Guess a picture does say a thousand words. A picture that shows what used to be our home, with plants, bushes, picnic tables, kids toys lying about, tree-covered pathways, and homes (even if they were of the traveling kind). A picture that now shows loneliness, desolation, and despair. A picture that shows just a fraction of the devastation this little hometown experienced. We were some of the lucky ones.
Oh sure, there are chickens with lime green coop, shop boxes, storage boxes, and BBQ pits that were not damaged but they just don't happen to be in the picture. When I took this picture is was simply for reference, not a reminder.
Needing to move on with our lives, we had to return to Big City #1 to once again borrow the tractor. Ain't nobody got time to disassemble and remove a trailer wrapped around and in between a set of trees by hand. The Planner took off to do his thing with the tractor,
the Kid took off on his list of chores (yes, this once again required the use of his trusty red wagon)
and I took off to reassess plants, decks, picnic tables, and the other homey things.
Here it is the middle of September and as the previous post title said, nature does NOT give a damn about us wee humans. It just carries on as nothing has happened. And in the grand scale of things, nothing has happened. The sun comes up, the sun goes down. The tide comes up, the tide comes down. The world just keeps spinning. Just like these pelicans. You probably can't see them in the picture, hell I couldn't see them either 15months after having taken the picture. But they are there, I promise (directly in the middle of the blue sky above the power pole in the background). They don't care about Hurricane Harvey, why should we. Instinct says to fly south, and south they came.
Flowers are flowering, bugs are bugging (we now have the biggest mosquitoes EVER some import model that is black with white stripes and are seriously the size of a quarter), and grass is growing. Yet, there are the reminders of the destruction at every turn.
Just like this poor little critter. Dead as a doorknob and already petrified. Boo-hoo. Yes, we buried him.
Four days of working. Four days of driving back and forth from where we are sleeping to home which is almost fours hours of driving in one day. Four very long days emotionally, physically, and mentally. Four days of cleaning, removing, and sorting. Many local residents are removing not cleaning. Just push all the contents to the edge of the road and the county will pick it up. No need to filter and become emotional all over again at the lose of what was, what could have been, and what will be. It's easier really.
We were not like that as we attempted at salvaging as much as possible such as this makeshift couch from the Kids' trailer. Others items saved for future usage (maybe, probably not since at the time of this post they are still just in storage) were the RV toilet, AC, and hot water heater, various cleaning products, a brand new package of socks (random yes I know), and many other odds and ends.
Four days of eating MREs. MRE's by the case were donated to aid in our clean up efforts. Many years ago I had the opportunity to eat some military grade MRE's and they were tasty! These MREs on the other hand, not so much. As it turns out, FEMA MREs are low in salt, sugar, and various flavorings. With FEMA MREs people have a choice of almost any tomato based dish: chili, lasagna, ravioli, beef and mac, spaghetti, etc.... The first two or three are bearable but after that, they all taste the same. But hey, they served a purpose and it was greatly appreciated. What was more appreciated were the cases upon cases of water that were available. I cannot even attempt to count the number of cases we drank alongside the water we brought with us. Thank you to all those who donated so we could have water and food to eat. Thank you.
Oh, and by the way, four days still without electricity. Argh. The power people came and installed new poles and new wire to both my neighbor and our house. But for whatever reason, there is no power to our box. Just blinking 0000000. So frustrating. Calls have been made and schedules have been assigned. It will be another three weeks before they can come back. Three weeks. As with all things since Harvey, we wait.....