Thursday, September 18, 2008

Day 38 on Lexapro.

Day 15 on Lamictal.

written ?? days later.

posted a long time later.

As Em and I left our evacuation spot behind, we made one last stop at the edge of town. This little white house once belonged to my aunt and uncle. My uncle still works the ranch on which this house sits. Located at a fork in the road where two highways meet, it is commonly known as “the house at the Y.” I don’t know why, but I love this house. The windmill behind it is legendary in my mind. It is solely responsible for my love affair and sentimentality toward windmills and is the reason why, when I lived in Chicago, I bought a windmill to display as an interior design piece. I still have it in my bedroom today.

As we left traveled through Fort Worth, large signs on the side of the road warned: “Do Not Travel to Houston or Beaumont” and “Storm Damage from Houston to Beaumont.” I had to laugh. What choice did we have?

On the way home, Em constantly suggested that we go back to CowLand.

“It’s Cow Town,” I would gently remind her.

And then we would both giggle delightedly.

We were having fun.

This photo is a tribute to our Grand Prairie readership. The Lori Brown blog thanks you for your support, GP subscribers.

As we traveled along, Em and I started to notice damage long before we entered Houston. Trees had fallen. Signs were destroyed. Things were generally a mess. My mother had warned me to stop and get gas before we entered the city. I waited until the last stop, so that we could have as much gas as possible when we got home. I didn’t know how readily available it would be where we lived. The timing for our fill-up was impeccable. Just as I finished filling the tank, I noticed an employee of the gas station standing outside. I asked what was going on. She said that after we finished filling up, they were going to have to close off the tanks. When I asked why, she said they were still hooked up to generators and would have to be closed before they hooked them up to the main power supply again.

It was a sign of what to expect as we traveled closer to home. Things would not return to normal for quite a while. The most noticeable inconvenience for us were the broken stoplights. Cars waited in extremely long lines on roads that usually held little traffic. And destruction was all around us. Electrical lines were down. Many houses had roof damage. Almost no fences were left intact.

Em admonished the storm, “That hurricane was a baaad boy.”

“Oh yes he was,” I agreed. “A very bad boy!”

This is a picture of the trees in front of our bank, right around the corner from our house.

When we got home, I immediately heard from Kim and E. Liz. Almost simultaneously, they texted my phone.

Hallelujah, they wrote, we have POWER!

They had been without power for a very long time. We were more fortunate. Upon arrival to our home, I was relieved to see that we had power, internet, and cable. I was also shocked to find that our refrigerator, which was probably off for several days, did not smell terribly bad. As a safety precaution, we had to throw all of the contents away anyway.

That night, Em and I joined E. Liz and her family at Casa Ole. It was one of the reasons we had rushed home. If we came home this night, E. Liz promised, she would treat us to Casa Ole herself.

And she did.

Upon arrival to the restaurant, however, we were disappointed to find they did not have their full menu. Instead, we were invited to order our choice of enchiladas, enchiladas, and/or enchiladas.

Even after that night, it took a very long time for Casa Ole to get their full menu back. And even after that night, the thought of eating enchiladas made us cringe. Not because they weren’t delicious…but because we had eaten too many of them.

Still, it was good to be home.

Tonight I’ll sing my songs again/
I’ll play the game and pretend/
But all my words come back to me/
In shades of mediocrity/
Like emptiness in harmony/
I need someone to comfort me.

– Paul Simon, Homeward Bound