Annual Reports, Big Winds, and No Quilting

Whew, what a week! I've done very little quilting in the past week. Primarily because we have our first big annual report due for our new grant. It's actually due to the NIH on April 1 but we had an internal due date of March 14 in order to review everything, test the electronic upload, and all those last minute "oh I forgot" things. This grant encompasses quite a few programs across my university as well as other Atlanta area institutions so it's a big deal to gather information from all the programs and partners. Needless to say I was working some long days last week and when I got home was too tired to sew. Oh well, that's life in the working world!

My second excuse for little quilting this week started Friday night when a tornado hit downtown Atlanta. The first one to hit the downtown area ever. Given that it caused damage to the CNN Center, I know it was on the national news! There is a lot of damage downtown, windows blown out of high rise hotels and office buildings, signs ripped off buildings and wrapped around trees and poles. Most cars in the area had window damage. A lot of people were in the area for the SEC basketball games, a dental convention, and the normal tourism crowds. It's absolutely amazing that there were no fatalities although there have been some serious injuries. In addition to this damage homes in the Cabbagetown area just east of downtown, a delightful artsy, historic area that has been in a period of renovation and rebuilding had major damage to many homes. The lofts in the old Fulton Cotton Bag Mill suffered serious damage with roofs torn off and floors pancaking in on themselves. Again, no fatalities...if you see the pictures you would be amazed. I don't have any pictures to post but if you want to see check out the Atlanta Journal Constitution website. And I'm sure the CNN website also has pictures.

I live just north of the downtown area and had only very heavy rain and some small hail. In fact, I didn't even know about the tornado until I checked the weather channel early Saturday morning when another storm was coming through. Several lines of storms continued to move across the Atlanta metro area on Saturday, first north of the city then across us again and finally moving south of the city. Many other neighborhoods and cities/towns across the metro area and other parts of Georgia suffered serious storms, tornados, hail, and sadly even a couple of fatalities. It was a nasty day for Georgia.

I had planned to hit one of the quilt shops and do some heavy quilting on Saturday to celebrate National Quilting Day but ended up glued to the TV and weather reports most of the day! I'm fascinated by weather but also have a very healthy respect for the power of Mother Nature so I kept my eyes and ears open! At one point the local weathermen were following a potential tornado again moving toward downtown. Even had video from the cameras at the airport....talk about scary! But it seems to have dissipated before hitting downtown again.

Anyway, this is getting too wordy! If you've stuck with me to this point, I can report that I'm sewing today. I've been working on the circles from this post with some of my new fabrics from my shop hop adventures! So no pictures today but it sure has been interesting around here!