19

 This morning, I got to go down to the general store and get a hot coffee.  I also mailed off a mail hold I have been forgetting to do.  Because I Did a Thing I also got myself a very dark Lindor truffle.  Well, and because the lady behind the counter - that kind lady who worried about us in our first storm here - told me my coffee was on the house this morning.

I told her that the ground beneath the sun porch was liquefied and asked if they could maybe dump gravel there.  She consulted with their ground guy and said they'd see what they could come up with.  Meanwhile we decided to tear out the tarp.

Tearing out the tarp, as a plan, freaked Joey out because he feared the cats would just run out beneath the flappy sides of the porch.

So instead we cut out the middle of the floor so the edges are still taped and staked down.  I only  cut myself three times!

And lord was it a morass under there.

Pounce, of course, ran out into it, got her paws muddy, and ran back in to huddle in three different places on my cot, including my pillow.

Our temporary solution to let it dry out was to put our door mats as a path.  This was not quite wide enough for a wheelchair path.

Gross.

Yes, those are my knock off crocs that I tried painting.  All this mud ruined the shoes I brought with, so this is my footwear.

They are not very paintable, by the way.  My daisies peel off all the time.

We got all this done in time for another storm to hit, which is as we all know perfect porch drying weather.  We ate cheese curds and sandwiches and hunkered down - this time we had a tornado watch.

Hauling young people out to the bathroom felt like having water poured on me from a bucket.

The winds kept knocking the kids' TV over by whacking it with wildly wobbling sidewalls, which really cut into them using that to relax.

We were ok, though, safe and dry inside, and the shape of the tent, rounded and slumpy, holds up amazingly to high winds.  Highly recommend.  It does say it's a ten person tent, but you'd have to all be very fond of each other.

I did show Joey this tent I saw online:

It does look more housey.

I assume it has a rain fly somewhere.

We went to sleep around midnight, as the storm calmed down into drizzle.  I love the sound of rain on a tent.  At least while I'm not being battered by that tent in high winds.

We are at a point in the month where I am silently panicking about where we'll be next month.  I'm still talking with the landlord of the place we looked at, but he hasn't approved us yet.  And even if he does, we'll still need a deposit.  Aaron's worker (and possibly Joey's) can help with some expenses (like a moving truck and maybe some furnishings to replace what we lost).

And the first month's rent will likely be full price while we wait for a section 8 inspection.

So I am prepared for another Temporary Desperate Solution month, but praying it won't be needed.