Thoughts After A Summer Storm
Yesterday was an eventful day for me. I followed through on some life altering decisions which I will blog about in the next few days, met neighbors we’ve had for more than a decade, and lost our electrical power for more than 16 hours …
At about supper time, a storm blew in from the northwest, and raised some serious havoc over a rather wide radius. Trees came down all over, people died in lightning strikes, some homes caught fire when they were hit, some streets in Portsmouth accumulated water so fast that cars had to be abandoned. What an evening! We lost our power at the height of the storm, which was at about 6 PM last night, and it came back on at about 10 AM.
We were lucky. We didn’t lose anything, and although the plants in the garden were turned upside down, they all look as if they will survive.
Once the storm was over, Dougie and I took a walk down the road to where a pine tree had come down across the power lines. We took some photos, which I’ve included below. On the way home, some of our neighbors were just coming out onto the street to see what was going on. Herbie and Rita have been neighbors as long as I’ve been here, and he is Doug’s cousin. He’s been through a really terrible time medically for the last 2 years, including a trach, 14 mos on TNP, etc. I’m not clear on how it started exactly, but it initially had something to do with the absolute upper part of his spine. I tried hard to get some names from them … but no one apparently remembered any.
I hadn’t seen Herbie and Rita since before he became ill 2 years ago, and we enjoyed visiting each other. As we were talking, another couple came toward us from down the road … wanting to see what had happened. They introduced themselves as my closest neighbors. None of us had met them before. They’ve been in the house across the street since 1997. The conversation picked up steam, and became even more engaging with the extra input.
While we were all still talking, another couple approached from the same general direction. They are people who live only a few houses away. They bought the land from my Father-in-law, and built in one of the nicest spots available quite a number of years ago. They were very nice, and I was absolutely delighted to meet them.
Eventually, the sun began to set, and the mosquitoes drove each of us back in our separate directions … a little poorer from having had to break things up, but a lot richer from finally all meeting one another.
Here in the Maine countryside … and not just here, really, but in much of New England, people generally keep to themselves, because they don’t want to intrude and be seen as “busy bodies.” Also because we all treasure our privacy. However, if something goes wrong and one of us should need some help that others become aware of, everyone would pull together.
But still, even as I write this, I’m a little horrified on the inside as I realize that I never met the lovely couple who live right across the street from us until they’d been there for 11 years!
It took a power outage and a bit of excitement down the road to draw us all from our computers and televisions … out into the street … to meet the people we’ve been rubbing elbows with for better than a decade.
Is globalized communication shrinking our face-to-face world, causing us to become enclosed in the prisons of our homes? We can make friends with people clear across the country, develop warm relationships with friends in India and Malaysia … but more and more, we don’t even know the people who live right next door.
Friends, we need some balance, no?
Take time to greet someone near you this week - someone you see all the time, but have never spoken to. Even just a smile will do, if you’re bashful. If you can communicate with me across the country, or across the world, then you can also communicate with the people whose faces have become familiar to you, but whom you don’t know.
Oooookies … *gets off the soap box* … now here are some shots from last night …
Click on the photo for a larger version.
When enlarged, the top right and left of the photo have hidden navigation links that appear when you run your mouse over them.
The tree that caused us to lose power lays across the road. Mother-in-law’s house in the background.
A closer view of the tree laying across the power lines.
The amazing sunset we saw as we walked back home.
A catbird sings to us from a nearby bench as we pause to chat with neighbors.
A bit of extra reading on the storm:
Storm in SW Maine Takes Two Lives
Storm wreaks havoc; house fire, stranded cars, tornado warning keep rescue officials hopping
July 20th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Wow…you know, that’s what I was afraid was going to happen when I moved to Illinois. Chris had already warned me that the people next door didn’t “do neighbors”. I guess they’d had a busybody living next to them in their previous location, and now just wanted neighbors who minded their own business. But as it turns out, after three years here, I know pretty much everyone on the block. And we do talk semi regularly to at least three or four of our nearest neighbors, so I’m not feeling too bad.
Now..I’m saving time and comment space by leaving comments on two posts at once. Why do the words “home” and “dialysis” in the same sentence leave me with chills? I know very little about dialysis, but was under the impression it was something done at a dedicated facility. Moof, try really hard to take care of yourself and keep us updated! Are you still in school? If so, how is that going?
love, Shel
July 21st, 2008 at 12:17 am
Here’s what I know about the whole thing: Dialysis sucks; not having you around sucks worse.
This is going to sound goofy but I kinda wish I could just weave my way through this huge crowd of people and give you a hug. No words other than I’ve missed you.
Stay in touch when you can, as I dread the thought of being “ex-classmate-X”.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Moof,
Glad you and your family made it through the storm unscathed…..but 16 hours without power? Aggghhh…I’d go crazy! Although I guess it would remind me what life was like before tv and computers….nothing wrong with that I suppose! And all that work planting that huge garden…I hope the plants do survive.
In my neighborhood, the homes are very close together. It forced me not only to meet my neighbors, but to befriend them. It has been a wonderful thing. Folks down here do tend to be a bit more friendly, which makes it easier. In RI, we really didn’t know too many of our neighbors. Then again, the yards were big and we had a bit of distance between us.
BTW, I love the pic of the sunset. Gorgeous shots, my friend.
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
So glad to hear that you survived the storm unscathed and that the trees pretty much kept their damage away from you and your homes.
I’m positive that you will be quite capable of taking care of your dialysis at home, however, I think that it’s possible that I will need to come up there to assist you with your nutritional needs. Especially since you have such great taste in decadent cuisine.
How it works…
1. You order whatever your little heart desires.
2. You get to eat two bites (maybe three).
3. I get to eat the rest of the entree` while you eat all of those other healthful foods that you’re supposed to eat.
It’s simple really, and a sacrifice that I am willing to make just for you Moof!
;+ )
later…
July 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I knew and spoke with quite a few of the neighbors in our ‘hood in Virginia. When we moved to New Orleans, within a few hours of Phill and I unlocking the door to our house we had met five of the families living within six houses of us. Because of walking the dog, I know many more people around the area. In New Orleans, you introduce yourself, first and last name, with the next question being “What do you do?” There’s much to be said at how the social network of NOLA keeps the recovery going, from neighbors to bloggers to newly formed watchdog groups.