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 …

A bit of extra reading on the storm:

After spending the entire morning, and a good part of the afternoon doing a blogrun, I decided that I needed some fresh air. Doug begins a two week break today, and I asked him if he would be interested in getting outside a bit … to my delight, he agreed. And so - off we went, down the edges of the corn field, and on into the woods for a nice woodland trek. We took a few photos, and I thought I would share them with you …

In the last few years, I’ve become a homebody. I seldom step outside unless I’m up at our camp. We’ve always had gardens, but these last two years, we haven’t been able to get out there, and make that happen. I can actually go for weeks on end without leaving the house

However …

In the last week or so, a sudden rush of color which came pouring in through my windows has enticed me to move beyond my usual confines. The scents and hues … the crisp spring air, all held me captive as soon as I gave in to the urge.

I wanted to share a few of the more captivating sights with you. I only wish I could also share the delicate, intoxicating scents …

The warmth and sunlight belied the scene before me … devastation! Twisted concrete, buckled asphalt … huge rocks strewn in odd places … tree limbs along the sides of all the roads, or hanging like limp, sodden bodies with outstretched arms, clinging without volition to those branches which were still attached to the trees. Every few feet, there was another silent testimony to the violence of nature - the stark white of a broken tree, too recently ravaged to look weathered, too recently dismembered to mourn its own death - now cut off from its sole source of nourishment.

The winter has been long, and very, very hard. Yesterday - April 22, was the first day that the temperatures rose into the 70’s. Today, amazed and befuddled people all over the area made their way out of their homes as if drawn by a piper’s flute … the temperature climbed to 85 today. Brief and fleeting … since after this tantalizing taste, we have only 60’s and 50’s in store for the foreseeable future, but still - it was a glimmer of hope for what is sure to come if we are only patient for a while longer …

Drawn to the outside and the warmth like a moth to a flame, I decided to use the opportunity to take a brief tour of the area; I wanted to assess the damage done by last week’s storm … all the while soaking today’s long awaited warmth and blue skies. I was stunned by what I saw.

Here are some photos, taken today, of the damage done by last week’s rain. You can view them as a slide show by clicking on the first photo, and running your mouse over it until you see “Next” appear near the top right, or “Prev” near the top left. You can go through the entire set of photos that way. If you’d rather, you can click on “Read the rest of this entry” at the end of this post, and see the photos inline. Clicking on them allows you to see them in a much higher resolution, with clearer details. Descriptions are beneath each photo inline, which a briefer description included in the slide show.

Both sides of the bridge over the ironically named “Little River” were completely washed out in last week’s storm. The now placid waters were raging beyond their banks in the April storm, claiming the lives of a 50 year old grandmother and her 4 year old granddaughter.

With echoes of May 2006 reverberating in our memories, New England faced another round of major flooding yesterday.

Power was just returned to our street at 9 AM this morning - it had been out since 5 AM Monday.

Less than a 1/2 mile away, locals had to use a row boat to get from their car to their home, and less than 5 miles away, a grandmother and her grandbaby were lost in Little River when they tried to cross what they thought was shallow water to get to their home. A man who made an unsuccessful attempt to save them nearly drowned as all three victims were washed downriver. He was later treated for hypothermia, and released.

I know that what we’re experiencing doesn’t hold a candle to the nightmare lived by Dr. Hébert, but with our 3rd major flooding in two years, and our second extended local power outage in two weeks, we’re a getting a little ragged around the edges.

Husband and son were both out in the last 48 hours, and reported seeing some pretty amazing sites. Newmarket NH residents were being evacuated from their homes into the backs of 18 wheelers; parts of the town soon became completely unreachable, as it did last year. Dozens upon dozens of local streets were rapidly vanishing underneath quickly flowing water, and my son reported seeing a gazebo in Exeter, NH which was flooded to its roof. Getting from point A to point B began to be a race against the rising waters as street after street became impassable. The bridge between Berwick, ME and Somersworth, NH was closed, with the water reaching and flowing over the bridge.

Here in York County, Maine, January has been the warmest and most pleasant month of 2007 … that’s pretty sad, considering we’re in mid-April.

We’re ready for a bit of warmth and sunshine! More than ready!

And now that I finally have running water again (inside of the house, that is) … HOT water … I’m going to go luxuriate in the shower before having to leave for my doc’s appointment this afternoon. Actually … the last appointment I had scheduled with him also found me without power … hmmm … I begin to see a pattern here … 0.o

Leaving those of you who are interested with a few articles to read. I hope to get to a few things which I’m behind on when I get back home from my doc’s appointment today … like the piled up dishes and laundry, the emails in my backed-up inbox, and a live classroom lecture which I need to attend this evening, especially since I missed yesterday’s due to the power outage. It’s amazing how quickly a body can fall behind …