Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, y'all. This has been a tough week in more ways than one. Last Thursday, our city issued a full water ban after some complaints of a gasoline smell in the water. Our area of Tennessee has been plagued with horrible storms this summer that have put TONS of trees on houses, knocked out power for days, and overwhelmed the drainage systems, causing flooding in homes that aren't anywhere near a flood zone. We have been very lucky. We had some limb cleanup and lost power a few times, but thankfully, no damage has occurred to the structure of our house.
The wind and rain have been so powerful with these storms though, and one of our water treatment facilities lost power and had recently been powered by a huge generator. As it turns out, the generator was faulty and leaked a large quantity of fuel- between 100 and 500 gallons, according to the city- into our water supply. The only thing we can do with our water is flush toilets (and believe me, I'm grateful we can do that). Not even boiling can get rid of diesel.
As of today, we are still under the water ban with no real end in sight. They've fixed the generator leak, finally found the breached pipe that allowed diesel to get into the closed reservoir, and now they're in the neutralizing and flushing stage. I'm holding onto hope that we're just in this for a few more days. We have been eating out (outside of our city) because we can't wash dishes easily, and we're doing laundry and showering at my father-in-law's house, one town over. I'm so grateful that we have somewhere we can get ourselves clean, wash our clothes, and refill our water jugs, and I'm certain I'll never take clean water for granted again. Though it's been a huge inconvenience to us, restaurants and some businesses are being hit hard.
I've also been preoccupied with some things happening in my family. My grandmother had major back surgery four weeks ago and has not been recovering well. She was readmitted to the hospital yesterday and they found an infection which hopefully explains her decline. A couple of weeks before HER surgery, my grandfather was hospitalized and had to have an infection surgically treated, and HE has been in skilled nursing for the past six weeks. I went to Louisiana for a week in June to help out, but my mom has been carrying the heaviest load these past several weeks, caring for both of her parents (she lives in town), as well as my aunt when she is able to come into town to help. The best I can do from six hours away is listen to my mom when she needs it.
The family worries have been going on for awhile, and the new addition of the water issue feels like the last straw. I'm finding it so difficult to motivate myself to get into my sewing room. I have managed to finish my secret project and meet that deadline, but beyond that, my mind is just too full to start something new. It's been one thing after another since we returned from the beach in May, and though I don't usually share a ton of personal stuff, my sewing drought has been so extensive lately that I wanted to let you know why.
If you've read this far, and if you're the praying type, I would appreciate them first and foremost for my grandparents, for my mom and aunt, and finally for the restoration of our city's water.
Yesterday, I just wanted to play with some color, so I opened up my cabinet and started pulling. I have no idea what I might make with this fabric pull, but I do love the palette. I do know this- the pattern I choose will be easy, and not require much brainpower, because right now I just don't have it to spare.
Last week's party was one of the highlights of my week, as it always is! Nancy from Grace and Peace Quilting shared this quilt top, and you should definitely check out her post to see photos from her huge National Parks road trip!
