The big news in town this week was the EF-1 tornado that hit Tuesday night. It popped up just before 11:00 PM on the south side of town, ran about 14 miles in a northwest line, and broke up about 15 minutes later.
Lots of damage, but no injuries that I’ve heard of. Diana’s school district cancelled classes for two days due to power outages. Their baseball stadium was damaged enough that games had to be moved. Middle and Youngest Sons also missed work due to power outages.
Muskogee’s sirens sounded late, almost after the twister had already touched down. According to their press release, the primary system failed and the backup system had been taken down by a tripped circuit breaker. They think they’ve got it fixed, though.
None of our family had any issues. Oldest Daughter and Lego Dude live just a little ways north of the path but didn’t have any problems.
Moving on Up
Youngest Son bought himself a house.
He’s been renting one of our properties from us for a couple of years and finally decided he was ready to take on home ownership. He found a nice 1200 square foot 3/2 that even has a nice yard for a corner lot.
He closed Friday and moves next weekend. Unfortunately, I’m going to be tied up with the Red Fern/Cherokee Capitol Feis so I won’t be able to help.
We’re pretty proud of him for being able to do this.
He’s going to have a lot more room at the new place than he did at the rental, which makes Middle Daughter kind of happy. She’s lived with him during her summer breaks from school. I assume she’s moving with him.
Middle Son will be taking over the rental, which will make us officially empty nesters. Youngest Daughter will still be staying her during the summer as far as I know, but for most of the year, we’ll be down to just the two of us. It’s going to take some work on my part to adjust my cooking for just two people.
More Cousins
I got an exciting email via my genealogy site Tuesday. I’ve got more cousins!
Back in 1982, my dad and I traveled to Europe. We landed in Brussels, visited the Normandy beaches and Mont-Saint-Michel before making our way into Germany with plans to visit cousins in both West and East Germany. I’d had a year of high school German, so I thought I’d be able to follow the conversations between Dad and his cousins, but I was completely lost only a few seconds in.
The West German cousin was Dr. Anton Benz, a veterinarian in Löffingen. He and his wife Maria had four children, including one that died very young of diphtheria.
I only vaguely remember Dad’s explanations of the conversations. I think the Austin parts of the family sent care packages to various cousins right after the war.
I’m looking forward to learning more about this limb of the family tree.
Keeping an Eye on Athena
She’s been dealing with a growth on the outer part of her eyelid for over six weeks now. We took her to an animal eye specialist in Tulsa who had her on steroids and a couple of other eye drops. That seemed to knock things down, at least for a while, but then another nodule popped up on the inside of her eyelid, so it was time for surgery.
I dropped her off early Monday morning and spent the day hanging out at The Gathering Place rather than driving back home and back up to Tulsa. She’s recovering well. I continue to be grateful that she tolerates meds so well. I’ll bring everything over to the dining room table and she’ll saunter over and sit in front of me. I don’t have to fight her for the oral meds at all. I put a hand under her chin, tell her “Open,” and she’ll open wide for me to drop the pills in. Sif continues to join us, demanding her treats after Athena gets hers.
She’s in an e-collar for about another week and has a checkup next Wednesday.
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