The Aftermath

The past few days have been filled with hurricane preparation stories as Hurricane Irene moved into position to coming up the east coast of the US.  Since I live alone, I utilized several evenings and Saturday morning to move patio furniture, take down some outside decorations, move trash cans into the shed, buy ice, line up candles (and matches) buy water and fill up my gas tank.

I also cut my grass Saturday morning, and finally wrapping up the preparations, got a pedicure which involves sitting in a massage chair and having great conversations with my Vietnamese friends that own the salon. 

It is always a great time catching up with their oldest daughter, now working on her doctorate and still giving pedicures.  Conversation at one point turned to my work with Reach Academy for Girls and the plight of US students who are graduating but are not very knowledgeable. 

The conversation turned towards the time when very intelligent women could only choose teaching, nursing or motherhood as a choice for after high school or college graduation.  Believe me that was true in 1969 because though I wanted the Peace Corp I was steered toward teaching.

So back then we had were extremely gifted women teaching in our classrooms and challenging a generation of students.  Times have changed and newly gifted women have lots of career choices.  Not many want to teach and earn the salaries that are given to teachers.  Instead, they wait to inspire students that arrive in their places of work after graduation.

So what is our society saying when some woman named Kim can "earn" $18 Million to have her wedding covered in the press and our teachers with a Master's Degree and 17 years of teaching earn $50,000?

And, what does it say about a country that says supporting a family of four on $27,000 a year and having a refrigerator or a cell phone is a "luxury"?  I really need to have this "logic" mapped out for me.

But, I digresss.

So after the pedicure I came home to wait out the storm.  Kept checking emails, watching reruns on TV, checking the news.  Checking in with my step-father and daughter.

Kat had left the Jersey shore on Friday traveling north but inland.  Worried about me being here alone, she kept checking in.  Nothing to report but wind and rain.

Then the tornado warnings started arriving.  I decided that this time I would head to the basement leaving the door open so that the cats would follow which they did.  And, I lit a candle in case the lights went out.

What I discovered was that you cannot hear a thing in my basement.  Too quiet.  I could not hear the wind or the rain.  And, that made me more anxious than being on the second floor in my bedroom watching TV.  Called a friend but reception in the basement was not good.  However, they were playing games on the computer, watching TV and cooking. 

Was I the only person in the basement?

Warning over I emerged, leaving the door open.  Back upstairs to more reading, TV and staring out of the windows.

How was Pat, another single woman, doing in Lewes?  Did she leave?  What about all my friends from St. Martha's, All Saints and St. Peter's?  What about all the homeless men and women around Wilmington?  Did extra shelters women as in Code Purples during the winter?

I actually slept through the night with the TV on low in case of another emergency warning.  And I awoke to a damp world with electricity.

So, no church this morning.  State of emergency in effect. 

Kat called from her "safe" place in northern New Jersey to a world without electricity or coffee.  No ice was purchased so everyone will be outside grilling the meat in the freezer.

Me, I have opened windows and let the clean air in. The house is breezy and it feels wonderful. 

I have cleaned debris out of the pool and did my walking, still in circles.

Trees may still come down in this wind, but all in all I am lucky.  Nothing much has changed for me.

So I will think on and and hold in prayer the millions for which this is not so.

So what do I take away from this?

Not that God has blessed me and not someone else, but rather the longer the world keeps pissing off Mother Nature, the more she is going to retaliate.

Delaware in the past month has witnessed rare tornadoes, an earthquake and now hurricane.

It's Mother Nature stupid and not the fact that Joe Biden comes from Delaware.

Laugh people.  It is a great gift from God.

Love you Joe.