Thunder Storm and a Mini-retreat

This weekend started off with a big bang. Literally.

Friday evening we had a strange thunderstorm. Here where I live we had lots of intense lightning and a little bit of rain. One town over they had three to four inches of rain in about 20 minutes.

The retirement community where my dad and my in-laws live is in between the two towns. They seem to have gotten the worst of it. As they were eating dinner they heard a huge boom. They all thought that a tree had fallen on the building, which would have been bad enough. A few minutes later, though, when all the servers from the dining room were called out suddenly, they realized that something much more serious was going on.

One apartment in the complex had taken a direct hit from the lightning. That started a small fire which triggered the sprinkler system in one section of the building. The servers had been called out to help evacuate the people from the affected wing.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but part of that wing was damaged from the fire, the sprinklers, and the zap of lightning. That's the wing where my in-laws live. My dad lives on the other side which was not damaged at all.

Friday night no one knew the extent of the damage, so my husband took his parents to stay in a motel, just for one night, we thought. My MIL has severe arthritis and can't get up the stairs into our house, so we couldn't put them up over here.

In the meantime, I was packing my things to go to a mini-retreat with some quilting friends. I was a little hesitant to leave, but my husband and I both assumed that his parents would be back in their apartment sometime Saturday, since their apartment wasn't damaged. It was not to be. Now it looks like it will be a few more days until they can move back.

Some of the other nursing homes in the area have very kindly offered accommodations to those who are affected, so my in-laws are camping out in another retirement community waiting for the okay to move back. They are also getting the nursing services they need, which had been a big part of our concern for them.

Of course, I didn't know any of this before I left for my retreat or I probably wouldn't have gone, even though there was really nothing I could have done except worry. (I'm really good at worrying.)

Did I mention that the retreat was held IN a quilt shop? The building the shop is in has a large apartment on the second floor. We sewed in the shop classroom and spent the night in the apartment above. We had lots and lots of sewing time and shopping time and eating time, all without having to leave the building. I did get a lot of sewing done, in between phone calls checking on my in-laws' situation. And worrying.

I am caught up with my nine-patches for the quiltalong with Crazy Mom Quilts. I think I may be a few ahead, in fact. I also picked up a few brightly colored fat quarters, since my stash of brights is a little thin. I cut out and organized about half the fabric for my Blooming Ninepatch project and got quite a few of the blocks sewn.

I also found some background fabric for the eight pointed star project which I seem to have taken on. The apartment above the quilt shop was decorated with quilts hung on the walls, and on one I found the same star I've been working on, which had been done in the thirties. (No picture, I'm afraid, since I forgot to take my camera.) I really like the setting, so I may try it with some of the star blocks, when I get a chance.

Hopefully we'll all be back to normal some time this week!