Yearly Archives: 2011

Monday night – wrong as rain

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I just reread my post from last night and I can’t believe how far off the mark I was.  I’d reported that the storm had basically passed us by

 

I recall speaking to my mom around 11 oclock last night and telling her just how little the storm had effected us.. that was before i walked outside. Around midnight I tried to take a friend home.. and found that the four main roads out of here were under water.. .. Duxbury road, Cochran road and route 2, both north and south were covered by several feet of churning water. in 30 years of living here..

i’ve never seen it that bad.. not even in 1992 when we were evacuated.. I remember that night so clearly.. Diane was very pregnant with Sam. .they woke us around 2 AM and made us head to higher ground..

 

The memory of that night was with me as I turned the car back and drove home. The field across from us was now a lake.. the river was in our neighbors barn..  I sat watching the water until about 1 AM. then I went back inside and tried to sleep.. Strange noises dratted in through the open windows.. wind, splashing, rain.. Around 3 I recall being awakened to the sound of horses whinnying and sloshing  through the water.. They’d been lead to higher ground by our neighbors.

When we woke today.. it was to blue skies and cool temperatures.. from our window.. it looked like nothing had happened.. until we looked across the street. The road out of our house was closed

 

.. our neighbors yard and barn were in the river..

 


and there was a lake where the field belonged

Around 11 I tried to get to work.. Route 2 was still a river .note the boat sailign down the middle of the road.. and the top of the cars parked there..

This is 1 block form our house.. or it would be uf we measured distance in blocks up here..

Lots of folks from our village were up early to survey the damge.. see how hight the water is behidn us >!>!


everywhere thre was huge piles of debree.. trees, tires, all sorts of junk..


this is right across from our house .

here are the horse Id heard last night..

I managed to find a way to work by heading south on dugway road to teh hunting road.. then intowards richmond.. .. Richmond was totally under water as these pictures from freind Jean show..

 

 

I turned back towards hinesburg and headed over east hill road to williston.. Willisotn road was still closed, but that was ok.. I was heading the otehr way.. Overall the flood  added about 10 miles to my commute.. but I got there !

All day long we’ve been getting calls, instant messages, facebook queries and emails asking if we were Ok.. .. I guess the media had relaly played up what had happened here in Vermont like this CNN report . W eappreciate all the well wshes and concern.. we’re fine.. buto our neighbors are not all o lucky

Our friends, Krisata, Austin and Caroline’s house on Cochran road..Timber Hill farm .. or the horse barn as many call it.. was comepleyly flooded there was almost 4 feet of runnign water in their basement last night..  . Krista is askign for help between 9am and noon tomorrow to clear the mess from her basement.. If you have an hour or so to help.. please show up at Timber Hill Farm on Cochran road flats with rok gloves and boots. She’d really appreciate your help !

 

OK.. that’s it for now.. I gotta sleep..

Hopefully things will be drier and clearer tomorrow.

 

Nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon – Goodnight Irene

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I woke today dreaming of the huge storm heading our way.. I jumped to the window and was surprised to see that it was just drizzling out.. .. No matter.. I knew the real fury of the storm was still well south of us..  Diane and I ventured outside to secure the yard..Everything like garbage cans  that weren’t  tied down we dragged in to the garage.. We even tarped Max’s pizza oven

I spent the day waiting for the storm to hit.. but.. it really never did.. It rained steadily through the day.. but nothing remarkable. The river by our house is up.. but no more so than during the spring thaws.   I only recall a few blustery moments.. but even no big wind to speak off…

I guess I should have been relieved.. but somehow I couldn’t help feeling like we’d been short changed. All od the prep, all of the hype.. for naught.. On the other hand.. I guess I really should be more appreciative.. I do know other parts of the state got hit really hard.. I  was very saddened to hear that a woman got swept away by a swollen river in Southern Vermont and presumably drowned…. (I have to sit here a minute after writing that.. how do I keep writing after relating soemthing like that.. ?)

Bennington and Rutland had major flooding.. I even think nearby Waterbury and Motnpellier had problems… My mom and dad called from Massachusetts to say that a huge tree blew down in their front yard .. it barely missed their house..

So.. I’l count us as  very lucky.. Our thoughts go out to all on the east coast who did get damage..

It will be nice to see the sun tomorrow..

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Ledbelly songs.. “Goodnight Irene”.. been on my mind all day..

 

 

Last Saturday night I got married
We went and settled down
Now me and my wife are parted
I think I’ll take a little walk downtown

Irene good-night, Irene good-night
Good-night Irene, good-night Irene
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams

Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in the town
Sometimes I take a fool notion
I think I’ll jump in the river and drown

Irene good-night, Irene good-night
Good-night Irene, good-night Irene
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams

Now fellas stop your gamblin’
Stop stayin’ out late every night
Stay home with your wife and children
Stay by the fireside light

Irene good-night, Irene good-night
Good-night Irene, good-night Irene
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams
I’ll see, I’ll see you in my dreams…

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday evening – The calm before/after the storm

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Like most folks on the East Coast of the US. we sit here tonight waiting for Hurricane Irene.. Diane and I closed  a few windows.. but aside from that, we’re content to let the storm have it’s way with us.    This brings back many cool memories from growing up in Houston when we’d be glued to the tv waiting for reports on an impending storm.. .. we’d get out candles, buy batteries.. fill the tubs with water.. My favorite thing was taping up the big plate glass windows in our den.. The idea.. I think.. was that the tape would somehow keep the shards of glass from flying around if the window was broken by a flying tree limb.. or car.. or cow or something. I knew better, though.. I knew that the simple act of putting tape on the windows appeased (or angered) the storm gods such that the storm would either dissipate.. or would land on some less (or more) fortunate town.

My memory may be a little warped here.. but it seems to me that the worse the storm was supposed to be the more likely it was to be a dud   Life can be like that.. expectations are such a dangerous thing..

 

That’s not to say that the storms did not sometimes deliver a good show.. I remember many days of watching the huge oaks in the backyard  whipping around.. I remember they looked like they were fighting.. I remember huge sheets of rain.. then the weird calm greenish light as the eye of the storm went over..

 

I also remember the days we got off from school for storms.. I always have told my kids that they have it pretty good that they get off for snow.. it’s mush more fun to go and play in the snow … than it was to go play in the hurricane..

 

Though I do remember one funny story.. we were off from school  one day for a hurricane.. in the afternoon the bayous that drained Houston were all at flood stage.. for some crazy reason a couple of us ran a rope across one of the big ditches that drained into the bayou.. and used it to haul ourselves back and forth through the churning water…. That same stunt got Kingsley Dye pulled into a culvert once.. (he was rescued)   Anyway,  I’ll never forget seeing all the toilet paper left on the grass the next day where we were swimming.. .. the sewers had all overflowed and we were swimming in…. oh never mind..

The reports f the storm caused our friends Steve and Mathew from PA to abort their Long trail hike today.. so we went and rescued them.. they’re here tonight waiting on the storm with us..   which is making the waitign a little more festive..

There’s a funny contrast between this peculiar calm before Irene.. and what happened earlier.. This morning, our good friends the Townsends moved out.. Ian, Matt and Hannah are headed off to college in Montreal..

Since last November, various combination’s of Deb, Ian. Hannah and Britt have been staying with us.. which we have really loved.. now everyone is heading off into the next chapter of their lives..   So are their.. and our many friends..   The beginning of the school year is always a time of change for us.. people scatter and get back into their non summer lives. . We go back to the three of us here in the house.. it’s peaceful.. quiet..and sometimes a little too quiet.. but we adjust…. we have to.. no choice.. and we wouldn’t really ave it any other way..

 

OK.. time to get going..

more tomorrow.. good luck with the storm.. stay dry everyone !

 

note all, nite sam

-me

 

Friday night – talking/listening

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This always happens to me.. I’ve just come back from nearly three weeks of seeing new stuff, new people, new food.. etc.. I’ve gone from 100 MPH to zero in just a day.. I’m loving being home,.. I’m even enjoying reconnecting at work.. but I always go through a sort of  ‘focus backlash’ .. when I come back from and adventure.. Nothing seems to make the radar of interest.. everything  is ‘nice’.. quite.. unremarkable.. yet.. somehow I feel compelled to write ,,, I’ve committed to myself to write every day until Nov23.. (which will be 5 years of every night since 3 days after Sam’s death)    But maybe every day doesn’t merit recording..

I was thinking of that today when my freind S. made a blog post on her new blog site inside our company. S made the observation that of the 3000+ blogs inside our company.. most had only single digit readership. I’m sure that trend is echoed  outside the company…. So many people talking.. and not so many people listening. it would be interesting to know how many folks do exactly as I am doing now and spill their guts online every night. with maybe no one reading.. What’s even stranger to consider is that everything we all right becomes part of the permanent record of our culture.. Maybe sometime in the distant future all these words we stick out there will be sifted through by archeologists to extract something about our lives…

they would discover that I had a a really nice and quiet day…

If I knew who they would be, I’d tell them that directly..

gnite all, nite sam

-me