The First Anniversary of Helene: A Nerd's Story

 Hello Friends,

Today marks the one year anniversary of Tropical Storm Helene devastateing Western North Carolina where I live. In the wee hours of the morning people's worlds changed, towns were rendered unrecognizable, and communication practically nonexistent. The other day as Mom and I were going outd I was looking a the road were were riding on, and found it hard to believe a year ago it'd been covered in mud. 

There's of course a lot of talk this week of the the 1st year after Helene. So I decided for the anniversary to tell my story of what my family and my's experiences were with this storm. I think this well be a long one so get ready.

In the weeks leading up to the storm I was reading for the Orilium Magical Readathon, and preparing my Dean Winchester Cosplay for my fall cons the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo and the Fall WNC Comic Con. 

 

 

As we saw on the news this huge system could potentially hit our area. My anxiety flared a bit with worry, but reminded myself storms usually lost a lot of power by the time they got to the mountains of North Carolina that my anxiety was just getting me worked up. Of course the peace I had for myself was short lived when my Great Aunt mentioned she was worried, and I'm like if the older folks who've seen a few storms are getting worried, then maybe it's gonna be bad. 

Well a couple days before Helene was to hit a low came in dumping  so much rain on our heads. It was hard enough to knock a big limb out of one our popular trees on the property, and get the streams running high. This of course would add issues to the storm to come.

September 26th- 27th 

As the 26th became night I started doing some prepping. I was checking out the comic books I needed from the digital library, cause I was gonna read those to finish the readathon, and just in case the power went out I wanted to get the books on the kindle app, and do it before the rain knocked out my satellite internet. For most of the night we still had power, it was still on when my Mom eventually went to bed. I think the main part of the storm was still a little bit away from us. 

I come into the kitchen at some point and find a cute little frog:

I'm like your cute but you can't be in the house.  In the process of trying to herd the little thing out the door I scared the cats who bolted out the door and, thankfully, under the truck that was parked in front of the door. It took some coaxing and I think the can opener to get the furballs back to safety. 

At about 3 a.m. maybe we were plunged into darkness.With the power being out I had no way of knowing now where Helene was located. I don't do well in complete darkness so I turned on this string of butterfly lights I had and a battery powered lantern another of my great aunts had given us. This still didn't make me comfortable cause I could still see the dark living room. I don't know if I shut the privacy curtain to make myself comfortable, but either way I settled myself down with my tablet and proceeded to read the comics I got from the library... That's right I'm so nerdy I read comics in the middle of a topical storm. As I read through stories of zombies, vampires, Sherlock and Pumpkin Kings. The wind and rain howled outside. I hoped and prayed the tree outside my window wouldn't come crashing into my room, another reason I didn't want to sleep that night. So there I was on my bed reading trying to keep my anxiety at bay when in the silence of the de-powered dark my phone started buzzing. I looked at the screen it was the emergency signal telling everyone to get off the roads. I had a chill run through me, that's when I knew Helene had arrived. So I finished my nights vigil, I finished my comics and I moved on to a Twitches book. With the coming of the dawn there was still some wind whipping about. When it died down we looked at the damage.  We had a ditch made a little deeper and I imagine some broken limbs and down trees up in the woods. But near the house the biggest loss we had was my Dad's Zinnia's: 

We ended up making a bouquet out of the broken ones. Amazingly enough in a storm that caused so much damage, we somehow came out with minimal damage. After assessing the damage I got me some much needed sleep.

 September 28th

After spending day before reading, I had nothing else to do, and another dark night with no power, my mom feared for the food in our fridge and two deep freezers. So it was decided the 28th we'd head to town to get non perishables so if all our stuff went bad before the power came back on we'd have food. I was also hoping to find working WiFi somewhere to alert my friends and sister we were fine, and I was gonna charge the emergency charger in the truck as we drove that day. So as we left we saw below the house the tile we use to cross over the stream had clogged a bit sending the stream over the road, but it's little enough we could easily cross over it. As we got to the exit of our holler we saw a power line down in our holler adjacent neighbor's yard. As we went down the road we came across a downed tree across the road that luckily curved up into a high enough arch we could get the Tank through it, our 1999 Silverado F1-50.  

We stopped by the church cemetery to check to make sure my Dad's wreath hadn't blown away. Amazingly enough it was still standing just askew, I like to think it was my wreath securing skills, or the Grace of God. 

 

A Downed Tree 

 

We started going our normal route we and ran into the electric company as we started the decent to the riverside area that ran along the Pigeon River. We saw, and dodged rolls of hay, saw silt in the road and a farmer's trailer that'd been slammed into a building on the farm. And right passed it a giant tall bridge, that has weather many floods in it's long life, was ripped from it's banks taking some of the road with it:

 

As we traveled on we saw piles of mud on roads that had been cleared by locals who'd cleared it out with their machinery. This is why if the zombie apocalypse comes I know I'll be fine cause I'm surrounded by good ole country folk who got the things we need to survive, one of the two kinds of people you want having your back in times of trouble, the other my friend Captain says is inmates.

There was a woman we talked to on the side of the road who said she'd just been vacationing here in the mountains. Further along we saw the Pigeon had devastated the roads. 

We found ourselves facing another section of washed away road, leaving a narrow one lane to traverse. As my Mom was maneuvering these narrow passages, I'm was having a panic attack, knowing we're gonna have to come back this way.

 

Of course we came back sooner than we thought, because we eventually caught up to where the locals were clearing. It was a sea of impassable mud. Luckily we were told people were able to get out through the Fines Creek community. So we turned around and headed back the way we came.

We managed to get out Fines Creek way, there was a little concrete washed away but still passable. I just looked in awe that even Fines Creek caused so much damage on it's own, washing away river banks and personal bridges. Many small creeks in the area destroyed houses. 

 

 

So after that adventure we finally made it out of our little community on to 209. Our path eventually took us near the Pigeon again. We know a farmer who lost a large part of his river side fields because Helene redirected the river into half his field permanently.

 

Town was crazy with so much traffic, with lines at banks, and the grocery stores. It just shook me seeing all this. The destruction and the lines everywhere, this was things you saw in the news when tropic systems hit other places. I mean we're usually where people evacuate to in with storms!

We had to go through Frog Level which had so many stores damaged like Charlie's Corner here, they are just now at the time of this writing getting around to working on it. Frog Level has a mural of a frog sitting on a level the level shows how high got waters got there in a long ago storm, Helene matched it or possibly beat that based on the mud on the wall.

I went to Fangirl's Oma's house to see if they'd weathered the storm there since they had a modular home, but they hadn't. I was shocked to see flooding in these neighborhoods:

 Worried about Fangirl we decided to check on her. We got to her side of Canton through I-40. They were fine, and despite not having internet or power and she somehow had been messaging the Captain, who was fine and in limited contact with my sister who was OK, so I asked Fangirl to have Crystal tell my sibling we were fine. So with knowledge my siblings were good, and supplies we finally got home later than we planned. My Granny, who lives above us had been freaking out when we took her stuff to her. See my second cousin had been worried about us, so he hopped on his motorcycle, cause he figured it get around better with the destruction, and came down to the backwoods. He told Granny about the roads and she was fretting about us being on them specially since we were late getting back. See my Grandfather passed the year before and then when my Dad passed a few months later she's taken worrying over Mom and me.

So finally we were safe at home, night was falling so I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the couch intending to read some more Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce I'd been reading on. Shortly into the dark night our power came back on. Mom turned on the TV and found our satellite TV working. So I wondered hopefully did that meant my satellite internet was functional. It was, so I shot messages to my family and I think got to talk to my sister who could get on the WiFi at her partner's work building

 

The Days Following 

I used my internet to help people inquiring about relatives. If I had information that could help people I gave it to them, even encountered a woman seeking info about an area her aunt lived, turned out her aunt was my bus driver. I also saw all the judgement of people not understanding our surprising situation, wondering why we didn't do this and that. To those people I have choice words, but I'm a lady I won't say them, but I'm thinking them at you.  Even Julie Wunder, a former meteorologist turned blogger said in a post and I quote "... I was watching this storm, and I knew is was going to be bad. But never in a million years did I imagine it'd be this bad." Even weather people were thrown off guard by all this!

There was a lot of kindness too so much I think they had to tell people no more donations. Supernatural's Misha Collins, who'd been in Charlotte for the SPN Con, came out to areas in Asheville, Black Mountain, and Swannanoa. I was fangirling, and then feeling the warm fuzzies seeing him trying to help where he could.

My Nerdy Spaces: Geek Mountain and Morgan's Comics opened their doors to give people a reprieve from the surrounding Hell.

Our neighbors tag teamed to stopped up tile to get the water stopped on the road. 

 

I saw the devastation in Buncombe County next door with the River Arts District and Biltmore Village flooded. Towns practically whipped off the map. It broke my heart. Homes we constantly passed all my life eventually torn down due to flood damage... Not to mention hearing the death toll climb.

But we in WNC adopted the phrase WNCStrong. Because we may have been knocked down, but we didn't stay down, we came back roaring.

A Year Later

When I saw all damage I thought how are we going to fix this? How would we recover? But sitting here a year later I'm in awe what has been accomplished. The roads of the riverside area that I thought would require a miracle to fix, were rather quickly repaired and passable and a few months ago repaved. I'm slowly seeing neighbors repair and get back to normal. I joy in every triumph of a devastated business proclaiming they have reopened.

We've been strong and bounced back, we've not fully healed, but we are getting there.

The weather the last few days has reminded me of last year couple days of rain leading up to the 27th, and I'm hearing we may have a tropical system head our way, but nothing like Helene... I hope.

Have a good weekend friends, I thank you for reading much love!

*Thrifty Geek*  

Supernatural 20th Anniversary aka My Long Winding Road to Becomimg a Fan

Hello Supernatural Family,

So this year marks 20 years since Sam and Dean hit the road in their 1967 Chevy Impala. *Cues Kansas Carry On Wayward Son*

I'd thought I'd take some time to reminisce upon my memories surrounding the show and how I got into it especially that epically Supernatural date: September 13th, 2005. Now be warned this isn't a spoiler free post!

20 Years Ago...

So who was I 20 years ago? What was I doing? Where was I? Well I was a 21 year old college student three months legal to drink certain beverages:

Look at that shiny new 21 year old!

I was working on getting my Associates Degree in Film and Video Production Technology, and yes we were fully aware that was a mouthful. I was suppose to be starting my final year of college, but my program head shifted my final classes to the spring and summer semesters, probably due to all the drama from the spring before, which left me with an unexpected fall break. 

On the entertainment front this was the year Fangirl and I would walk out of the only that I've ever walked out of House of Wax**, which is funny given Jared Padalacki is in it. TV wise Buffy, the Vampire Slayer had ended two years previous, it's spin off Angel had ended last year, and the OG Charmed was entering it's last season, so I definitely needed new shows. Well hear about this show called Supernatural (SPN) and it has fantastical elements which is up my ally. 

So the night of September 13th, 2005 I sat in my moss green chair in my bedroom, and began the hunt. I remember watching Mary burst into flames on the ceiling and thinking "That's different". I also remember Sam coming home and I got a bad feeling and I'm like "Not the girlfriend, not the girlfriend", of course that went up in flames. Little did I know 16 years later I'd be having similar emotions going "Not Dean, not Dean", that got epically skewered. 

I know what you're thinking and so began a 15 season fandom love affair... I wish I could say that, I really do. I mean most people fell in love instantly with, heck if the memes are to be believed it was when Dean uttered the line: "Dad's on a hunting trip... and he hasn't been home in a few days." 21 year old me, a whole different story. I watched for a few episodes, I remember getting excited that Amy Ackers from Angel was gonna guest star in the third episode "Dead in the Water", but that's the most I remember of my viewing of that first half of the season. I think I dropped of sometime after "Faith", the first episode with the reapers, because when I was watching it for what I thought was the first time I recalled having seen Julie Benz one of the dresses she was wearing before. Plus the release date for it was near time the spring semester usually starts at my college, and I know I fell off watching after I started back. 

I know this has literally turned into a horror show for the Supernatural Family. I don't blame you. I'm horrified myself. Believe me I've had words with 21 me it's like "What was not to like in the show? There was a supernatural element, two cute boys, a pretty, pretty car! (If you get that reference you're awesome) Seriously totally your jam!" But remembering back I think the show initially came across as too dark and serious for my tastes. Keep in mind humor early in the show was much more subtle compared to what we got later on. Plus scarier, at least compared to the previous WB offers I was accustomed to watching. Now I loved spooky things back then, but what I could tolerate was a much smaller threshold compared to my spooky tolerances now at 41, amazing what 20 years can do to a person. So yeah I think I wrote it off as a uber serious weekly Horror movie, and mostly forgot about it. I mean this was forgotten so much that one time I saw this your birth date determines who you'll be stuck in a room with the rest of your life and I got Jenson Ackles, and I had to look up who he was. I know send chills up the spin thinking about it. Although what did Jenson do to get stuck with my Nerdy Butt for the rest of his life? Okay I'll stop scaring you now. 

The Road To Fandom... 

So Thrifty how did you finally start watching the show again? Glad you asked! You can that thank in a tiny part The Vampire Diaries, and a large part to Fangirl. So fast forward to 2009 when the aforementioned vampire show premiered, which attracted this Buffy loving geek, and I started watching it. It was while I watched that show, which at the time aired I think on Thursdays along with Supernatural, I would occasional like almost once a year see an ad for an SPN episode that peaked my interest. The first of these was "Changing Channels", cause mainly the guys were on a Japanese game show, a format I was familiar with thanks to G4 (RIP). I was surprised this serious horror show was doing humorous things like this, keep in mind had no clue they got a huge injection of funny. This was my first episode with the Trickster, and because it was the big reveal at the end had less of an effect on me as it would if I had been watching it all those seasons. This is also my first Castiel episode, yeah I'm salty about it too. Everyone else got a bada** coming into a barn holy glory, I get him coming out on a stage looking for the missing idjits, only to get spirited away by an arch angel. *Sighs* The next episode would be "The French Mistake" that I ended up watching when I realized they'd been brought to the real world. Then the last of these ad drawn in episodes, I think I was drawn to it cause of the ad, was "LARP and the Real Girl" because it had Felicia Day, who I had become a fan of thanks to The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (which are mandatory shows to watch for the 2000's Era of your Nerdy History class). Now you'd figure at this point I'd have realized my first impressions of the show were not correct, but apparently those first impressions stuck. 

It was a little later when that special time came along... When Fangirl was looking for a new show to binge. I can't tell you how many of my fandom origin stories involve this special time. Well this time Supernatural was her chosen one. So fun fact for you all: Fangirl exhibits signs when she has a new show obsession: 1. She starts making references, 2. She talks her Best Friend's ear off about it. *points to self* Whatever I had not learned about the show from the few episodes I watched and hanging in nerd spaces, I learned that day. This would be the catalyst for what happened next in my journey to SPN Fandom. 

I awoke one morning, I wasn't feeling so hot, can't remember if it was physical or mental, but I lounged on the bed channel surfing, and it was while scrolling the channels I came across Supernatural on TNT, and I'm like eh let's watch it. I soon found myself every so often watching this show that seemed to even capture my friend in it's grasp.  I quickly found myself enjoying it, but at this point was one of those shows I had to be in the right mood to watch, like NCIS. Of course my every so often TNT watch didn't last long cause SPN is not a show that will just be a sometimes thing, it's too powerful, supernatural I daresay. Soon I found myself being dragged with the rest of the multitudes to tune into the new episodes every week. 

And so there you have it my long road to becoming a fan of Supernatural. 

41 Years old cosplaying Dean this year

This was originally just suppose to be my memories of the pilot episode, but apparently Chuck decided to inspire a novel... I was gonna include a write up about the series finale in this blog as well, but I think this post has gone on long enough.  Since it's also the 5 year anniversary of the show ending I will probably write that part of the story in November.

So I hope you have a good 20th SPN Fam, I'm gonna watch the Pilot episode and eat a piece of pie. Carry on and may the road treat you well.

*Thrifty Geek* 

**For record I didn't want to see House of Wax to begin with, I warned Fangirl it was horror which she doesn't really like (probably do to being traumatized with Nightmare on Elm Street as a child... but that's another story). I'm not a big of those style of horror movies either, hence why I was shocked when she said we were going to see it. I wasn't thrilled, but I wasn't going to abandon my friend so I went, but I didn't wanna abandon my friend, so I went with fully intending to keep my eyes cover for the movie. Well I did just that when things started getting more dark, I heard the horrible first people screaming and then Fangirl going "Let's go". We get out of theater  and I look at her and proclaimed "I told you!" The we decided to head to a grocery store that was in the plaza at the time.