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2012-11-02 - 11:31 a.m. the post-storm update.  my uncle - that's the guy on the right - welded an exhaust snorkel to his truck and drove out into the storm. as the official road crews were focused on keeping the highways open, he was rescuing stranded motorists on small roads prone to flooding. can you imagine how frightened those stranded motorists must have been, as he loomed out of the dark with his gas-powered chainsaw? my family is all okay. my mom stayed with my sister in boston, far from the worst of the storm. my dad's mom's house suffered minimal damage, and although she is furious that the power is still out, she is just fine. my other grandmother rode out the storm in a nursing home, and i hope her house was damaged enough that she will just stay where she is. there is a long, sad backstory to her situation. my uncles and aunts and friends and cousins all have various property damage, but no one lost anything they couldn't afford to lose. my dad is very busy now - he is working seventeen-hour days in the storm's aftermath, as he is conservation engineer for the state. for us, here in nc, it was just a couple of rainy days. * * * reading: the fifty-year sword, by mark z. danielewski. after only revolutions, what a pleasant surprise. listening to: the sound of the heat kick off and on. i like to keep a chilly house - a lot of people with ms seem to do this, i've noticed - but the ambient temperature has to be high enough that the little heaters for the fish and turtles can do their work. working on: when i say, "i'm writing," everyone knows what i mean. in the garden: the brugmansia is racing into flower against the first frost. |