My next door neighbor just returned home. Her name is Rody. She's 83 years old. She's not very mobile. She takes a fist full of prescription drugs every day. She smokes hand rolled cigarettes. She has no business at all being here right now. If nothing else the infrastructure can't support her. She's not really healthy enough and fit enough to be here now. Heer daughter and son-in-law dropped her off. They stayed with her for about 30 minutes then left her.
I want to very clear about my attitude about staying and returning. I completely understand Rody's compulsion to get home. She told me that her family was driving her crazy. I can get a life-sized picture of that. I can totally identify. She had no power where she was. She was miserable. She figured she could be miserable at home. The only flaw in that is that there are few people here right now and fewer resources. There are no doctors' offices open, no pharmacies open, no grocery stores, no gas stations, no restaurants. If anything at all happens to her she's screwed. I do admit that if anything happens to me I'm screwed too. But a simple fall in my living room is far less likely to be serious for me, and is probably far less like to happen to me in the first place. I also know that I can get out of here on foot or on a bicycle and make it pretty far, especially on the bike.
Anyway, that's my rant. Rody just walked out on her front porch and shouted to me asking me if I knew where she could buy ice. ICE!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Friday, September 5, 2008
7:10 AM Miracle Juice
Coffee is miraculous. I love it, I really do. I'm not any more well rested because of drinking coffee. But I am certainly in a better frame of mind, especially since my power is still out.
I see more activity already on the street outside, more cars. It looks like some folks have driven early morning hours to return to check things out. It seems kind of strange to have cars back on the street.
I see more activity already on the street outside, more cars. It looks like some folks have driven early morning hours to return to check things out. It seems kind of strange to have cars back on the street.
6:15 AM 9/3/08 Wednesday • As Expected
So I really didn't get much useful sleep last night. I'm really beat. I'm going to drink my coffee with a vengence this morning. I need me some coffee. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those days. The sun is already up.
10:15 PM Early to Bed
I'm tired. I'm going to bed early. I hope I can sleep. It's really hot for sleeping. I usually have no trouble whatsoever sleeping. But I know that sweating and nerves and rich food and more than a few beers is not the perfect recipe for a great night's sleep.
7:50 PM Seafood Soup
So I didn't quite get into the realm of Santana. But I think I got somewhere around that guy that plays for Hootie and the Blowfish. I got way too sidetracked with cooking this outlandish seafood soup.
A good buddy of mine whose name is Virle, cleared his fridge before he evacuated and gave me these two bags of assorted seafood — shrimp, clams, scallops, calamari, fish, — all smal pieces and chunks. So as not to let this bounty go to waste I carmelized an onion, chopped an absurd amount of garlic, diced two tomatoes, stirred in some bay leaf, black pepper, and tomato sauce, sqeezed a few limes in there, then through in the seafood towards the end. Man that soup rocked!
Things are still rainy on and off outside. The power is still out. It's really dark out here, and very quiet.
A good buddy of mine whose name is Virle, cleared his fridge before he evacuated and gave me these two bags of assorted seafood — shrimp, clams, scallops, calamari, fish, — all smal pieces and chunks. So as not to let this bounty go to waste I carmelized an onion, chopped an absurd amount of garlic, diced two tomatoes, stirred in some bay leaf, black pepper, and tomato sauce, sqeezed a few limes in there, then through in the seafood towards the end. Man that soup rocked!
Things are still rainy on and off outside. The power is still out. It's really dark out here, and very quiet.
3:40 PM Running, Playing, Drinking
I just got in from a very hot run. There are more people moving around, people walking dogs, people riding bikes, people just meandering and checking things out. It's still hot. But it keeps raining on and off. The sun was out earlier. Now it's raining gently.
I had a couple of beers before my run. Although I have been known to run after having a beer or two. Drinking before a run isn't really part of my training regimen. I'm on my second beer since coming back in from said run. I took one in the shower with me. (I love drinking a cold ass beer in the shower after a hot run.) Then I cracked another when I got out. I'm going to sit and play my guitar for a bit before I get started in earnest with cooking.
A guy I used to work with years ago, the now deceased Dave Frazier, was, in addition to being a plumber, a guitarist, ukulele player (ukulele-ist? ukulele-er?), a flautist, and a pianist. Dave was an incredibly intelligent character, in his mid-sixties at the time, mid-eighties, and quite a dilettante. He was a vast source of knowledge of all kinds. One day, at lunch, years ago, on a construction site Dave was describing to me a Friday night jam session he had hosted at his house. He looked square at me, blue/gray eyes twinkling below a wild, Einsteinian mop of white hair, and said very matter of factly, "When I'm playing [the guitar] I like to drink ... whiskey. The more I drink the better I sound." Well, right now I'm going to sit with my guitar and drink, hoping to keep sounding better and better. With an early start like this I might be able make it all the way to sounding like Santana by this evening. ¿Oye com va?
I had a couple of beers before my run. Although I have been known to run after having a beer or two. Drinking before a run isn't really part of my training regimen. I'm on my second beer since coming back in from said run. I took one in the shower with me. (I love drinking a cold ass beer in the shower after a hot run.) Then I cracked another when I got out. I'm going to sit and play my guitar for a bit before I get started in earnest with cooking.
A guy I used to work with years ago, the now deceased Dave Frazier, was, in addition to being a plumber, a guitarist, ukulele player (ukulele-ist? ukulele-er?), a flautist, and a pianist. Dave was an incredibly intelligent character, in his mid-sixties at the time, mid-eighties, and quite a dilettante. He was a vast source of knowledge of all kinds. One day, at lunch, years ago, on a construction site Dave was describing to me a Friday night jam session he had hosted at his house. He looked square at me, blue/gray eyes twinkling below a wild, Einsteinian mop of white hair, and said very matter of factly, "When I'm playing [the guitar] I like to drink ... whiskey. The more I drink the better I sound." Well, right now I'm going to sit with my guitar and drink, hoping to keep sounding better and better. With an early start like this I might be able make it all the way to sounding like Santana by this evening. ¿Oye com va?
Friday, 9/5/08, 11:00 AM POWER!!
My power just came on this morning. Yeah you right! I'm going to try to catch back up to real time with my posts. Thanks for hanging in there!
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