Happy to Be Home

Ah, my first post-fund-raiser weekend and I pretty much had the house to myself.

No big plans, but I did intend to get up and go to a Christmas party. However, it snowed Friday night – I really need to pay more attention to the weather reports – and the roads were slick on Saturday.

Now, I lived in Detroit for 11 years. I do know how to drive in the snow, but then, I had a 4x4 truck and now, not so much. My little front-wheel drive Corolla has already skidded twice and it just freaks me out  a little bit.

I did intend to head out there, but the place was about as far as it could be from where I live. I left and stopped off at Walmart on the way for a few groceries and skidded on the way out, so that was all she wrote. I drove back home and just holed up. I had a Mad Men disk so I watched that and then some serious Monk-a-thon took place.

 

And I’m pretty glad it turned out that way, because I found out later that someone caromed into a house in my trailerhood.

This little neighborhood, which really does have some nice trailers, runs along a main road. It doesn’t back up to it; there is a big field there that has wheat in the summer. And the roads inside are pretty curvy but very neighborly.

Well, apparently on Saturday, a truck – not a semi or anything, just a regular work truck – somehow lost control on that main big road, took out a streetlight, headed straight over the plowed-under wheat field and into a house.

Here are the photos from the daily:

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/571481/Pickup-truck-smashes-into-residence.html
 
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/571482/Pickup-truck-smashes-into-residence.html

Sorry I missed that. I guess the fire fighters came out, but I certainly heard none of it. And I am really, really glad I was not on the roads.

I really didn't do much over the weekend except take another FEMA class online and then write a news release, in which I am attempting to somehow parlay my fund-raiser into a little more.

Not that I'm unhappy with it -- it's surpassed my wildest dreams. I just came out of such odd circumstances I'd like to pitch the story elsewhere and see if I can get some more media attention on disaster recovery here.

So we'll see what this week brings, momentum-wise. I had the TV station here for one photo opp earlier and I've still got more on those burners.

Since it's so freaking dark out so early, I'm trying to knock off earlier (by that I mean about 5:30 p.m. or so). I am still trying to walk to work when I can, but it's now cold, dark and icy and that's just not a hat trick I want to deal with.

But it's much nicer to be "home" than it has been in awhile.

My little home really is a trailer, but it’s about a triple-wide and is nice. The bedroom, honestly, is about twice the size of the RV.

And I've splurged on Netflix for the six months I'm in the little house.

I don’t miss the RV.

Hard to believe, isn't it?