Inland Hurricanes and Melted Ice Cream

Hi again friends, it's been a hot minute since I updated you on all that's going on . When we last saw our heroes (that's me and my family, incase you were wondering), we were on a plane to Florida gearing up for a fun week of laying around and swimming at the beach. My family and I spent almost every day in the salty waters of Melbourne Beach. It was wonderful. But, in retrospect, there is one thing I learned about vacationing during a global pandemic:

Florida is hot in the summer. HOT I TELL YOU. Leave your fuzzy/soft masks at home, kids, and opt for something a little more lightweight.

Luckily, my mother (referred to as May May by my daughter) thought ahead for the heat and purchase a HUGE inflatable kiddie pool. And although it's only technically able to hold up to 100 pounds, that didn't stop my cute hubby from climbing on to join Addie in the water.

The vacation went swimmingly and we only had one hurricane, which was frankly a little disappointing. But not to worry, Iowa made up for the pitiful Florida hurricane by hosting one of it's own. And that one really let us have it. Today is my first full day in the last week that i've had power and internet. Here are a fun shot from the our street in the aftermath:

This is every house in our town right now. But hey, what's a little 5 day power outage and some fallen trees? I mean, if I didn't want to get hit with unpredictable natural disasters, i really shouldn't have moved somewhere so dangerous.

But what can I say? I like to live on the edge.

Today I leave you with this from my writing:

“Put me down.” I struggled in his grasp. His jaw clenched and his arms constricted, pulling me closer.

“You are in no shape to walk,” his voice was solid as a cement wall. He turned the corner onto the street and I realized he had been walking. I hadn’t even felt it.

“I’m fine, I just got the wind knocked out of me. I’m fine.” I placed both hands on his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge. What, was he carved from granite?

“No, you’re not fine. You probably have a concussion.” He spoke straight ahead without looking at me. That condescending bastard. I wanted to scream. He headed toward the yellow taxi that had nearly hit me on my way across the street.

“You tried to run me over!” I pointed at the cab incredulously. Everett laughed. I’d never heard him laugh before. It was nice. Like thunder on a sunny day. Wait, did I say nice? No. it wasn’t nice. He was laughing at me after he tried to run me over and would now be delivering me to the mistress on a silver platter in exchange for a promotion. Nothing about him was nice. “You think this is funny, Daniels? Put me down right now or I’ll-“

His laughter disappeared sharply and he hoisted me up so his face was just millimetres from my ear. His voice was a low rumble of power. “Try it.”

Happy Saturday Friends! Stay safe out there. The world is a wild place.