Oh my poor Vermont! (This got longer than expected...)
Entry under cut in case you're not feeling up to reading potentially sad stuff due to your personal mental state/emotional tolerance level. All photographs linked so you can click or not as you desire. Fair warning: All links are to hurricane property damage photos/articles.
Oh my poor, poor Vermont! While there were many other places effected by hurricane Irene, and this is by far not the worst of natural disasters in recent years, this one is more personal to me, so I'm going to talk about it and how I feel about it. No disrespect is meant to those whose homes and families have and are also suffering.
The manner in which Irene decided to take a bite out of VT was unexpected to say the least. While some damage was predicted, it seems expectations had the storm at less strength by the time it hit Vermont. The good news is that most of the destruction was property damage and there was very little loss of life statewide. The bad news is that it's a LOT of property damage and there was some loss of life as well. My heart and my thoughts go out to the families of those lost and missing in the wake of the storm.
Here's a bit of a link roundup: This is a highway I've driven lots... it's going to need some repairs before anyone's driving it again. (Photo 22 if the link refuses to work). And this is one I was on just a few weeks ago while visiting for the wedding... which we wouldn't be able to get to if it had been this week. (Photo 37) Here's an impressive bridge that withstood the flooding... when nothing around it did.And here's a bridge that sadly, did not. Vermont's historic covered bridges are going to need some serious repairs before they will be a tourist attraction again. Another article with a bunch of pictures. My favorite for sheer wtf whimsy is probably number 77 of 169, the plastic covered round bale, all by its lonesome sitting on some rocks where hay bales are naturally, rarely, if ever, seen to reside. This story, and this story, both about the the barest beginnings of recovery and people coming together to help each other through. Vermonters being Vermonters and going forward because looking backwards has never been Vermont's style. And here's an article about what caused the storm to hit so much harder than anticipated.
Natural disasters are truly one of those things where you just can't win. They always suck and they always hurt someone tremendously even when they "don't hit as hard as expected". In part because that usually means they hit someone else harder than expected. I've always wanted to cry looking at the photos and reading the stories in the wake of them and it's never been my home before (Vermont hasn't seen a flood this bad in nearly a century). I want to try and say something profound here, but I don't feel one can be intentionally profound in the wake of disasters, one can only be honest. I want to say it hurts more because it's a place I know and love, but it really just hurts more personally. I look at the photos and think "I know that road, I learned to drive on it," rather than "That's a road that someone loves because they grew up there." And while that shift in thought is fundamental, it's also incidental, because events like this always remind me of something I try hard to never forget, but sometimes do in the shuffle that is daily life.
Live life and everyday as best and to the utmost you can, you never know what disaster has your number and there's no point in waiting around to find out. Life and living it with joy is so important! It's all we've got that combats hurricanes and earthquakes and all the other bummers that get arbitrarily thrown at us. Before the hurricane, I planned on writing an entry about my surgery and how I hoped everyone would have a good day Friday when I'm stuck in the hospital. It seems even more important in the immediate wake of the hurricane.
So this is my appeal:
My lovelies, I have a personal, selfish favor to ask of you. Go out and have the best day you can on Friday while I'm in surgery. Do something fun, say hello to someone you love you haven't spoken to in too long, create something, be brave and do something new, go somewhere unknown. Make up for the day that I'll spend worrying my loved ones, not particularly conscious, and not feeling like I'm out living life. Live a little life for me, okay? Maybe bring me back a story or two, that way I can feel like I was there in spirit, if not in body. Go out with the goal of creating and experiencing joy. Forgive yourself, enjoy yourself, be yourself. Find a little glory even if your day sucks (like say, if you're shoveling out your brand new post-hurricane mud pit)
One of my most vivid memories of the time immediately following my house burning down was standing with my brother cracking jokes about anything we could find and laughing as hard as we could... because it was that, or cry. And somehow we knew, finding the tiny grains of humor would start to maybe make it all bearable, even if it couldn't make it better. We might have done some crying with our laughing too... but that's okay, sometimes that's a part of life you have to live too.
My love to you all. May you live your life to the fullest each and every day. Particularly today, every time it happens.
____________________________________________ This entry was originally posted at http://riazendira.dreamwidth.org/53946.html, where there are
comments. Please comment on either journal as you please.
Oh my poor, poor Vermont! While there were many other places effected by hurricane Irene, and this is by far not the worst of natural disasters in recent years, this one is more personal to me, so I'm going to talk about it and how I feel about it. No disrespect is meant to those whose homes and families have and are also suffering.
The manner in which Irene decided to take a bite out of VT was unexpected to say the least. While some damage was predicted, it seems expectations had the storm at less strength by the time it hit Vermont. The good news is that most of the destruction was property damage and there was very little loss of life statewide. The bad news is that it's a LOT of property damage and there was some loss of life as well. My heart and my thoughts go out to the families of those lost and missing in the wake of the storm.
Here's a bit of a link roundup: This is a highway I've driven lots... it's going to need some repairs before anyone's driving it again. (Photo 22 if the link refuses to work). And this is one I was on just a few weeks ago while visiting for the wedding... which we wouldn't be able to get to if it had been this week. (Photo 37) Here's an impressive bridge that withstood the flooding... when nothing around it did.And here's a bridge that sadly, did not. Vermont's historic covered bridges are going to need some serious repairs before they will be a tourist attraction again. Another article with a bunch of pictures. My favorite for sheer wtf whimsy is probably number 77 of 169, the plastic covered round bale, all by its lonesome sitting on some rocks where hay bales are naturally, rarely, if ever, seen to reside. This story, and this story, both about the the barest beginnings of recovery and people coming together to help each other through. Vermonters being Vermonters and going forward because looking backwards has never been Vermont's style. And here's an article about what caused the storm to hit so much harder than anticipated.
Natural disasters are truly one of those things where you just can't win. They always suck and they always hurt someone tremendously even when they "don't hit as hard as expected". In part because that usually means they hit someone else harder than expected. I've always wanted to cry looking at the photos and reading the stories in the wake of them and it's never been my home before (Vermont hasn't seen a flood this bad in nearly a century). I want to try and say something profound here, but I don't feel one can be intentionally profound in the wake of disasters, one can only be honest. I want to say it hurts more because it's a place I know and love, but it really just hurts more personally. I look at the photos and think "I know that road, I learned to drive on it," rather than "That's a road that someone loves because they grew up there." And while that shift in thought is fundamental, it's also incidental, because events like this always remind me of something I try hard to never forget, but sometimes do in the shuffle that is daily life.
Live life and everyday as best and to the utmost you can, you never know what disaster has your number and there's no point in waiting around to find out. Life and living it with joy is so important! It's all we've got that combats hurricanes and earthquakes and all the other bummers that get arbitrarily thrown at us. Before the hurricane, I planned on writing an entry about my surgery and how I hoped everyone would have a good day Friday when I'm stuck in the hospital. It seems even more important in the immediate wake of the hurricane.
So this is my appeal:
My lovelies, I have a personal, selfish favor to ask of you. Go out and have the best day you can on Friday while I'm in surgery. Do something fun, say hello to someone you love you haven't spoken to in too long, create something, be brave and do something new, go somewhere unknown. Make up for the day that I'll spend worrying my loved ones, not particularly conscious, and not feeling like I'm out living life. Live a little life for me, okay? Maybe bring me back a story or two, that way I can feel like I was there in spirit, if not in body. Go out with the goal of creating and experiencing joy. Forgive yourself, enjoy yourself, be yourself. Find a little glory even if your day sucks (like say, if you're shoveling out your brand new post-hurricane mud pit)
One of my most vivid memories of the time immediately following my house burning down was standing with my brother cracking jokes about anything we could find and laughing as hard as we could... because it was that, or cry. And somehow we knew, finding the tiny grains of humor would start to maybe make it all bearable, even if it couldn't make it better. We might have done some crying with our laughing too... but that's okay, sometimes that's a part of life you have to live too.
My love to you all. May you live your life to the fullest each and every day. Particularly today, every time it happens.
____________________________________________ This entry was originally posted at http://riazendira.dreamwidth.org/53946.html, where there are
comments. Please comment on either journal as you please.