A Walk Around the Block with Ike

Well, as most of you know, Hurricane Ike hit Kentucky and wasn’t at all a gentleman about it. He was a right ruddy bastard, if you want to know the truth. We didn’t get hit nearly as hard as Texas and Louisianna, etc, down south, but we got hit hard enough.

Here’s some stats:

1. The county where I live has 150 public schools. On Monday there were only 50 that were not damaged and had power.
2. Over 70% of the state did not have power Sunday afternoon after Ike hit.
3. There are over 240 telephone poles alone down in my city. That’s a lot of telephone poles, people.
4. As of today, Friday, 20% of the city is still without power.
5. The public school system has been shut down and it’s not certain it will be open on Monday.

All football games and other sporting events, including Homecoming, are also canceled. What’s truly amazing is that this was all caused by WIND. We didn’t get any rain at all. Kentucky was in a corridor between two pieces of Ike, one went north and slammed into St. Louis and Chicago, and the other went south across Tennessee. This whole ordeal would have be SOOO much worse if there had been rain,or if it had hit a month ago in the middle of August.

Here are some pics from what was literally a walk around the block.

This is the side entrance to my house. There’s a little alley that runs between my neighbors house and mine. That’s the top 25 feet of the pine tree next to his house.

This is around the corner from my house. This tree fell diagonally across the street and didn’t hit anyone’s home! All the brush you see on the side of the street came from this tree. There’s an equal amount of it on the other side of the road (which I didn’t take a pic of). It didn’t hit any homes, but it did take out the power lines. The people of the opposite side of the street as the tree still don’t have power. At this point everyone is running extension cords across the street to get power from their neighbors.

This is the next right as we walk around the block.

Here’s the stump at the end of this block. Notice the height of the stump compared to the fence behind it. Yeah. BIG tree.

And here’s what’s left of the trunk and branches. The branches are actually piled up on the other side of the street behind me as I took this pic. Crazy!!

Now we turn right again and we’re back on my street. This is my neighbor across the street. The tree fell on his car and took out the chimney.  You can barely see what’s left of the chimney still attached to the house. Bricks went flying everywhere.  He ended up with some severe dings on his car.

And here we are at the front of my house. Before the pine tree fell on my fence, this branch fell off my neighbors oak tree and took out my awning. No big loss, the awning needed to be replaced anyway. Oh, here’s one more.

This is Sunday afternoon after the storm. That’s my neighbor on his roof, you can kind of see the top of what’s left of the chimney. On top of his TWO STORY house putting down tarps. In FLIP FLOPS. Yes, peoples. Flip-flops.

As we say in Kentucky, some people’s kids you just cain’t put to nor from by. Flip-flops. Sheesh!

Ike, what a mess you left!

Banging Your Head Against a Wall…Makes it Hurt.

The book is not going well.  Nobody is behaving.  Nobody is talking to me.  It’s like I’m back in high school and I sit down at the lunch table and everyone gets up and leaves.  WTF?  Sigh.  Writing is hard.

I think I’m having a tone problem.  Also, I need to learn to write faster so I get the stuff out of my head and onto the paper.  So much easier to edit or fix a page that actually has words on it. 

And, it’s going to rain soon – HARD, thank you Ike – so I can’t even go for a walk and listen to my playlist and try to make things bounce.

Maybe I’ll go clean the basement….

Pregnancy…in Reverse

        Sunshine started her Senior Year of High School a couple of weeks ago and the whole thing is very bittersweet for me.  On the one hand, this year is going to be so much fun for her and I can’t wait to watch her experience it.  I don’t want to miss one moment.

    But, on the other hand, at every event, teacher conference, study group that meets at my house, school dance and special Senior Event, I’m going to be all too aware that this is the last one, or one of the last one’s, and that the clock is ticking and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. 

    And I don’t want to miss one moment.
   
    My friend and I were talking a few days go and it occurred to me during our conversation that this year, her final year of high school, is a lot like pregnancy.  But, in reverse.

    No, no wait!  I haven’t lost it.  Just bear with me…

    Just like when you’re pregnant, there is a date that it will all be over.  But, until that date arrives, there are things to do to prepare for what happens after that date.  College’s to apply to, scholarships to write essay’s for, sheets and towels, and that new CD holder that she’s going to need for her dorm room next year.  See, it’s a lot like getting the nursery ready. 

    Except, of course, that it won’t be in my house.  No, this time, all these lovely new linens I’m buying won’t be anywhere near my house.

    Just like when you’re pregnant, there are hormone surges.  Little moments that tear tiny fissures into your heart and that I honestly think are the universe’s way of preparing you to let go.  It started last spring when she drove herself to school for the first time, and the day she received her Senior Ring.  Those special wonderful little moments that bring tears to your eyes, and what feels like a fist around your throat, because these are all tiny halting steps to that day when you’ve done your job and she’s ready to be that woman you’ve been raising for the last eighteen years.  Much like the moment she took her first steps from my arms to her dad’s and I realized she wasn’t going to be a baby forever. 

    Just like when you’re pregnant and you’re sitting on the couch reading or maybe watching a movie and you feel the baby move for the very first time.  The slight little fluttering of butterfly wings that happens in a microsecond and takes your breath away.  When you sit there and the entire universe narrows focus to the slight little bump on your abdomen and you try to will it to happen again.  It’s those little moments that take you step by tiny cataclysmic step towards a world you’ve never been to.  A whole new life.  A whole new world that this tiny wonderful being becomes the center of.  And, just like the moment I first felt her move was a step towards bringing her into this world, the conversations we have about where she might like to go to college, and where she might want to travel to on her summer vacations, are tiny cataclysmic steps towards taking her into her future.

    There’s nothing like the first time you hold your child.  Childbirth is not a fun thing, and mine was a little more dramatic than most and is a story for another day (or not), but childbirth is quite the metaphor for all you go through to raise a child.  Putting their health, well-being and needs before your own, starting right there in the delivery room.  Before you even think of your own, really.  But, the first time you hold your child, or the first time she smiles at you and you know that she knows it’s YOU, her mom, not just a random smiling face, but YOU.  That’s when you know that your world is never going to be the same.    And now, you get to stand next to her at Target and watch her look at luggage and smile at the twinkle in her eye she gets thinking about the day she’ll be packed and ready to venture out on her own. 

    And, you have to smile.  Because it’s fun to think of that day because she’s so excited about it.  And you smile while you help her pick out a dress to wear under her cap and gown.  Just like you picked out that extra special outfit to take her home from the hospital in months before she actually arrived.  It’s a true joy to your mother’s heart that she’s happy.  And a few more little fissures show up on your heart.  Because you wanted this.  You did.  You worked hard for the last eighteen years for this.  You want her to be a woman who knows who she is and what she wants.  You want her to want adventure and learning and to not be afraid of the future. 

    And she is.  And she does.

    You did a good job.

    It’s a little ironic that a school year is nine months.  In the same amount of time that I nurtured and helped create that tiny little brand new human being, now I have exactly that much time to prepare myself for the next step in my journey.  I read someone else’s blog the other day (sorry can’t remember who) and they called it Life 3.0.  Life 1.0 is your own childhood and growing up years.  Life 2.0 is graduating from college, getting married and raising kids.  And then there’s Life 3.0.  And just like the other two versions, it’s my job to figure out what this one is going to be all about.  So, while Sunshine is busy taking steps one way, I’m looking over the horizon trying to decide what path will be next. 

    Because I did do a good job.  She’s an amazing woman and the world better look out because she’s coming and she’s unstoppable.  And, I helped create that as much as I nurtured her inside of me for nine months.

    In the words of Buzz Lightyear (because I watched it so many times it’s burned into my psyche):  TO INFINITY…AND BEYOND!

☺