I was watching a terrible football game yesterday (we are 49er fans) when this message popped up on my phone.
If you’d have asked me, I’d have said I’ve been blogging for five or six years. Time does indeed fly when you’re having fun.
As for the Eagles winning the game instead of the 49ers, I’m excited because of a player from my daughter’s university, Britain Covey, who is on the Eagles. I’m a big Britain Covey Fan.
Britain’s grandfather is Stephen Covey who wrote “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and owned Franklin Day Planners. Britain played football at the University of Utah while my daughter swam. Although 5’8″ tall, was quick, smart and returned punts for touchdowns, up to 98 yards I believe. He was a team leader of the Utes.
I never thought he’d make it into the pros, let alone to the Super Bowl as an undrafted rookie!
If you follow football, who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?
How many years have you been blogging? Does it seem longer or shorter than the actual time?
Not because I’m home, but because of what showed up in our huge stack of mail.
A letter from my husband’s employer that said we need to verify our marriage or I’d be dropped from health insurance.
I was stunned, I tell you, stunned.
We celebrated 37 years of marriage this summer. THIRTY SEVEN!
I spent a good hour gathering requested documents. Scanning and printing said documents. They want them faxed.
Requested documents included a certificate of marriage and tax returns, bank or mortgage statement.
What ticked me off is I am a former employee of this firm. They have everything about me. ALSO, we have a number of bank and investment accounts AND mortgages with this company.
When we filled out mortgage applications, we provided all the requested documents including tax returns and bank statements. They have our information.
How can I NOT be verified as a spouse?
Of course, I am providing all the information. I’m just annoyed that I have to do it. We live in a world where everything is compartmentalized and computerized. The personal touch is gone in much of our lives. We’re a number. Gone are the days of my childhood where we all knew each other.
I guess this is a reality check that my vacation is indeed over. Back to real life.
What has annoyed you this past week? Or have you had a great week without minor inconveniences?
We drove eight hours on Saturday to get the bulk of driving done after our anniversary trip in Park City, Utah. Our goal was the Little America hotel in Flagstaff, AZ. I love the Little America. It was our home away from home in Salt Lake City while my daughter was at the University of Utah.
As I drove across Navajo land to Flagstaff, I noticed dark gray clouds building over Flagstaff. I pulled over and let my husband take over. After 35 years in the desert, I freak out driving through a storm — and I grew up near Seattle!
A few miles from the hotel, we witnessed huge lightning strikes, thunder and a downpour so intense we lost most of our visibility.
“Welcome to Flagstaff in July!” I told my husband. We both laughed and drove slowly to the hotel with our windshield wipers on blast.
Last July we spent our anniversary in Flagstaff. This is what I wrote:
Hail storm on the way to Flagstaff, July 2021 before we lost all visibility.
Friday we left for a two-hour drive to celebrate our anniversary in the cool mountain town of Flagstaff, Ariz. We were looking forward to getting out of the heat, exploring a new area, hiking, dining, and staying at our favorite hotel brand, Little America.
Halfway to Flagstaff, we were entranced with big dark clouds that had long threads of rain hanging from them. Then there was a thunderclap and it started to rain. The rain turned into hail within minutes. It sounded like our car was being hit by golf balls. I was scared out of my mind.
My husband asked me to turn on the hazard flashers. My hands shook so badly I couldn’t do it. I began praying the Hail Mary!
We saw cars pull over on the right shoulder of the two-lane highway. But there was a cliff on that side and the visibility was getting awful. We were in the left lane where there wasn’t room to pull over, just a ditch.
Visibility went to zero. My husband drove at one mile per hour. He said he didn’t want to stop in case someone barreled into us. He followed a foot behind a semi — the tail lights the only thing we could see.
Looking back on that drive in July 2021:
We didn’t know — until we got to the hotel — that our car was dented from the front to the back bumpers and everything in between. It looked like someone took a hammer to it. The car went into the shop for two months while we waited for the chrome trim to be delivered amidst supply chain issues. The insurance company was so inundated with claims from that storm that they flew in insurance adjusters from Texas and Oklahoma.
Our friends who live in nearby Prescott said they found four dead deer in their yard killed by hail. They also had tens of thousands of dollars of damage to their home.
What we saw on the news yesterday before we headed home:
Video of flash flooding in Flagstaff.
Good news!
In the end, we arrived home safely from our 2021 and 2022 anniversary trips. I’m up to do it again next year!
What type of storms have you experienced that seemed wilder than normal? Did everyone stay safe?
