Key West Lou / I AM YOUR WIFE

Sad stories, sorrow seem to permeate our lives in recent times.

Today’s involves a family caught in the Oregon wildfire.

Watt Tofte was 13 years old. His grandmother Peggy Mosso 71.

To avoid the flames, they jumped in a car. The fire fighters found their remains. Young Watt with his dog sitting in his lap. Peggy in the driver’s seat. Very little left of the three.

Angela, Watt’s mother and Peggy’s daughter, saw them in the burning car. She tried to help. She was badly burned. Remains in critical condition.

Chris Tofte is Angela’s husband, Chris’ father, and Peggy’s son in law.

When a break occurred in the fire, Chris was driving down a road looking for his family. He saw a badly burned woman walking along the road. He stopped. He did not recognize the woman. He told her he was looking for his wife and son.

“I am your wife.”

Sally a surprise! Sally the tropical storm that was over Key West all day and night yesterday. Sally still with us this morning with an occasional rainfall.

Early morning, I went on the porch. Everything was calm. It is true…..The calm before the storm. Seen it before. No wind. Leaves not moving. Neither hot nor cold. I thought the day might be a difficult one.

The rain came down over a long period of time. Sally took breaks. Big time lightning accompanied the storm. Constant wind gusts.

Sally was to pass Key West on her northern side. It did. However Sally took a rest. Did not move as fast for a while. And unloaded herself on Key West.

The reason so much water, etc. dumped on Key West is that the wind power moving Sally was coming up from the south. Key West was on the northern side of the storm towards where the wind rain was pushing through.

Note Sally merely a tropical depression. Not even a hurricane.

Big time flooding! The news says it was a record rainfall. Nine and one half inches in one day. The previous high was 2 1/2 inches. A biggie!

Everything flooded.

My street. Street and sidewalks under water. Water came up to the first step of the porch.

I heard a lot of yelling and screaming. I went on the porch to see what was happening. Four kids, under 10, were swimming and playing in the street. Bathing suits and all.

Lisa’s home on Duncan almost flooded. The water came up to the lip of her entrance. Another inch and the first floor would have had water throughout.

People were walking barefoot on Duval. Someone kayaking at Duval and Front Streets. Driving next to impossible.

Sally moving again. On her way to Louisiana where it is expected she will be a Category 1 when she makes landfall.

Though rarely, storms sometimes sit for a few days over an area. Recall Dorian.

I remember another tropical storm 10-12 years ago. Forget its name.

It came and sat over Key West for a week.

My house was boarded up. Sandbags at the driveway entrance and front of the house, also. A small door left unboarded at the back of the house. My only way in and out.

Electric power went. Dark for several days. I had flashlights and candles. That’s it. No TV. Reading sucked. I recall thinking at the time it had to be impossible for Abraham Lincoln to have studied law by candle light.

Got a break on the fourth day. The eye was over us. Calm. I met Lisa and family at Jack Flats for a sandwich. Then home before the eye finished passing over us.

I mentioned Chuck Yeager and Orville Wright yesterday. Yeager was a World War II ace. Shot down 12 German planes, 5 in one day. He also flew in Vietnam.

My sister Joan called me last night. Her now deceased former husband Major George McCarty was Yeager’s wing man in Vietnam.

A special fund was established years ago to pay the medical bills of 9/11 first responders. The Treasury Department controlled expenditures. Or at least was supposed to.

It was discovered this past week that since 2017 millions of dollars were sent somewhere by Treasury. Not to pay the bills of the first responders No one knows where it went.

I wrote in a 2018 blog that trillions could not be accounted for in the Department of Defense/Pentagon budgets.

The 2016 “lost dollars” were discovered by the Inspector General. Totaled $6.5 trillion.

We never heard anything more about it.

In 2018, Ernst and Young and other private firms were hired to audit the books of the Department of Defense.

Ernest and Young reported they could not complete the audit. Their report indicated the records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was impossible. Trillions involved again, though actual number could not be ascertained.

I suspected at the time that a significant portion had been paid to Afghanistan warlords. Also that money might be changing hands as part of military-industrial complex activities.

Oh, the miss spending of government!

Those responsible get away with it. Contrasted with the 90 percent who are in economic straights. Steal a buck and go to jail!

Poor Syracuse! My Syracuse! Lost to North Carolina 31-6.

Syracuse could have won. Blew it in the last quarter. Syracuse was down 7-3 at half time. Still in the game. Ten-six at the end of the 3rd quarter. Still looking good. Note North Carolina was a 22 point favorite.

The fourth quarter a disaster. North Carolina scored 3 touchdowns for 21 points. Syracuse none.

I suspect a tough season ahead.

May Johnson’s diary entry for this day in 1896 gives an indication how dating was back then.

May wrote: “Mr. E asked me if we wouldn’t all come down to the boat tomorrow. I said yes if Mrs. Irene could go, he was mad because I wanted a chaperone, said it wasn’t necessary, he don’t know Key West people.”

Enjoy your Monday!

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