Cottage
cottage
hutch in cottage
Recently my girlfriend Suzanne came over for a weeks stay. It was SOOOO SOOO wonderful having her, as we have not had Paula & Suzanne time in over 8 years! Our time was blessed. Suzanne flew in on a Friday afternoon. She wanted to go to Costco to stock up on food, so we charged Costco and ended up at our place that evening, and talked well into the weee hours of the next day. So at 4:30am the next morning I get a phone call. Should I answer? Well who would be calling me so early in the morning? Must be something wrong with my Mom??? So I answered the phone. It was my web developer (whatthe ^&^%$^^), informing me there was a big earthquake in Chile and Kauai was on Tsunami watch, and I was the only one he knew in Hawaii (thanks Shane)! well he had my attention, and by that time I was WIDE AWAKE! So turned on the news. Sure enough we were on watch, and the first evacuation sirens were going to sound at 6 am. So I made a pot of coffee and at 5:58 am went over to the main house (I stay in a little cottage here separate from the main house) woke Suzanne up with a steaming cup of Joe, and as the first siren started going off, I helped bring Suzanne out of her slumber, into her first real day on Kauai. Warning Sirens and all. Now the funny thing about this is, while we were going to Costco the day before, stocking up on goods, I told Suzanne how much I loved, and admired her, and all that she means to me, and how much I miss her, and if I ever had to be in a natural disaster with someone it would be with her (she is very calm and organized)! The VERY next day we are hit with a Tsunami watch! We both could not believe it and were laughing kinda of sortof, but wholly heck a tsunami is going to hit us, and what do we do??????? well I had started to pray while I was making coffee and watching the news reports. Our place is well above flood zone, but to get here you go over 7 one lane bridges,THEN up a small hill. We are surrounded by FLOOD ZONE. So the worst case scenario could of been big wave and bridges wash out, we are stuck at the house and cannot get out (o.k. this is not so bad since we had enough food to feed an army). Power could go out etc, etc. After a meeting of the minds we decided the best place for us to be was right at home. Not to go anywhere, but prepare for the worst and pray for the best! So we set to action and filled every container we could with water, tubs, sinks, jars, pots & pans. We had all the food we could eat and then some. phone calls were made to the mainland to inform family what we were going to do. Flashlights, batteries, radio all set. So now it is 7:30am all emergency preparations are made, NOW what do we do with ourselves. well we did what any smart woman in an emergency would do, Suzanne started to re-arrange and re-decorate the main house with what I had there! She made a list of a few things we needed to find at a thrift store (after we survived our disaster mind you LOL!) and went to it. Can I just interject here I LOVE HER CHANGES! She did such a great job displaying all of my beautiful items, arranging the furniture in cleaver usefull ways. The main house just feels different, and much homeier in my opinion. Thank you Suzanne, I do believe you are in the wrong profession and need to become a professional stager! She wanted to attack my little cottage next, and I kept saying no no you have to relax and enjoy yourself. Well for the artist that she is, that was enjoyment for her. A few days before she left she started the cottage, ran out of time, and I followed her inspiration and made the changes she recommended.
The tsunami ended up being a dud. Praise God that it was, and I am also thankful that our early warning system worked. It brought the community out, got people helping others evacuate. And we were prepared. I would much rather have the warning, be prepared and no one getting caught in a big wave. History has proven they can be devastating here.
So Suzanne and I survived our natural NON disaster in comfort, prepardness, and now my two houses are styling. Thanks darlin for your love, freindship, generousity, and artistic talent. I so appreciate you Suzanne! Boy will we have something to talk to our grandkids about!
1 comment:
I'm really glad there didn't end up being a tsunami there! Sounds like you had great times despite the scare!
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