After our wonderful 4th of July trip to the beach with Kristy it was time for Connie's trip to the surgical suite. She had her second surgery of 2011 and her second rotator cuff repair. She came through fine and here she is benefiting from a DeRoyal cold therapy unit. This marvelous contraption (loaned to us by our wonderful neighbor) circulates cold water through a pad that sits on Connie's shoulder. Swelling is controlled and healing is aided. Connie is enduring physical therapy now, and is improving steadily week by week.
Connie progressed sufficiently in August to throw a super birthday party at Positive Action for my 70th. She really did it big! Pizza, cake and ice cream, balloons, party favors and noise makers. It was a bash! It was topped off with a 20 minute video shown on our giant 10'x13' screen in the Media Room at PAFC. Our three kids all contributed video clips for the production and then our IT Director added a number of historic photos that Connie provided. I enjoyed it very much.
All of the party goers enjoyed their food on the special "China-ware" that accompanied matching napkins and decorations.
Just a few days after the monumental party we began to hear about the impending visit of Hurricane Irene. We have been extremely busy at work with a very blessed sales season and so we did not have much of an opportunity to prepare. On Thursday night we decided we better go to Walmart to pick up a few items before the storm arrived. Here is what we saw when we walked in the door of the store.
And when we got back to the shelves that are supposed to contain one gallon jugs of drinking water -- here is what we saw. We grabbed our supplies before the locals cleaned out the store completely.
On Saturday morning Irene came calling -- and did she leave her impact! The constant hurricane force winds kept up for over 12 hours. They ripped up Rocky Mount. Praise the Lord we escaped safe and sound and did not sustain any damage at our house. Many friends were not as blessed. Here is the house of Frank Hamrick's daughter and son-in-law. They lost their garage and two cars inside.
Our Shipping and Warehouse Manager took a tree right into their kitchen. This picture was taken on Sunday afternoon and you can see the temporary decoration at Paul and Pat's home.
Here is the street in front of the Positive Action office building with the electrical transformer laying on the ground. We are still without power at the office and it looks like it will be at least a week before it is repaired. We only lost power at home for about 21 hours, but many, many folks in our area are still in the dark. Our staff at PAFC has done a great job pulling together to serve our customers. Three generators have us up and running -- although without air conditioning -- and we have already taken about 100 orders this week. Summer has been a truly busy time, and now comes a busy fall.
