoke. It's bad. The plant closed today, as well (Friday).

My string of hearts plant (Ceropegia woodii) is blooming, or was. I picked all the blooms off and threw them away. The apartment smells better. There was a strange smell I couldn't pinpoint until I sniffed a bloom. I never noticed how much they smell like pee. My hubby was noticing the weird smell when coming home from work.

String of Hearts bloom, smells weird and a bit like pee

Wild fires in Canada and Minnesota are producing a dense layer of smoke that has plunged most of Wisconsin into unhealthy air. As if the heat wasn't enough. I do not like summer heat and humidity.

I ordered some products I needed. I ordered Leca clay pebbles and kelp seaweed concentrate fertilizer for orchids to help save my struggling purple orchid. The kelp is supposed to be a root booster. The Leca will be combined with moss in an attempt to provide it with an airy, moist atmosphere to recover in.

I am excited to be repotting orchids today, possibly three, because they are new (to me) and done blooming. I have been soaking the orchid bark for two days now. One day is enough but I just didn't get around to potting yesterday.

I need to make tags for them all. Currently I have folded sticky notes taped to plastic picks. I like to keep track of the color, when and where I bought them, when it bloomed and when I repotted it.

I re-arranged my succulents. Previously I had my Haworthiopsis and Haworthia stuffed in a corner shelf with a bright light that was also producing about 85 degrees of heat. Fine for winter. Here is the new arrangement. They get daylight and afternoon sun. 

I also added a small light to the left because that side gets no sun, and I placed my hoya there on the shelf where the succulents were

Two of my succulents are making me very happy. Well, three. Lavender Steps, always. Adromischus Little Spheroid, a cutie that sort of looks like split peas, and mother of thousands, which is finally growing after languishing for over a year. I found out it does not like to be transplanted . at . all. 

I also shared some others.

Lavender steps

My darling Little Spheroid

Mother of Thousands. Two plants here. Not even going to try to transplant until the pot is falling over and the roots grow out the bottom.

Some of my other succulents

Haworthia batesiana

Not doing a good job of trying to live

Adromischus cristatus. I love the hairy stems.

Adromischus triflorus. Has nice dots on the leaf edges if it gets enough sun.

Adromischus cooperi. This one will be darker with more sun. There is a white version on my wish list. Common name, Plover's Eggs

Gasteria cultivar, some offsets are variegated with yellow

Haworthiopsis fasciata "Alba"

Haworthiopsis fasciata. This one was Chrissy's

That's all for now. I'll post again after I get the little purple orchid set up.