It is 3 days after tropical storm Isaias gave our area a rather substantial beating. There are still hundreds of thousands of people without power. We're amid another heatwave. So many people have had to throw hundreds of dollars worth of food away because they did grocery shopping last weekend.
With the temperatures skyrocketing to 90+ degrees within their homes, refrigerators and freezers and coolers stocked with ice have not been able to withstand our current temperatures. The lines at coffee shops fast food restaurants are a mile long.
When Lisa left for work yesterday morning, I planned on spending lots of time in the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Workshop and at the desk to work on some projects.
However, that changed.
Not even 5 minutes after I sat down, a single post on my social media stream caught my attention. It was posted by a local news station. The post highlighted a couple of tweens who were offering cold lemonade and water to those who were still without power in the form of a lemonade stand in front of their home. In the photo, one of their parents was standing behind the smiling tweens.
At first, I thought, "Oh wow. This is great. Offering cold beverages to those who were without power." Then, I noticed the sign in front of their table.
For a Red Cello Cup amount of lemonade, they wanted $2.00. The price for a cold bottle of water was $2.00.
I 'bout near fell off my desk chair.
Are you kidding me?
How is this newsworthy?
I was furious!
Sure, let's teach you kids to take advantage of a shitty situation by price gouging cold beverages instead of teaching them to help those in need.
How about offering free cold beverages?
Parenting at its finest.
I started to type a response, but midway through, I asked myself, "What are you doing?"
My response would cause debate and I'd feel inclined to waste my time replying to everyone and getting caught up in the fire.
I wasn't going to do that.
I needed to redirect that energy elsewhere.
So, I did.
I spent the next 6 hours making homemade Italian bread, zucchini bread, spaghetti sauce for my Summer pasta, pork and chicken lo mein, and cookies.
At one point during the afternoon, I posted this on my Facebook wall...
"To the people my wife works with and to our local friends...if you are still without power, PLEASE come over for a hot meal tonight. I have spent all day making my homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh veggies and pasta and homemade pork & chicken LoMein. With that, I have homemade Italian Bread and Zucchini Bread.
You can eat here or grab and go. We have plenty of seating and we build longer tables, NOT higher fences. You're more than welcomed to charge your electronics here and get water if needed. We have paper plates and bowls and such if you want to grab and go or bring a plastic container or two and a tote bag.
The doors are opened 6-8. PLEASE PM me if you're showing up for a sit-down meal or grab and go. I made a lot of food. You are more than welcome. Just excuse my disheveled appearance. I've been cooking and baking since early this morning.
On a side note...if you have a little butter, I would love that because I don't have enough to go around for the bread."
Yes, I seriously almost ran out of butter which is unheard of in our Bodacious home.
It was a work night so no one came over and ate here, but we had a couple of people pick up hot dinners to enjoy at home.
Early this morning, Lisa got a call. A family member passed away. Lisa called out. Both of us had heavy hearts.
As the day rolled on, I had received a few messages asking if we had any leftovers from yesterday. I shared that with Lisa. Her response was, "Let's feed them. That's what Maude would have done" I heated up the leftovers. We had both pickups and Lisa made a couple of deliveries.
While we ate dinner, Lisa and I talked about making meals and sandwiches over the weekend and beyond for the people at Lisa's work and our local friends who continued to be without power.
Let's just say it's going to be a very busy weekend!
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