Bitch...please.
I thought we were prepared for Irma. Seems we really weren't. Hindsight is always 20/20.
The day before Irma was to hit they cautioned everyone to be hunkered down by six PM. Of course I came across a really good recipe on Facebook at five thirty so headed out to purchase the two missing ingredients. Went to five or six stores...all were closed. I was heading back to the house when I saw a little market still open on a corner in a small shopping strip mall.
It's called Lucky's Market. I bet I'd driven by it a hundred times. I always assumed it was an oriental market run by Hop Sing and his wife, who he loved long time. Well Hop Sing was my hero now with that open sign glaring and I swung into the parking lot.
Holy Shitake Mushrooms!
They were closing in ten minutes to had to hurry but after Irma, Massey and I went back shopping and took all these photos. The day we went they even had a three piece band playing. It's the most fun I've ever had grocery shopping. Huge beer and wine selection, you can even create your own six pack. We even found Atlanta's own SweetWater 420.
Anyhoo...back to Irma.
Just when I thought it would be okay, it wasn't. I've never heard such wind and rain, for hours and hours and hours. We could hear pieces of the house flapping and tearing and clanging...all in the middle of the night, with no power and only battery operated visor lights. It was a long night and the storm went well into the morning hours.
We made it. We were all alive and had a roof over our heads. No back yard fence or many roof shingles left and lots of huge branches down, but felt pretty lucky.
The first day after wasn't too bad, it was still extremely breezy and we opened all the windows and sliding glass door.
The second day was like living in a crock pot set on high...a long slow simmering twenty four hours. All the ice melted and so did our frozen food. The refrigerator smelled like a three day old crime scene.
Lesson number one learned about surviving a hurricane...don't stock up a refrigerator or freezer. The ice always runs out and you'll never have enough.
I did come up with a good idea. I sent a text to our sous chef at work and asked if he was planning on going to check on the restaurant? He said he was and I asked if we could meet him there to fill up our cooler with ice?
Bingo! At least we had cold drinks. Our food was already all spoiled but a cold Co Cola sures tastes good, not to mention a cold beer.
By the third day I thought about walking across the intersection to the old folks home with their annoyingly loud generators humming away and committing myself. It was ninety degrees before noon, was only going to get hotter and knew I couldn't last much longer. Tim took a cold shower, I couldn't muster the strength to even sit up. Massey had bought a small spray water bottle with a tiny battery operated fan on the top. I went through four sets of batteries and kept it a foot away from me at all times.
Since I hogged the only fan in the house, Tim and Massey ventured out in search of food. They had been gone about two hours, probably just enjoying riding in an air conditioned vehicle (and couldn't blame them).
Not to mention, through all of this, our three dogs never complained once (not that they could have) but knew it couldn't be too much fun to sit around in an eighty five degree house wearing a fur coat you couldn't take off. With no fence we had to walk three dogs, three or four times a day and steer the blind one away from all the debris he couldn't see.
So I was trying to read a book, with sweat dripping into my eyes like I was outside cutting grass when suddenly I saw the lamp beside me come on. Then the TV came on as the ceiling fan slowly started to spin. I crossed my fingers and waited for it to go out again. It didn't.
I gave the A/C a fifteen minute head start, then started shutting all the windows and closing all the blinds.
The house (it's tiny) cooled off to seventy nine degrees in about an hour. It was like living in an igloo!
I had to go back to work that night, and thankfully could take a warm shower and wash a uniform. We were balls to the wall busy. People had cabin fever. The kitchen ran with a skeleton crew, some people were flooded in, some were out of power for over five days. Lots of orders got doubled in all the confusion and we ended up with a buffet of food coming back to the expo window.
One of my favorite servers was working with me that night. His power was still out. He and I met in the dish room every spare second we had, sharing and scarfing down Cape Canaveral shrimp with a chipoltle aioli and crab spring rolls with a ponzu reduction. Neither one of us had eaten warm food in days and it was wonderful to eat even luke warm leftover food.
The one good thing about Irma is she hit while we were still renting. The landlord sent a crew out yesterday, they put up a new fence and nailed tarp over the entire roof.
Work has been a double blessing. I'm eating good and the tipping gods have smiled on me. I'm making pretty good money and getting closer to 'airport' money each and every week.
And now...
We got Maria coming?
At least I'll be smarter this time. Nothing but canned fruit, peanut butter, chips and crackers. The only thing I'm icing down is drinks.
Once the power came back on and I saw the devastaion others went through, and continue to go through, know once again we are truly blessed and lucky people.
I was out back reading with the pups yesterday before work. It's a Richard Russo book, "Nobody's Fool". It's about a lot of things but also about a down and out guy (Sully)who was a football star in high school but a failure in his later life.
"Sully, it seemed, scarcely got interested in the contest until someone on the other team landed a good shot or offered an insult, after which something changed in Sully's eyes. If Sully couldn't win the game, he'd start a fight and win that. If he couldn't win the fight he'd started, he'd continue to hurl himself at whatever he couldn't beat with increased fury, as if the knowledge that the battle was unwinable heightened its importance. What Sully did better than anybody else was pick himself up off the ground, and when he returned to the huddle, bruised, nose bloodied, limping, he'd still be hurling insults over his shoulder at whoever had put him on the ground."
Sometimes you have to take off your skirt and get in the game. Ironically enough, I haven't worn a skirt in years.
Til next time...COTTON
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