So, it’s Day One of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma hitting
the ENTIRE state of Florida. No electricity, and no Internet and no phone
service.
But, I do have a generator, but it’s not designed to run
24/7 to keep the fridge going, and in order to use any other appliance (like
the very necessary coffee-maker), you have to plug and unplug. It’s my “art
show generator,” bought specifically for night shows to keep lights on and to
power up the phone and iPad. God forbid you should try and use it for a hair
dryer. Those things suck amps.
My hubby is a man who is not good under pressure. He’s
Chicken Little in a pair of oversize work boots and an ever-growing beer
belly. In order to prepare for Irma, he
cut plywood from work, screwed it into the house over the windows with a LOT of
screws, put all the furniture into a corner on the deck (which I had done
earlier, but evidently did not do correctly) and got the generators running (he
has a big powerhouse on his work truck). When Irma arrived in our area (East
coast), she had calmed down a bit, after taking out all the islands off the
southern coast of Florida. Her greed for land still wasn’t completely satiated
by the time she hit the lower coast, so she pushed her away around Miami and
Naples, after taking the Keys in as an appetizer. She was a Category 2, and
waning, by the time the outer bands hit me.
It was still enough to deposit over 17 bags of leaves and
other material, including one hapless rat, in the pool. Irma’s winds ripped
apart my plumeria like they were lettuce leaves, uprooted my Key Lime and in
general, caused yard havoc that will take me a week or more to clean up.
But, my little Florida Bungalow, built in 1956, held up like
a champ. No loss of roof, no ripping off of doors, no broken windows. She
didn’t shake, rattle or roll during the brunt of the storm, and although I am
surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Halifax River on the
other, no storm surge or flooding. I am blessed. It’s not “Somewhere Off A1A”s
first rodeo. She has seen Donna, Charlie, Andrew and Matthew.. And maybe a
couple of other nasties in-between.
I’m sorry I missed my festival in Jekyll Island, Georgia,
which was scheduled for September 15-17, and was cancelled because of the
original path of Irma, which would have taken her right up my coastline and
into the Sea Islands. After not working festivals for three months, with
September being four, I sorely need the income. My creditors in Kansas care not
about hurricanes. But, it is what it is.
I still feel blessed in so many ways, so be able to create
art for a living, and that my house is intact, my dogs alive and somewhat
happy, and my family are all safe. I’m still making art, albeit by one light on
the work table, and brushing off gnats when they get stuck in the paper glue. Why
doesn’t window screen deter gnats? No internet is making me realize how much I
have come to depend on it, and no cell phone service at my house forces me to
creep out of my cave to communicate.
It’s all good, people. It’s all good.
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