What happens is rarely what we think will happen.
One thing I have noticed about worry is that the things I focus on to worry about are rarely the things that actually happen. In my previous blog I wrote about catatrophizing and worry about the future. One of the ways to manage worry is to assess how likely it is that a worry will happen. And to also sketch out a plan if it does happen.
Here is what I was worried about before the solar eclipse event.
Impossible to navigate traffic that would have my parents arriving late on Sunday and would be difficult for my daughter on Saturday. Not being able to get to the airport in a timely fashion.
Running out of food for my guests and not being able to get to the store to replenish
The weather being overcast and not being able to see the eclipse and my guests being disappointed Not being able to keep my guests entertained.
Airline delays, hiccups and snafus
What happened
We got to the airport about an hour early because traffic was relatively light, one flight of the two pick ups we were doing was delayed by about 15 minutes.
My parents got a flat tire on their first day of travel and had no problems coming in on Sunday.
My daughter didn’t get as early a start as she hoped, but still got here early because traffic was fine.
I still have plenty of food a week later. I didn’t need to go to the store, but I could have if I had needed to.
The weather was overcast, but the clouds were moving around and we got to see the whole process in bits and pieces, and we got to see totality and my dad was able to take some good pictures.
The airport was very crowded for drop off, but both parties got on their flights and got home safely.
I prepared for these worries by creating a plan for food and shopping ahead of time. And by allowing extra time when we did have to go somewhere, like the airport. I told myself that I can’t control the weather and even if we didn’t see the eclipse we would have a good time with friends and family. I can’t control traffic or how airlines function, and sometimes I need to be flexible. And while we can make educated guesses, none of us can accurately predict the future.
What I never even thought about was disastrous weather.
On Tuesday morning, the day after the eclipse, my weather app had some severe weather watches with the possibility of tornadoes. That weather cleared and we went about our day socializing and going for walks etc. My parents had set up an appointment to get new tires in town the following day, and to visit some friends of theirs. Tuesday evening some big clouds rolled in and the weather apps were posting watches for severe weather with the possibility of hail. The watches turned to warnings. And we all went outside to look at the dramatic clouds. The wind picked up. And then the reverse 911 warnings started. Our phones started to beep with a severe weather warning with ping pong sized hail having been spotted near by “take cover, stay away from windows”. But still not much was happening near us. And then it started raining, and wind was blowing really hard and I could see the rain almost sideways across the front porch and one of our plastic chairs blew into the side of the house and shattered. Our phones blared again warning of baseball sized hail this time. That just didn’t seem like it could be real. I’ve seen marble sized hail in this part of Texas before, but how can a cloud even make baseball sized hail?
And then the hail hit, and while they were not baseball sized, they were definitely bigger than ping pong balls. The sound on the metal roof was like being inside a bass drum. And when a hail stone burst through the kitchen window and hit the opposite wall, my husband herded us all into the bathroom. We all hunkered in the bathroom to the frenzied pounding on the roof accompanied by the zings of shattering glass. It seemed to go on for eternity (but was probably more like ten minutes) and then it eased up and we could come out and assess the damage. There were egg sized hail stone on the front patio, and a variety of hail stones, broken glass, leaves, and debris inside the house.
We ran out in the dark, and the rain, to go check on the horses. They were frightened but safe. They had hunkered in the trees in their pen. (I’m guessing the noise in the shelter they have was too much?) They were covered in leaves and dirt, but they didn’t have any wounds or lumps.
We had two windows broken through on the house. Two windows where the outside panes of the double pane windows were broken, and the back window of the car—which had been under the carport—had holes all the way through and hail stones and glass were all the way up on the dash. My parents’ camper had holes in the vents and they had a cracked windshield on their truck.
This was a catastrophe and I never even dreamed it was something that might happen.
But the bright side is that no people or animals were hurt. We had a lot of help in cleaning up the glass and debris inside the house and getting plastic on the broken windows to keep the rest of the rain out. We had been researching getting our roof replaced and so we had a contact number of someone to call to come out the next day and help us board up the windows and assess the roof. I had a team I can rely on for facilitating the group I was supposed to be working on the next day so I was able to take off of work and focus on cleanup and managing my own emotions and those of my family.
Recovery will take some time and will involve “asking for help” by talking to insurance companies and repair people. But recovery will happen. Which is the best thing to take into account when facing catastrophes, real or imagined.