Stormy Weather Makes Good Neighbors

This past weekend the Twin Cities was hit with a severe line of thunderstorms. No tornadoes, thank goodness, but the damage was more widespread and devastating.

Photo Credit: Bryan Piatt    Location: Bryn Mawr neighborhood.

At one point in time over 550,000 homes were without electricity. With an average of 2.52 people per household in this state, that means that more than 1.3 million people were without power for anywhere from several hours to several days.

Photo Credit: @XcelEnergyMN Map of power outages.

Photo Credit: Sharon Stiteler.          Location: 32nd Ave and Aldrich St.

Photo Credit: Paul Schmelzer.         Driver escaped unscathed.

We were fortunate. No trees lost, no power outages. We saw the storm whip up around 8:30 Friday night, went to bed and slept through it.

We awoke the next morning to reported chaos, but not near us. We went about our weekend like normal; it seemed odd and slightly selfish. Yet we were warned to stay away from areas that had been affected, so we did.

Instead, we saw from afar how people came together to clear debris and help each other out.

A local cheesecake business put a call for help out on their Facebook page, which basically said "We've got $8,000 of inventory in our coolers and no power. We need assistance finding temporary homes for these cheesecakes so we can deliver to very important weekend weddings (aren't they all, to each bride and groom?) HELP!" And help arrived. By the end of the comment string her cheesecake was safely stored in industrial coolers across the city, picked up by various parties and safely delivered to their destinations on time and in perfect condition.Three days after the storm, power was finally back on.

A co-worker of mine related the story of walking around Lake Harriet the morning after the storm. They had lost power and wanted to see how the rest of the neighborhood fared. They were on the pedestrian path, stepping over branches and leaves in their way, then thought, "Why are we stepping over these? Whose job is it to clear this stuff?" So as they walked along they began picking up the branches and setting them off to the side. They soon saw other people doing the same thing. By the time crews got to the lake to begin clean up, debris was already in neat little piles alongside the paths so that crews could get straight to work on the larger branches and trees.

Residents became frustrated when neighbors across the street from them had their power restored while theirs was still out. That frustration soon gave way to gratitude when those neighbors with power invited them over for a beer and dinner.

Monday morning's commute was still snarled from many traffic lights being out. Drivers took turns at four-way stops, waving each other on and stopping for every pedestrian.

Minnesota nice was put to the test this past weekend, and proved its muster. I'm proud of our city and its residents.

Our New Neighbors

Our next door neighbors moved away while we were on vacation. It was strange to come back from vacation and see different people driving in to the driveway, driving cars we weren't familiar with.

If you ever lived in a metropolitan area you understand how close you are to your neighbors. Even if you aren't close as in "friends," you are physically close. Sometimes you need to pretend you don't see them coming and going from their house to give them the perception of privacy. Or you ignore the yells or laughs or whatever noises emerge from open windows. And that requires some courtesy and diplomacy.

Then there's me.

Here's the deal with me: what you see is what you get. And what you get is a messy, disorganized working mom, who sometimes yells at her kids to get them to do what she needs them to do, or lets them scream and cry and have their tantrum. Occasionally that tantrum is outside, because I do not allow screaming in the house.

I don't wear make up when I'm not out, I wear what's comfortable and don't care how it looks, as long as I'm not leaving the house. And that means that you, my neighbors, get to see that questionable taste in style. Don't turn me in to What Not to Wear: I didn't go out, I'm home.

My hair is messy and crazy, and I kind of like it that way. But let me know if I've got spinach between my teeth, thanks.

You don't have to like it, just deal with it.

I hope we get along with the new neighbors.

A House Full of Love

Tuesday evening we had a ladies night at my neighbor's house to celebrate our former neighbor's visit from New York. Our neighbor Marilynn, the matriarch of the block, hosted the get together at her home.


Heidi (seated), Roseanne and Marilynn (far right)

Marilynn has lived on our street her entire life. She grew up on one block and upon marrying her dearly beloved, now gone for 10 years, moved down the street to her grandparents' home.

She is now in her 80's and is the most amazing, independent, energetic woman you've ever met. And when you walk into her house, you walk into a house of memories.

She has black and white photos of her late husband and herself as growing children and earnest young high school graduates. There are more photos of her children, now long grown and married with kids of their own, whose smiling faces peer out from even more frames set throughout her rooms. She has sets of china teacups throughout her home, carefully arranged in little settings on side tables, built-in buffets and other nooks and crannies.

If you didn't meet the woman of the house when you first walked in, you would know that she is a woman whose family is everything to her. You would know that she values laughter and joy, and that friends and pets complete her world.

Her smile hasn't changed since her wedding photo, and she still has a zest and exurberance for life that is contagious to others.

You can tell when you walk into a house full of love, and Marilynn's house embodies it.

A Sleepover Surprise

Our weekend plans included a sleepover for our girls with our former neighbors who drove to Minnesota from Buffalo, NY, to visit. We planned to dine out with our friends and figured if we could get a babysitter willing to watch all four girls that we may as well let them sleep over at our house. That way, after a long day of driving, their parents could sleep in and recuperate from their trip.

The sleepover almost didn't happen because yet another blizzard came through and dumped somewhere between 15 and 19 inches in 24 hours. We weren't sure if the babysitter would still be able/willing to make it to our house, or if we could even get around the city to make it out. Thankfully our babysitter came through and we managed to drive the 3 blocks to Mozza Mia, a new restaurants at 50th & France. (Yes, it was so bad out we couldn't walk it.)

We had a fabulous dinner out even though the restaurant closed early due to weather. They didn't kick us out and stuck around until we left 2 hours after they let their kitchen staff go home. (I highly recommend this restaurant and just about any restaurant their parent company. Parasole, operates.)

We got stuck in the street in front of our house and it took three of us to push the babysitter's car out of the street and onto France Avenue, which had been plowed once.

We checked on the girls and found the two younger girls sleeping in the same bed and the two older girls up and giggling.

The parents went to our neighbor's house to sleep, leaving the four girls at our house. Wayne and I went outside to begin Round #1 on the snow. Sidewalks and steps were drifted over; the snowblower could barely handle the snow and required multiple passes to clear the sidewalks and driveway.

Around 11:00 I came back in expecting to find that the older girls had also dropped off to sleep. Instead, I found that they had awoken Molly and were painting her nails in Lindsey's room. Last I'd seen Molly she was practically snoring, sleeping next to Marissa in her twin bed.

I wonder if they tried to wake Marissa up too, an impossible feat.

I quickly ended the fun and all three girls fell asleep within minutes.

Around 6:00 I heard movement - sure enough, at 6:30 am Lindsey was in our room, asking if they could get up. I made them wait until 7:00. Okay, so it was 6:55, but I got at least another 25 minutes of sleep. It doesn't matter when that girl goes to sleep, she is up at the same time every day.

The morning was filled with cartoons and a breakfast of french toast, sausage and bacon. The morning lingered into afternoon and into lunch, and then finally the family went home, giving everyone an opportunity to nap and re-charge.

A good time was had by all.

Friends Both Old and New

Fifteen hours in a car with a 4 and 7-year-old is an awfully long road trip. It's even longer when it's preceded by a nasty fever and ends with a race to beat a blizzard.

But that's what our friends did in order to drive from Buffalo, NY, to visit our neighborhood. They were going to make the trip in two days, but didn't leave on the day they had hoped due to my friend Amy's nasty fever. They ended up leaving the next day and pushing through 15 hours in one day in order to beat the snow that was predicted to start Sunday morning.

We were so honored that they took on such a long trip just to come visit.

The family moved away 3 years ago and when you're only 5 years old, that's more than half a lifetime. So we weren't surprised when both our girls were alternately excited and anxious about the visit.

Lindsey and Jamie are both 2nd graders, only weeks apart in age. Even though it had been 3 years since they'd seen each other, we figured they would get re-acquainted in relatively short time. I believe it took 10 minutes.

Jamie and Lindsey, Dec 2007.

Watching TV together, February 2011.

The biggest changes had to be with their youngest, Molly, who was just 18 months old when they moved away. She was barely talking last time we saw her, and now she is 4, a pre-schooler. Since she is a year younger than Marissa, we figured they would become fast playmates, if they remembered each other.

January 2008 - the last time Molly and Marissa saw each other.

Marissa gave Molly a good-bye kiss.

We had nothing to worry about, apparently.

For Wayne and I it was seeing old friends -- for our girls, it was making new friends of old ones.

What a wonderful way to spend a snowy, wintry weekend.