so much: Huge hail, heartbreak, & weather hiccups *(Happy St. Pat's - lost track of my days, Irish dancing video later in the week)

Life was chaos Sunday night, and
while I was fielding calls about
 flights and cars, I was sort of
watching the Oscars. I texted
 Mini a photo of this dress.
My fav of the night.

OMG - life . . . nonstop. Some of it is my own doing. Shock. (Yes, I'm referring to my road trip to attend a St. Pat's party 3 hrs away - no regrets, but TIRED). I'm behind on commenting and responding, but caught up on reading. I've been trying to blog and comment when time allows, not concerning myself with a schedule. As a result, I sometimes feel behind and disconnected, and I've even considered waving the white blog flag, because time tends to pull me in different directions. But I'm here today, and I have things to share

Hail hell no:  What's with the crazy weather lately? We had record breaking sized hail, measuring at 5-6 inches during a storm last week. Yes,  5-6 INCHES. It was loud in my closet which is essentially in the attic, where I was putting away laundry. I wondered if it was dangerous to be in there.  

Photos someone posted of hail
 near our house. Not the
biggest pieces, but still BIG. 

A few years ago, most of our neighbors had their roofs replaced after a tornado, or a hail storm, or all of the above. We intended to wait till we could get a guy we know to do it. Preferred to give our business to someone we knew. That never materialized. A few months ago a roofer came to the door, offering to file a claim. Insurance is covering our roof - HUGE!

After this hail storm:  roofing places bombarded us with phone calls, text messages, and knock on our door. I finally hung a note over our doorbell.  OUR NEW ROOF ARRIVES APRIL 15. DON'T RING OUR BELL. WE'RE ALL SET. 

Translation:  wake up a sleeping baby in my house, and you'll be assessing more than damaged roofs. 

Hard to believe:   I'm the last one to know stuff, esp other people's business. A 'for sale' sign went in our friend/neighbor's yard in fall '24. I saw him at Curly's volleyball game. 

Me:  Mike, where are you guys going? You can't leave the neighborhood. You're our favorite neighbors. 

Mike:  We're getting a divorce.

You could've blown me over. When our kids were younger, we hung out with them. They have 3 girls. Oldest is Mini's age. Curly's between the younger two. She played volleyball with them. Our kids were on swim team together in the summers. Mike and Mary  -  the most fun, laid back, and hilarious friends. They hosted the best Halloween parties for adults and their costumes were always genius. They invited us over to have drinks on their deck during covid (some of you might recall - we got a concerning text from Ed about Lad and we bolted minutes after we arrived). Back in 2018 maybe, we invited 3 couples to an ND game before we had a kid there. We all drove in GW. Tailgating with Mike and Mary and the other couples was a blast. 

It became clear during the rest of that '24 volleyball season that Mike had a problem. He was inebriated at the games. He'd been told by doctors that he had to stop drinking. He tried rehab briefly. His liver failed and he passed away a few weeks ago. 

The 3 daughters spoke at the service on Saturday with the oldest sharing how addiction is a disease, and that they'd miss their dad so much, but the way he died doesn't change who he was or what a great dad he was. 

She really nailed it. My heart aches for them. It's still so hard to believe.

When things settle down, I'll drop off food for them. I wish they were still in their house down the street. I miss Mike waving as I drove by him while he was walking his dog.  

Oh the weather ALL OVER is frightful:  Fortunately the weather to and from Grand Rapids was fine. Yes, I went. More on that adventure later. 

Coach sent this pic on his flight
 to Delaware. "There's a person under
this blanket in the seat next to me."

Coach missed Mike's funeral, because he was teaching in Delaware. He texted me Sunday that loads of flights to Chicago were being cancelled. In my haze of a busy weekend, I'd not seen a forecast. I was clueless. He sat on the plane for 6 hours hoping they'd take off. When I went to bed, he wasn't sure he'd get home. 

Meanwhile, Reg was on his way back to Omaha after spring break. A kid 'Thomas' was driving him. He was a few hours away from campus. 

He texted me:  MOM WE WERE IN A BAD CAR ACCIDENT JUST NOW.

Thankfully he called one second later. Things weren't as bad as the text sounded. Praise the lord. Thank goodness I don't have a heart condition, but hmm - maybe I do now? No one was hurt. The authorities shut down the interstate in Iowa. Snow, blowing, slippery roads. The trifecta of bad driving weather. 

I called Tank who jumped into action and connected me with other Creighton students driving back, hoping they might be able to pick up Reg and Thomas. We decided everyone should stay in nearby hotels, and a few guys would pick up the 2 stranded guys Monday morning. Then a few more Creighton kids drove up in a Jeep, picked up Reg and Thomas, drove 35 mph on back roads, making it back to campus late Sunday night. 

I'm so grateful no one was hurt. 

This text exchange is from Monday night,
as I was drafting this. Ed flew to
Houston today for work. Ugh.

Another kid in the Tank-generated group chat was stuck in traffic about an hour ahead of Reg. He'd been sitting behind a bad accident for two hours. We suspect there was loss of life. 

I woke up in the middle of the night, surprised to see Coach asleep in the bed next to me. It would've felt more 'Trains Planes and Automobiles'-ish if  . . . 

Me:  Where are your hands?

Him: Between two pillows . . . 

Me:  THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS. 

But I thought I should let him sleep vs waking him up to recreate a beloved movie scene. Turns out he got home at 2 am. 

***

Crazy weather in your neck of the woods? Do you get roofers coming out of the woodwork after a storm?