After the storm

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After the storm everything slowly returns to normal, but nothing is quite the same…things are appreciated more deeply, like electricity and running water and open restaurants and stores and air conditioning…there’s nothing quite like listening to the wind of a hurricane to make you think that maybe the way things were wasn’t quite as bad as you sometimes thought they were, and that the things you thought important really weren’t, in the grand scheme of things.

Nothing major happened in my neighborhood, the electricity was out, in my case for four days, which is nothing considering that some of my students and colleagues STILL don’t have power and I was without a telephone for seven days, but I had enough water and nuts and power bars and fruit to last me about three days, though by Monday what I wanted most was a HOT meal, and the though of a sandwich – didn’t matter what kind – made my mouth water. But there was nothing open except a Walgreens (a type of convenience store/pharmacy) which was a 20 minute walk from my apartment. It was a walk I did daily, because it was the only place I could charge my cell phone, which was the only way anyone could reach me. The batteries in my radio died on Sunday, and I could not find any replacements at Walgreen’s. In any case, nothing was open.

Many trees in my neighborhood were down, very few over homes, but most over the electrical wires, and some blocking the streets. Some fences were destroyed. And I mean you could look right into people’s gardens and sliding glass doors. Many trees looked as if they had been snapped like sticks (and these were big trees) I wondered whether lightning had truck them but apparently not, it was just the wond. JUST the wind! How often we say that and don’t really think about the power wind has. Some trees fell down on their sides, completely uprooted, their huge roots dangling by the sidewalks for all to see.

And on Monday Larry came, even though he was in Austin doing Army Reserve duty, like a knight of old, with more water and bread and orange juice (which tasted like nectar from the gods to me) and we went and bought ice and canned tuna and mayo so I could make myself a sandwich and it was the best sandwich I have ever had. And it was the best gift Larry could have given me. How I will ever thank him, I don’t know quite yet, I’m trying to think of something really special.

• 23 Sep, 2008
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