The Clean Up


...goes on. We were actually spared so much.

Certainly, those on the coast of LA and TX
got slammed. So many lost homes, so many
without power, so many still in shelters.
I have not heard anything about casualties.
I do hope that the majority of people heeded
the warnings and evacuated. I've only been through
one hurricane, and it was nothing like what
happened with Katrina or Ike.

Here, we got high sustained winds. Our schools are back
in session tomorrow, but many surrounding
counties will not be going. Some of them are
not expected to have power back on until
Friday. Many of the utility workers are in
LA or TX, so they are being called back home
to help get the power restored.

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On a lighter note, at least 4 people I have come
into contact with in the last week have told me I look
like Sarah Palin. I don't like her politics, but her
physical appearance is not so horrific. Even tonight,
after I showed my husband the SNL spoof, he said,
You know what? You kind of look like her. Must be
because my hair is long now, and I keep it swept up,
much like she does. It's too hot to keep it down. And my
glasses look similar. It's just weird to have more than
one person tell me that they think that. Hmmmm....
The SNL piece is so damn funny. Tina Fey nailed Palin
in body, voice, and mannerisms. I hope she'll do some
more Palin stuff.

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Just good old spaghetti tonight. In this small town,
it's hard to find San Marzano tomatoes (canned),
but lately, Kroger has had them. They make all
the difference in a sauce. We had salad, a loaf of deli
garlic bread (stuffed with whole cloves of garlic),
and the spaghetti. I am stuffed.

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the writing life is all but over now. Not one single thing
I can put down on paper. I have been playing solitaire
since the power went out yesterday (well, not all night,
but into the evening hours last night and much of this
morning).

What was really positive and enlightening and interesting
was the fact that all the neighbors, all over this block, were
out and about and talking to one another. We were all busy
cleaning up the debris, but we were also stopping in the midst
of our labor to talk to one another. A rare thing these days.

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Just an aside. The moon was extraordinary on the 13th into
the 14th, before the winds came. Don't think it was a moonbow--
not sure what to call it. I was way past gone anyway, but I took
a blanket outside, placed it as far away from the safety light
as I could, and stretched out to look at the sky. In the center
of total blackness was the full moon. Measuring from the imperfect
perception of my vision, and knowing fully well that the blackness
had to extend for such a huge amount of space that I have no
guess, I will just say that, to my eyes, it looked like 100 yds or so
of black in a 360 around the moon. And then, outside of that
blackness, there was a ring of light. And then the wind started
to blow, lightly at first, and then, harder. My old boy, Dante, came
to lie down beside me on the blanket. I feared the branches of the tree
would soon come crashing on top of us, so I came inside and crashed,
only to wake at 4:30 or so with the wind howling. What an amazing
sky and night and day. I felt so alive out there on that blanket,
the wind blowing my hair, the moon full, my cat purring next to me,
most people in the neighborhood asleep, the night air filling my lungs,
the fear of possible disaster alerting me that I was still very much alive,
the ability to stand and walk back in the house nothing short of
something damn near amazing in and of itself.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.