More Mindless Crochet

Using Lion Brand Ice Cream, I think it's called.

Still no new clients. I do have one, but he has to finish a history book, and I have to do the 2nd proofreading, not the 1st. That means nothing for about 3 months. I'm happy just resting, taking care of Mom, and throwing out stuff that I will never use, even though they were very important a few years ago. I think that I can't do that to my kids, if I leave them a messy accumulation of 30 years of junk to them, precious to me.

This blankie is not for anybody in particular. In fact, I think I started it last year, while Hurricane Irma was hitting the Island, but it didn't do much damage in my town, thanks be to the Lord.

Catch you all later. Blessings from our Lord Jesus Christ!

Hurricane Maria... One Year After

Today it's been one year since H. Maria and we've still not recovered. How can we recover? There are so many tiny details that no one can cover and no one can make right again. Especially the horror we experienced and the suffering of so many. But we survived.

Lots of houses looked like they were sandblasted, and I'm not talking only about the houses close to the sea. Son #1 worked for Hotel La Concha, had to work during the hurricane and the sea surge was horrifying, flooding the lower hotel rooms and basement, he feared for his life. The windows were blown out and they had to be moved to another part of the hotel. The hotel's back-up generators failed. Our own generator malfunctioned and to this day is no good. We had to get a new one, and it arrived AFTER we had power again.

The trees had no leaves. It sounds weird to say that, but it means no flowers, so no crops, the coffee, banana and plantain crops were destroyed. Broccoli, lettuce, fruits, etc. Well, most anybody's crop was ruined. The heat was despairing. No leaves = no shade. And yet, we couldn't leave the windows open because one of the neighbors had an old diesel power generator that spewed awful fumes into our house. There was nothing we could do about it.

I almost lost my car, the water on the street kept rising and went halfway up the car, no safe food for me, trying to make it through another day in the heat with either no or either tiny battery fans. Trying to make food for my family that was palatable. Washing clothes by hand, towels, mom's soiled clothing and soiled bed clothing. Some people still don't have electricity and water. I live in the metro area. We got electricity some time around November. We sent water and food and clothes and supplies to family in the mountains. We knew God would provide for us and He did. Many lost their homes, but nobody will/can help. I can't really describe the horror of such a hurricane, the Island has never been the same. For all that people criticize PR, we have contributed many many soldiers to US wars since 1917 and now, with this hurricane, many many of our professionals have left: nurses, teachers, doctors, electronics specialists, skilled labor. They went to the States to find jobs and the island is now suffering that loss, too.

The mess about deaths... well, doctors wrote what the people were dying from, and didn't include "as an indirect result of the hurricane" so that death doesn't count. Like a heart attack and the patient dying a week later. Or someone who died two months later, but it all started September 20, 2017.

Attached is the dust cloud that came yesterday from the Sahara Desert. I got it from a site on the net, will put the link as soon as I find it. The sky looks gray all around, no blue in sight, and yet there are no rain clouds. Ick. I'm going to run the air conditioner in the living room tonight so they doggies won't feel choked and the house will be cleaner. It's a fine dust, like cement dust. As to me, I wait on the Lord... O Lord, in the morning, will I direct my prayer unto you and will look up. Amen.

 

1 Samuel 7:12 

¹² Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

UPDATE: MORE HURRICANE MARIA PHOTOS

 

 

Sunshine and Blue Skies

Hello

Hello, friends.

Eddie took me to the beach last Sunday so I could breathe clean air.  The wind was coming straight from the sea, not from the sides, and no one was very close for me to be contaminated with the fumes that their lotions and laundry detergents give off.  It was peaceful and I wish I could have stayed longer.
 
It was blue skies to our left, and the rain coming in from our right.  And the roaring waves from the north.  We were at Piñones.

T. S. Irene Is Upon Us

...and we can feel the bands of winds coming.  It's already affecting the eastern part of the island and we are expecting hurricane-force winds in most if not all, of the island.  I can hear the creek above the clamor of birds screeching and screaming next door, and the tree frogs are unusually quiet.  I do hear a few, but they seem to be paused, cautious, as if waiting for something, just as we are.  The "reinitas" or warblers, as my sister Nelly tells me they're called, are also quiet, but they usually settle down during the late afternoon.

This is no Hurricane Hugo, thanks to the Lord, and we have water, candles, supplies, and food.  Now I am hoping that my Eddie will come home soon, since he went to my Mom's house to help close the windows that are stuck open.  

I pray all children are home safe, and that the homeless, likewise, are in shelters or at the home of a friend or sympathetic stranger.

Happy Three Kings Day!

Hello, friends.  I just got home, well, not "just" but close to it.  We went to my mother-out-law's in Yauco for Three Kings Day.  To the few of you who celebrate it, Happy Three Kings Day!

Tradition says that the wise men come in horses or on camels, depending on what part of the island you're from.  They come with gifts, and if you got a box and filled it with grass and placed it under your bed, or beside it, the horses will eat the grass and the Wise Men will leave a gift for you, in the box.

This is what we celebrated before the USA invaded Puerto Rico (remember, we were war booty, I believe it's called).  Afterward, and ever since, Christmas and Santa Clause have slowly become just as important.  Three Kings Day is celebrated on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, when the Wise Men came to the Messiah's home and worshiped Him, bringing gifts worthy of a King.

On Three Kings Day, if someone brings you a "parranda" (like a Christmas Carol, only unexpected and with a lot of instruments and happy Puerto Rican music, such as aguinaldos), then 8 days later you must go and give them a parranda.  That is why we call them Las Octavas (from the number 8, ocavo).  And that, my friends, is why I do not take any decorations down until 8 days after Three Kings Day.

I 've been hearing parrandas and lots of music, so 8 days from now it's going to be very nice.  I wonder if we will receive a Octava...:)  I'm not ready for one if they come, no soda pop nor food for them. :)

So, I am tired, but happy.  I have some photos I took of Yauco, a town settled mostly by people from Corsica, or somewhere around that area.  Many MANY people have last names like Giovannetti, Antonini, Luchetti, etc.  unlike the usual Lopez, Rodriguez, Robles, etc.

And, I am happy to report that Yauco still has horse rings in their sidewalks.  I took a picture, but do not know how well it came out with the cell phone camera.

So endeth my day, sort of.  I'm going to help Honorable Son #1 to pack because he leaves tomorrow to the States. He's going to college and I'll stop right now because I can feel I'm about to cry over this... I've been teaching him his whole life to be independent and survive and have been turning him over to the Lord in my prayers, and now the day has come that I actually must do it.

Thanks for reading this.

River

Dangerous Explosion on the Island

This picture was taken by my husband from a balcony at his work, aprox. one mile away from the Gulf refinery.

  At least, I THINK it's called a refinery.  There was an explosion at around 12:30 a.m. at a refinery in Bayamón.  That's about 20 minutes away by car, closer as the crow flies.  It rocked the island and was felt all the way to St. Thomas, one of the US Virgin islands.

My son, the Danny Boy, felt it, too.  He said it was slight, a tremor, but those in Bayamón felt the thing rock the house, as if it were 4 on the Rickter (sp) Scale.

Eddie has been waiting for traffic to go down, but it isn't.  He's close to the airport now and says that he can see a terribly large black cloud coming, from Bayamón.  Also, someone called him just now that the windows at his business are all blown out from the explosion.

THANKS BE TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, no fatalities.  I understand that 11 containers exploded, and we don't know why, yet.  Some Fire Marshalls are coming to the island today, too, to help out. 

I've been feeling miserable since I ate those strawberry Pop Tarts, and hope to God that the cloud won't come over here.  You can see some pictures here:

http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/

This month has been a terrible month for the island, so many bad people doing bad things.  Perhaps they will pause a bit and think about what is truly important, God, family, life, instead of greediness and power.

Please pray for our island.

A Coqui on My Car

I love coquis. They are tree frogs originally from Puerto Rico. The scientific name is (Eleutherodactylus portorricensis). I know because as a homeschooling mother, I helped two of my children make State notebooks, where they had to find information about Puerto Rico.

So, I'm here, chatting with my twin who just came back from a trip to Cental America and I hear a scream coming from the garage: my dear daughter had just freaked out because she walked right pass a coqui that was on my car. She's afraid of any and all amphibians... hee hee! So, here is the coqui... Hope you like him. It took me about 20 minutes to get this picture.

Speaking of Coffee...

Which Jenn blogged about, drinking coffee and eating banana loaf,
which she isn't sharing with us, I thought you all might want to see
pictures of one of our coffee festivals:

http://www.geocities.com/riverglorious/miscpics/festcafey.html (sample of coffee)

http://www.geocities.com/riverglorious/miscpics/festcafeyauco.html

The pictures were taken several years ago...