Rockford Flooding: Helping O'Del

I know that I am a smarty-pants and usually only post things of a less than serious nature. I'd much rather be talking about the upcoming Xena Convention in Chicago than have to write about such serious things. However, I am taking a small detour from usual programming to talk about the recent Rockford Flood.

For those of you who aren't aware, flooding in parts of Rockford was extensive. How extensive? Here are some photos from the Rockford Register Star

(thanks to Eddy Montville, Kevin Hass and Jean Walsh for the photos).

Let's just say that the flooding sucked.

Our friend O'Del was one of the major victims of this flood.

(Side note: Shame on you, Mayor Larry & your pal Jim--how could you let this happen again? Don't pretend you did anything to prevent it. Ah, you don't live around "those people," so what do you care? How dare you call those residents "those people." And I thought I didn't like Governor Blago--you are on the same level as that moron. Larry baby, how dare you not return to the city during this crisis. Hope you are having fun. Don't expect any votes from us. End of personal bitching.)

She lost lots of things to the flood--her car, her motorbike, many of her personal belongings. Being the good person that she is, she is focused on how lucky she is and how it could have been "worse." God love her.

Anywoo, if you've never experienced the mud, the muck, the mold or the stench related to a flood, you have no idea what this is like for her or her neighbors. There was a flood in her area less than a year ago
(hence my sour feeling toward the mayor and his cronies--how dare they blame anyone but themselves--and how dare they say this was a "once in a 100 year event" and how dare they do nothing to make sure it really was a once in a 100 year event)
and we helped her clean up after that one. Everything was covered with muck and mold. It was absolutely disgusting. We sloshed bleach water everywhere. As one of the persons washing the rafters, I am here to tell you it majorly sucked. Although we did our best, I'm sure much mold still made a home in her residence. A new furnace was part of the recovery process but again she said how fortunate she was.

This time, we as her friends can't just sit back and do nothing. Oh, we'll make our voices heard loud and clearly when voting time comes around (I feel an editorial to the newspaper coming!) but we want to help her personally. This is a lady who would give a stranger the shirt off her back. This is a lady who would prefer we collect money for her 91 year old neighbor to buy a new furnace & washer than take care of her own needs. This is a lady that feels lucky even though her car has been totaled and she'll never get anything near the actual value of her car from the insurance company. We want to collect monies to get her place professionally cleaned. We can't buy her a new washer and dryer and furnace and we can't replace her car but at least we can make her home a bit safer for her return. The damage is too great for us to clean the mess and it would be a dangerous adventure.

So, am I begging for your donations? You bet your ass I am. Any amount will be appreciated and no donation would be too small. You may not know O'Del but trust me she is "good people." She'd give money for you. She'd give time for you. There won't be any help from the government. (In fact, none of the supposed public servants have even been seen in the area. You think they are gonna provide any funding for recovery? Oh, sorry--I'm getting bitchy again.) If you want to contribute to the cause, email me or contact me through this blog. Those of you who are friends and family know my email address. Those who are readers not familiar with me can use the blog way of contacting me. I'll get the needed info to you pronto.

I promise my next blog entry will be silly and of no true redeeming value. It's true that the Xena convention really is coming to Chicago this fall. But, for the time being, I'm seeking help for a friend. Any help will truly go a long way. I'm not even sure we can get her to accept our help but we are going to try. We are going to go ahead and hire professional cleaners and knock her out of the way when she protests. Thanks for bearing with me and thanks for those who can contribute anything to this worthy woman....