Happy happy happy! (We think. . .)
What a difference a couple of days makes! Sometime Tuesday evening, we found out that the mayor might let people from unflooded areas return to the city as early as MONDAY!!! This was fabulous news for us. Plans changed yet again, as we decided to just relax here in B'ham for a few more days and then see about driving back to nola next week. Whether we stay there for good or not will depend on power restoration, probably. It really is possible to live there now, in some form or fashion anyway, from what info we can gather on the Internet. Our local grocery store in Orleans Parish is not open yet, but there are stores just a town or two over that are open.
It's really cool to look at the actual pages of the newspaper online. Every day, they look more and more "normal." Today, there were actual comics! There are ads from businesses besides insurance companies. It's very heartening.
We are lucky to have a bunch of TP reporters living very close to our house, so when they interview people on the street or describe scenes, they are often very close to home. The guy who owns the wine store right up the street from our house is back in town, as is the guy who owns the local ice cream parlor. What a concept -- returning to our city and having an ice cream cone, and some wine, too! They may be back just to clean up, but still, signs of life.
So we are much happier. We still imagine that maybe our house is just fine. We keep wondering how stale and/or damp the air is. Did things mildew? Or is everything ok? This is when we are still hoping that our house was not looted. We even have hope that the power will come back on before we return -- crazy hope, probably, but hope nonetheless. Maybe everything in the freezer will refreeze, so we can clean it out frozen. Things must smell less when they're frozen, right?
Anyway, perhaps this is all crazy speculation, but there is just a lot of hope and positive emotion right now. And it feels great! Yesterday was the first day that we felt ok about taking time to really get out and go hiking. We walked several miles, up to an old quarry -- and it felt good to be doing something non hurricane-related. Ate wild persimmons, even!
Days ago, we did go to a nearby park with a stream. We waded in the water, walking upstream quite a ways over rocks that had formed millions of years ago from mud -- you can still see the ripple marks. We walked through schools of minnows, and scared kingfishers who flew across the stream banks making their crazy calls. I looked down in the water and spotted a beautiful sky blue glass marble -- a big shooter -- with a light blue swirly "eye" inside -- my Katrina marble. At the time, I felt pretty bad, but discovering the marble seemed magical, and somehow hopeful. It will become part of the memorabilia associated with this experience.
Ok -- since beginning this post, a new update -- sounds like the day for our zip code to return is next Wednesday. Still soon enough, I think! Looks like Shaw and our neighbor may go in together while I zip up to Bucknell to do some volunteer recruiting for Teach For America. I made that commitment when I thought that it would still be weeks before we could get back to Nola, and I feel strongly about honoring it.
A few days ago, I played Candy Land with the younger boy from our host family. I didn't recall how quickly the tide can turn in Candy Land. Sure, you don't have to even be able to count to play, and there's certainly no strategy -- but there's still tension. You are past the Molasses Swamp, just about at the end of the board. The suspense builds while you draw cards waiting to get that last purple card that will finish the game. Instead, you draw a card that takes you all the way back to the Peppermint Forest, practically at the beginning! This happens over and over. Of course, some of those cards shoot you way ahead too. So, today, I feel like I've drawn the Queen Frostine card. I know that I'm still not at the end of the board, and surprises may still pop up, but I'm hopeful that we are closer to the end of this story than the beginning. At least closer to going home.
It's really cool to look at the actual pages of the newspaper online. Every day, they look more and more "normal." Today, there were actual comics! There are ads from businesses besides insurance companies. It's very heartening.
We are lucky to have a bunch of TP reporters living very close to our house, so when they interview people on the street or describe scenes, they are often very close to home. The guy who owns the wine store right up the street from our house is back in town, as is the guy who owns the local ice cream parlor. What a concept -- returning to our city and having an ice cream cone, and some wine, too! They may be back just to clean up, but still, signs of life.
So we are much happier. We still imagine that maybe our house is just fine. We keep wondering how stale and/or damp the air is. Did things mildew? Or is everything ok? This is when we are still hoping that our house was not looted. We even have hope that the power will come back on before we return -- crazy hope, probably, but hope nonetheless. Maybe everything in the freezer will refreeze, so we can clean it out frozen. Things must smell less when they're frozen, right?
Anyway, perhaps this is all crazy speculation, but there is just a lot of hope and positive emotion right now. And it feels great! Yesterday was the first day that we felt ok about taking time to really get out and go hiking. We walked several miles, up to an old quarry -- and it felt good to be doing something non hurricane-related. Ate wild persimmons, even!
Days ago, we did go to a nearby park with a stream. We waded in the water, walking upstream quite a ways over rocks that had formed millions of years ago from mud -- you can still see the ripple marks. We walked through schools of minnows, and scared kingfishers who flew across the stream banks making their crazy calls. I looked down in the water and spotted a beautiful sky blue glass marble -- a big shooter -- with a light blue swirly "eye" inside -- my Katrina marble. At the time, I felt pretty bad, but discovering the marble seemed magical, and somehow hopeful. It will become part of the memorabilia associated with this experience.
Ok -- since beginning this post, a new update -- sounds like the day for our zip code to return is next Wednesday. Still soon enough, I think! Looks like Shaw and our neighbor may go in together while I zip up to Bucknell to do some volunteer recruiting for Teach For America. I made that commitment when I thought that it would still be weeks before we could get back to Nola, and I feel strongly about honoring it.
A few days ago, I played Candy Land with the younger boy from our host family. I didn't recall how quickly the tide can turn in Candy Land. Sure, you don't have to even be able to count to play, and there's certainly no strategy -- but there's still tension. You are past the Molasses Swamp, just about at the end of the board. The suspense builds while you draw cards waiting to get that last purple card that will finish the game. Instead, you draw a card that takes you all the way back to the Peppermint Forest, practically at the beginning! This happens over and over. Of course, some of those cards shoot you way ahead too. So, today, I feel like I've drawn the Queen Frostine card. I know that I'm still not at the end of the board, and surprises may still pop up, but I'm hopeful that we are closer to the end of this story than the beginning. At least closer to going home.
posted by carla at 4:46 PM
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