Tornado

So I had a baby shower to attend on base this morning for the wife of one of Tom's classmates. I had stopped at Dollar Tree on the way to pick up a few things and found a bin of audiobooks. At that bargain price I had to grab several. As I drove toward the base, there were alerts on the radio station about storms and possible tornadoes but the weather was fine so I didn't pay much attention. I put in one of the audio books and checked through the gate at Maxwell when I started to hear a weird, whining noise. I couldn't figure out what it was but after a minute started to think it was coming from the audiobook. Great, I'm thinking. No wonder they were a buck! However, I turned down the volume and it didn't go away so now I'm thinking it's something squeaking from the car. I pull over across the street from where the baby shower is and just listen for a minute when I see a woman in my side mirror run out to a van that had been driving behind me and speak to the driver. Then she came running across the street to where I was so I unrolled my window.

"Hello! The big voice just came over the speaker. There is a tornado, this is not a warning and you must come to my basement now!"

"Um, okay", I say as it finally occurs to me that the annoying sound I've been hearing is the warning alarm but I do wonder who the "big voice" is as I proceed to follow this complete stranger to her basement. Inside, her two sons, one cat and one dog are already sitting in a damp, cement room. She introduces herself (Catherine) and the children then apologizes for making me come with her but explains that it would be dangerous for me to be in my car. She goes on to tell me that they've been through this before, including a roof that blew off so she's very serious about taking precautions. She calls her husband who is also a student in Tom's building and he says they are required to stand in the halls which line the inside of the building, away from all the windows. It does no good to call Tom as his cell does not work inside that building so I don't bother. I wonder what I would have done if I were at our apartment as I haven't studied up on tornado etiquette. Catherine and I chat. I remember seeing her at the Thanksgiving meal last week for the international students. She is also going to the baby shower at Dilini's house next door who, we discover through a phone call is just standing in her kitchen making egg salad sandwiches with two others while the wind and rain wreaks havoc with the area. We have two tiny windows in the basement room where we see a tomato plant get swept away and can see the pounding rain and violent wind whipping the leaves and branches in a giant tree outside the window.

After 10 or 15 minutes the wind dies down and we go upstairs where things look much calmer. The alarm is still sounding and the streets are deserted except for a slow moving police car. She tells me she won't hold me hostage in her basement if I want to go next door to Dilini's but she will be staying with her boys until the alarm stops. She lends me an umbrella as it's still raining. I run next door but within minutes the alarm stops so I decide to go to my car across the street to grab my gift and cookies. When I get to the street there is easily water to my mid-calf that I have to walk through and just as I get to my car, the alarm sounds again and it starts to pour. I grab my stuff, run (wade) back to Dilini's house and am sopping wet. It is only a mini alarm and stops almost immediately. I shake off and help set out food. Catherine arrives after a bit with her meat and cheese tray and our little surprise baby "shower" goes off without a hitch after the mama to be arrives, somewhat confused and late due to the tropical disturbance she had to drive through. Lunch, games & gifts, and by the time the party ended a couple of hours later it was sunny and 77 degrees. Well then. Welcome to Alabama.

Intramurals

So when we first arrived at Maxwell there were all sorts of things to sign up for. One of them was intramurals. All different types of sports but we of course chose.....bowling. We bowl on Tuesday nights but there are enough people on our team that with the rotation we rarely bowl more than a couple of times a month. That works perfectly with Tom's studying.
Tom and I are always playing at the same time but we never know who the other two players on our team will be. We've played with our friend Jan (she's run 5 K's with us) a few times and we had another classmate of Tom's last night. We've played against faculty teams and other student teams. One week there was no other team so between the two lanes we buzzed through 3 games very quickly and headed home. Some bowlers are very serious and others (most) are there like us, just to have a good time and enjoy the greasy food from the awesome snack bar. They have killer sweet potato fries!
You can see that the base bowling alley has all the lovely decor you could want with the full wall mural, the colored ball background and the disco ball hanging above.
Honestly, I don't even know how we've done over the weeks that we've competed. I DO know that we lost by 6 pins last night after I (as the last player on our team to bowl) didn't pick up a spare. Bummer. I did start that game with 3 strikes however. Tom had a few as well. We're awesome.

Emerald Coast

Because it was Veteran's Day, Tom had the day off from school so we headed to Florida for a quick weekend. It was awfully nice of the Blue Angels to fly over us on the way so I could tell him it was gift from me! It's only a 3 hour drive so we arrived quite a bit early before we could check in so we headed for the beach. It also happened to be 11/11/11 and apparently a very popular wedding date because there were several vans in the parking lot specializing in beach weddings and they were already set up for 3 when we arrived.

Tom has been here several times for work and has always told me how much I would love the beach. He was right! Gorgeous white sand, crystal blue water (not too cold) and no people! We took a looooong walk along the beach and it was perfect! Tom insisted on a sand angel. That's why I'm lying there that way. By the time we got back to where we started one wedding was under way and the others were waiting to start.

I don't why I felt compelled to document the fish carcass, but this thing was big. Gross and big!

We knew we wanted seafood for dinner and Tom couldn't remember the name of the place the lady at the check in desk recommended so we headed out and decided to just find someplace that looked good. We ended up at The Boathouse Landing in Niceville. Dinner was yummy...Tom had the grouper special and I had the hot & spicy shrimp salad. It was the perfect place though when the waitress said we were just in time for the "early bird" special which had just STARTED at 4:30 I thought "Who are we?!" Old people in Florida having the early bird special? Oh well, it was very good and got us back early enough that Tom could do some reading. I fell asleep at 7:30. Yep. I'm old.
This is where we stayed. I knew when we came to AL at some point we'd end up in a single wide. It was actually just fine for what we needed. 3 bedrooms (which we didn't need) a kitchen, bath and living room. Nothing fancy by any stretch, but comfortable.
The view out of our front door

The recreation area where we stayed has a small beach with rocks and plants around it. Somehow I managed to step into a cactus and ended up pulling stickers out of my show & foot. There is also a lake which, according to the sign you can't really see, warns us to NOT feed the alligators. Fortunately we didn't see any but we did find a fishing cage that had a nice big crab in it. Someone's dinner I suppose. We spent the day doing whatever we felt like. Replacing the mats in the car, a trip to check out the Eglin AFB BX, driving around the area, a trip to the beach which was a little cool and breezy for swimming & reading so we hit a local candy store, ran a few other errands then decided to spend the evening at "home" with a baguette, cheese & apples.
We headed out Sunday morning after we got the trailer cleaned up. We ended up at Waffle House for breakfast because we never found a mom & pop place on our way. If you've never been to Waffle House, they're on every corner in the south and sort of the Southwest Airlines of cafes. Every employee greeted us loudly with "Good morning!" when we walked in. The elderly man sweeping the floor sang in his deep baritone the whole time we were there. We've been to several different ones and they all have this atmosphere. Good, basic food and very, very friendly. Looks like a dive, but I really like it.

When we first went to a farmer's market in AL we met a girl who told us about muscadine. It's like a big grape, with thicker skin which is very healthy but which frankly, we weren't crazy about. It turns out that's what they make wine with in AL and FL because of the soil. Regular grapes won't grow here. Anyway, we stopped at this winery on our way home. Lots of goodies to sample but a favorite is a topping you put in a bag with saltines and grape seed oil (which they also bottle at the winery) then shake around. Crackers are spicy and yummy but still crispy.

Though it was a quick trip, it was fun, spontaneous and relaxing!

Church Shopping

The church adventures continue! My friend Linda suggested I visit a United Church of Christ so one day in Sept. while Tom was heavily involved in a paper I found this church online and headed out.

The building was gloriously old and beautiful with stained glass and dark wood. It was located in what appears to be a rather run down area of Montgomery but I tell you those folks were dressed to the nines. I was the only white face in the congregation. Women in hats, gorgeous suits, and joyful! I'm telling you that music just brought you to your feet and oh, were they lovin' on me? When the pastor asked if there were any visitors every smiling head turned (as it was pretty clear I was visiting) and a microphone was put in my hand to introduce myself. Then during the "greeting" portion I have never received so many warm hugs as I did this morning. One of those sweet ladies came and took my hand during the intercessory prayer portion when the entire congregation walked to the front around the altar for more music and personal prayer. A lovely tribute and prayer for 9/11 victims then a wonderful sermon on motives....and do we do what we do for the right reasons or for recognition. Really wonderful and very much delivered the way you would expect by a black preacher that was feelin' the spirit as well as responses from the congregation. By the end of the service a couple of other older white women had come in so I wasn't quite as conspicuous as earlier but by that point I didn't care. They couldn't have been more welcoming. I was so glad I was there and will definitely go back though I think (know) this would have been WAY out of Tom's comfort zone. By the second round of hugs he would have been inching his way out the back!
Next was a very lovely old church, a welcoming congregation and a very familiar service. It was nice to sing hymns we haven't heard in awhile and to partake of the traditions that we have missed in some ways. A bit of an older congregation (which is typical of Presbyterians) but a couple came and visited us at home the Tuesday evening after we visited to invite us to a church function. Offered us a ride to the function which was quite a distance away. Apparently all these "older" congregants are our contemporaries. Hmm. Who knew?

One Sunday we went to the Episcopal church in downtown Prattville. Very small, older congregation. I don't know if I've never been to a Episcopal service before but it was very Catholic in nature. Kneeling, reciting, standing, etc. Like I said, I love the looks of these old churches but there wasn't anything about the service or sermon that would draw me back again.
I met another spouse who along with her husband were playing in the praise band at this Methodist church so we went there for a couple of weeks to hear them. It was obviously a contemporary service (hence the band) and again, similar in nature to most contemporary services we've attended. They actually had a really cute Fall festival area set up outside the church all decorated with haystacks, scarecrows, etc. where they have a pumpkin patch during the week.
The LDS church is literally a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It's the only one in Prattville that I'm aware of. Friendly congregation; I happened to sit next to the husband of the Relief Society president who I met after the service. There's also a girl from my new book group who attends there and apparently there are about seven families from ACSC who are members. It was nice to see an LDS congregation with some diversity, including the African-American woman sitting in front of me completely decked out in best dress and a big ol' hat. It was testimony meeting AND the day after the LSU-AL football game so the sad results of that game for the community were worked into several testimonies. Funny. This article also just happened to be in the Deseret News this morning....the Southern Baptist/Mormon similarities. I have noticed some resemblances. The friendliness factor is unmistakably comparable!

International Thanksgiving

The morning's here are chilly but by afternoon it's gorgeous. Right now it is 75 degrees and will stay that way until late evening. However, since the time change it is dark by 5 PM. It's finally starting to actually look like Fall. The colors are still vibrant and is giving the area an Autumn feel. A great way to start an early Thanksgiving celebration!

Every month the international students meet for a "coffee" from 9-11 on the 2nd Tuesday of the month in the basement of the base chapel. It gives them a chance to be together, practice their english and make new friends. Today's "coffee" was actually a full meal as we introduced them to our Thanksgiving. We had a little ice breaker as the ladies came in where we needed to find an international spouse with the same birth month, same hobby or career (I found an actress!), children of the same age, liked the same food and someone who came from a continent you had visited. It was fun and I got to talk to a lot of new people.

Volunteer Leona pointed out what all the food items were and Jody told the story of the first Thanksgiving before offering a prayer over the food. The cute couple in the pilgrim costumes talked about what the period may have been like for those who lived here during that time.
Needless to say there was a plethora of traditional food and I think the ladies all seemed a tad stunned that we would really eat this much at one meal. I did keep reminding them that this meal wouldn't normally take place at 10 AM. They did seem to enjoy it though they certainly don't load their plates the way we Americans do.

Everyone had a good time and at my table alone I had friends from Pakistan, the Philippines, Japan, Turkey, India and Estonia and Albania.
Sira (in the center) said she was afraid she was going to be mistaken for a pumpkin!

This cute girl from Japan was so enamored with the rolled plastic ware & printed paper napkins she couldn't wait to duplicate them at home! Feeling blessed already to have spent the day surrounded by such lovely people.

You know you're living in Alabama when it's AL vs. LSU, every car is headed to Tuscaloosa, and you're the only person in the state without some form of "roll tide" painted on your vehicle or body.

It's Cotton Pickin' Time!

Me as Scarlett O'Hara. If only I'd raised my fist to the sky in defiance! (There's ANOTHER book I need to re-read while I'm here.......)


I don't know anything about this except that we have driven by fields and fields of what started as wispy white and just got heavier and heavier as the season went on. The big machinery has appeared this week and we thought we'd better get some photos and samples before it was all gone!