Photo Album 4

Day 3. I went to church, while The Spouse stayed home to continue his work as Neighborhood Watchman and wait for some sign of utility trucks. In his capacity as Watchman, he spent hours on our corner, shooing people off the downed tree and away from power lines. We put up barricades on both ends of the block. You would not believe how many people ignored them. We'd made a big sign that said "Danger - Road Closed". Apparently that wasn't clear enough. I blame myself. My writing skills obviously need some improvement.

Anyway, church was amusing. You could tell who had power by the way they were dressed. I myself, not having showered since Thursday, looked like a street person. I was wearing sweats and a big, dirty coat. I was sitting with friends but I was next to a woman I didn't know. I'm sure she spent the mass praying for the poor woman next to her. I admit, during the offeratory, I held out my tithe envelope, poised so she could get a gander at it if she so chose, just so she'd know I wasn't actually destitute.

The first glimmers of hope came in the afternoon, when the Qwest crew showed up. Strictly speaking, this had no impact on us, as we have intenet phones. But just knowing that the clipboard information was finally translating into action was a reassuring thing. Plus, as the power poles were still standing, these intrepid guys just strung line over the tree. This made us happy because it suggested that removal of the tree might not be an obstacle to restoring the other lines.



















Check out the house to the right in the background. That's Sue & Lu's house. They lost a mess o' shingles.














The Neighbor had a trunkful of cookies in her car, as she was supposed to take them to a holiday party on Friday. She made a lovely buffet for the linemen. They were very appreciative.














Snaps to these guys. They had been working around the clock since the storm started but they were all so nice and funny. Keeping one's sense of humor is essential in these situations.















Later in the day, another neighbor, Mike, came by for some more firewood. His wife had already decamped to a hotel but he was still toughing it out.














Here's something I learned during all this. Whenever I'd hear about similar disasters, there'd be tales of folks who resisted going to shelters. I could never understand that. Now I do. We had offers of warm beds in the houses of powered friends, but we always refused. Having The Child safe and warm with her godparents was one thing. She's a kid. But we didn't want to leave. The reason was of 2 parts, at least. One was just that we continued to hold out hope that help would come soon and we wanted to be there when it did. The other was that when everything is so disrupted, you cling to whatever remnants of "normal" you possibly can. Small comforts like coffee, talking to friends and sleeping in your own bed, even if it's the coldest damn place on earth, become part of the coping mechanism.