Some Dreams Are Just To Bizarre To Explain, Part 3

It was as real as day. I was on my way to pick up India from work. 

I never pick India up from work. She gets out not long before Ken, and about the same time as Matthew. She takes the bus to church (where Matthew is on the IT staff) and rides home with him. Or she walks to the store and Ken picks her up on his way home from the office.  Having sold my van to Matthew, I am carless right now anyway, except for the rare occasion that I use Ken's and my car. Yet there I was, picking her up from work.

Only this was different. I was driving an older SUV that I don't recognize, and cruising down an icy highway that looked like the one heading north from Utica, NY. Sort of. 

I was the second vehicle in a long line of slow moving vehicles. We were following a man who was going about 35mph as he slid on his bottom along the road. Yes. he was sitting upright and pushing himself with his hands as he slid on his butt. Doing a pretty speedy 35mph considering his mode of transportation.

As we were slowly driving, I noticed an amazing view coming into sight. We were getting closer to a hill and I could see the valley spread out in the distance. I had my tablet in the car (I never do this), so I took the tablet and starting taking photos as we moved along. The valley was getting closer while I realized I had never seen it before. I was wondering if I had taken a wrong turn. All this time the car in front never blocked the view for me.

At the top of the hill, the man scooting along the road "pulled over" to the side to let the rest of us pass. The car in front of me was no longer there and I was at the top of a very steep drop (think roller coaster). I wanted to stop but there were too may cars behind me. So over I went. The SUV picked up speed as gravity took over. Then the road abruptly curved upward, and disappeared. I mean it just ended. I kept "driving" upward into the air. 

I looked down and realized the other cars were ant-size below me, while they continued down the road. It turned out I had veered off and gotten onto a short road similar to those found on sleep inclines to stop a runaway tractor-trailer.  Only those usually have gravel to stop the truck, not a huge ramp to the sky. 

As I continued rising into the air, I was thinking "This is the last time I pick her up from work."

Then Kito whined at the bedroom door for us to let him outside....

A New Year With An Old Love

I can't believe another year has gone by so quickly and my life has changed so much in that time. After giving up on love and believing those who had claimed to love me, but would tell me that no one ever would, I am back with my first love.  Happier than I ever thought I could be and more in love than I thought was possible. We had lost one another for 35 years but found each other, and could only think of how we would manage to be reunited.  It took several months to figure out the logistics.

I owned my own rather large home, but was on year five of a never-ending battle to keep it, while my ex wanted it sold. My children were in a school that they loved.  But most of all, my church family meant the world to me. My entire family was heavily into volunteering there; my oldest was even their Tech Director.  However, I was never able to find a permanent job and worked a series of short term jobs. But we were happy.

My Sweetie was living a life of loneliness and working at a job he loved with the same company for almost three decades, and told me he often dreamed of one day finding me. Then I found him.

I gave up the fight for the house,  found homes for my dog, cats and remaining chicken. We packed everything we owned into storage, sent my minivan to my neighbour's home, until we get transmission work done. Two of my sons opted to live in the country with their Dad and my four remaining children traveled with us and our remaining cats, cockatiel, and dinner plate-sized red-eared slider. We downsized to an apartment in the city. Quite different from our almost 3000 square foot home and five acre property in the country.

We found a church we love; where my oldest is already involved in the tech department. Two of my kids have jobs, another changed her college plans and the younger one is loving his new school that has almost as many kids in his grade as his former school had in K-12 grades. My remaining children and I are closer than ever. We've had many  laughs and fun adventures and are taking part in all sorts of new activities.  But the best part for me is that I am back with the first boy I ever loved. My first serious relationship.  And for the first time in my life I feel like someone really loves me (besides my parents and my children).

I don't know how 2015 can be better than 2014. I can't wait to see what is next.

Memories of the Blizzard of '77

It's raining.  A change from the last week when we got over two feet of snow in just four days.  My kids were excited by it since they had a day off from school. India was frustrated by it since she was stranded on the wrong side of the state from college.  Matthew had to keep snow-blowing the driveway so the build-up wouldn't get too deep for the push-behind snow-blower. I was watching the weather with much more interest.  The strong winds, the white-out conditions along with the snow falling so quickly reminded me of the biggest blizzard I have ever seen.  A blizzard that became notorious.  When the winter snow turns to blizzard conditions I always wonder, is another one coming...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 28th, 1977 was just another winter day.  We had several feet of snow built up from the snow that had fallen since October - when the first snowfall fell that winter, after an extremely rainy summer.  Like so many people in Northern New York State, I had just gone about my day.  

I was 13 then and in 8th grade.  It had been a long day at school and I was eager to get home but as the clock on the wall slowly ticked away, everyone was unaware of what was about to strike.  If we knew, perhaps things would have ended up differently for so many people. 

Like this winter, our temperatures so far the winter of 1976-1977 had been bitterly cold and Lake Erie had frozen over early.  Further up north, in the Lake Ontario Region, we never saw a frozen lake.  Ontario was much too deep for that. The cold was so widespread that even Miami reported snow that winter. In Lowville Academy everyone was used to the snow by now. It had snowed almost every day since Christmas. 

Down in Western New York (where I now live) Lake Erie was covered in a deep layer of powdery snow.  With the lake frozen there was little moisture in the snow and this would make driving conditions nearly impossible. Earlier that day a wall of snow, similar to the one in this photo, had made it's way across Lake Erie and was traveling across Western NY, Ontario Canada and as far south as Erie, Pennsylvania. 

School was going to be letting out in just a little while when the sky went dark.  Everyone turned toward the windows as we watched the darkness be taken over by unrelenting snow, like we had never seen before.  People crammed against the windows to watch and the announcement came over the PA system that the buses would not be running.  Only children living in town were allowed to go home and they needed to do so right away.  other children in our K-12 school of around 2000 students would be sleeping in the "Big Gym" and the school would be feeding them.  I lived the next block over from the school.  A quick 3-minute walk any other day of the year.  My walk home took me around 20 minutes that day and when I arrived home, my Mom told me that my sister's mother-in-law had called and wanted us to bring her 12th grade son to our house.  So Mom sent me back to school.  

West Port Colborne North St. Catharines,
Ontario, Canada

By then the sidewalk was gone and the mailbox marking the corner of the intersection was in the process of being buried.  After crossing the street, I had four houses and a stretch of parallel parking to get past before reaching the first door in the elementary wing of the school. I couldn't see!  The snow was coming so fast and coating my eyelashes, making my eyes too heavy to open.  My nostrils were frozen and the 49 mile an hour wind gusts were taking my breath away, making breathing almost impossible.  40 minutes later, I arrived at the breezeway door. I was frozen and had to take a few minutes to re-group so that I could walk down the hallway to the big gym. When I got there, most of the kids were gone. Other people had come and taken all but a handful to their homes.  Ken was nowhere to be found.  I finally found out that he had gone home with the high school music teacher, who lived with his wife behind the school. 

I was dreading the walk back home but I didn't have to worry. When I walked out of the gym I saw flashing lights and one of the teachers told me to go out the door where the police car was parked.  Uncle Clarence had come to get me and take me home. My Mom was worried that I hadn't come home and had called Tante Clara.  Tante Clara was my Mom's sister and she also lived in our hometown where my Dad had recently retired as Chief Deputy Sheriff. But Uncle Clarence was still the Sheriff , until his own retirement the next year.   

And you thought you had a hard time finding your car in a parking lot?

I made it home and stayed there for the next week.  Schools were closed and people were stuck in their homes, unless you were lucky enough to live in town, or had a snowmobile. 

The school buses left out were all buried. 

Western NY got relatively little snow, but the blowing snow off the lake made conditions terrible.  Northern NY was dumped on with continuous snow until January 31st, when the blizzard finally let up.  The Lake Effect Storm covered our Tug Hill Plateau with almost 100 inches of snow. 

Volunteer firemen clearing off the roof of a house in Depew, NY. 

Thankfully, we never had our electricity go out and we had the fireplace going in the den, so we could shut ourselves in there to get away from the draftiness of our old house. The windchill was well below zero.

Many people made tunnels to get into their homes.
My cousin cleared out a tunnel from the road,
up an angle and onto our front porch.
(this is not my photo)

Uncle Clarence kept us up-to-date on what was going on around the county. So we heard when Camp Drum (now Fort Drum) brought out 14 Amtrak vehicles to help.

C-130 bringing in badly needed supplies.

There were so many people stranded, and buried, in Montague and throughout the rest of "The Tug" and New York State. 

Because of the sudden onslaught of the snow, people were stranded on the roads.  We heard about a police car that was parked next to a stranded car when an Army vehicle came through and ran them both over. 

A front-end loader is trying to clear Furhmann Boulevard.
You can barely see the buried car.

29 people died during the course of the storm, including nine who were found frozen to death in their cars. Most of the deaths were in Western NY. Five lives were lost in Northern NY.

Roof collapsed by weight of snow.

Red Cross volunteers searching for  trapped people

QEW between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie

Snowmobiles became the only means of travel for those without a military track vehicle available to them. While the highway department tried to keep even a single lane open for traffic.

Miser Hill Road, Town of Rutland, Jefferson County

Of course, you had to find your car first. 

There was a full-size van under there.

When the Blizzard finally ended on January 31st, a State of Emergency was declared and traffic was banned except for essential vehicles. While the clean-up continued. 

Buffalo wasn't the only place hit by the storm - this was in Watertown, NY. Jefferson County had snowdrifts that were 'only' 18 feet high.

Rt.177 in Barnes Corners

Snow plow coming up road ...

After things calmed down, people ventured out to explore the damage. Cars were towed out of the roads in the hopes that their owners would find them. 1,900 stranded travelers in Northern NY were allowed to leave on February 1st because supplies were running out.  The dairy industry lost $8 million as a result of the storm. Northern NY is a dairy region and the farmers had to dump their milk. They also had problems getting to their barns to feed their livestock, while several barns collapsed under the heavy Lake Effect snow. 

.

Rt. 11 looking south at the Rt.177 intersection maybe 200 feet away

The utility poles were almost buried. 

I thought it was so cool how we could actually walk up to the stop lights. 

I used to have the game, but lost it in a divorce.  The game was more based on Buffalo but it was still fun to reminisce while playing. 

The blizzard was such a hard thing to endure - even living in town. But what I will remember the most about this terrible time in so many lives will be the people.  Everyone cared so much about others.  Not just the many, many highway crews and military from throughout the United States who came to help us.  We were blessed to have this happen in a time when people cared for each other.  If you needed to have someone checked on, you simply called the local radio station and told them the address you needed someone to go to and a complete stranger would go there and let you know if your friend or relative was alright and give them any assistance they might need.  Neighbours would check to see if you needed anything before they would brave the storm to go downtown and pick up supplies. People in even the smallest homes filled them with stranded strangers. With the inside scoop from my Uncle we heard so many stories of people helping people. The show of compassion was often overwhelming but this is my strongest memory of the Blizzard of '77. 

Some Dreams Are Just To Bizarre To Explain

Sitting around with Matthew discussing prescription drug commercials and wondering about the various side-effects.

So many to choose from.  How do the patients know which to select? 

I mean, that's why they list them, right? 

So you can go to your doctor and tell him which side-effect you would want. I think that is very thoughtful of the drug companies.

Today one of the choices given was "unusual dreams".  Which makes us wonder - what is considered an unusual dream?

I don't dream often but a few weeks ago I had a dream that left my gang saying "Wha-a-at?"

It began in a humble home from the 1400's. 

It was a tiny house with mud-covered walls, thatched roof and tiny windows.  I was dressed in clothing from that era and speaking to a man also dressed from the 1400's.  He was telling me that we would be safe there, in this home someone had loaned us.  He said that I still needed to be on the look-out for the Huns, though, in case they were able to track us down.  I felt that he was my husband but nothing about him seemed relevant.

(I know I have just messed up times in history - it gets odder)

He left for work in a large red, newer model pick-up truck and I sat at a sewing machine to make a new skirt. My sewing machine that I rescued before it could be tossed out at the thrift store where we volunteer - because it was too old. My 1940's model New Home electric sewing machine with table. This was the sewing machine where I sat down to work.

The sewing machine was next to the heavy, wooden front door so the cool air could come in. As I looked out, I saw some vehicles coming down the hill to my left into town (very similar to the entrance of a small hamlet that I once lived in). There were three minivans and two sedans and I could see they were dressed as Huns.

In a panic, I shut the door and began closing the heavy shutters inside the small windows throughout the house, being careful to cover the shutters with the curtains so I wouldn't have to look at the wood and could still feel comfortable. 

As I went from room-to-room I noticed they were becoming much nicer and more traditional.  The living area had the most basic necessities with nothing indicating I wasn't living in the 1400's but the children's bedrooms had nice beds, including a white canopy bed like I wanted as a child - but ended up with a full-sized bed "to grow with me".  As I continued closing the shutters, I noticed the windows were the size of normal windows.

When I reached the master bedroom it was huge, like my own, but very modern and elegant with a large flat screen TV in a seating area. There even was a master bathroom - something my 113 year old house doesn't offer.  The windows in the bedroom were large and let in lots of sunlight, so it took me a while to make sure they were secure. 

I went into the lower lever which was underground - but not quite the basement.  This room was like the basement in my "Mom's" house on Chase Lake in the Adirondacks.  It was beautifully done in a pale wood (pine? - I didn't stop to look) and even had the mirror and glass shelves in the corners for knick-knacks. Only this room was much larger than Mom's basement.  My children were all in this room playing cards and merely looked at me as I closed the traditional-sized basement windows.

I noticed another set of stairs and followed them to a much lower level.

This area was amazing!  

I didn't notice the room. What I noticed was the wall of windows in this high-ceilinged room.  The windows looked out to the woods - reminiscent of  Mom's living room on the lake.  The windows were made up of sliding doors and I stepped through them to look outside.  That is when I noticed the pool in the woods - where she would have the lake - a short walk down the path.  It was a large, in-ground swimming pool and was carefully fenced off to keep wildlife from falling in.

While I looked at the pool, my bonus daughter, Rachel, came running up to me and told me Amanda was stuck and needed help.

I ran after Rach back into the house but when I stepped through the doors, I was in a small 1400's village, surrounded by locals dressed like myself.  I immediately became nervous because I was afraid the Huns would find us but wondered what was taking them so long, since I had already seen them coming into town.                           

Rachel led me to a large, blue postal box next to a chain-link fence, which I realized was the fencing surrounding our pool.  Amanda was partially in the box and wearing her bikini swimsuit.  As I began trying to help her out, I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was heading to the pool when her friends "double-dared" her to climb in the box. I looked around for help and saw that the locals were going about their business in what seemed to be a marketplace - oblivious to us. 

I turned back to Amanda and told her I hope I can get her out before the Huns get into town.

Then I woke...

An old Japanese superstition states that your first dream of a new year will come true.

I am so glad this was one of my last from 2012 or I don't know what my new year would look like.