Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Super Storm and the Closet of Shame

121216_06 Here are some shots that I took of the Super Storm aftermath at our beach. The top shot is of the beach and what normally is a little creek that flows into the salt marsh. Below is what used to be the salt marsh. In all the years I’ve been here I’ve never seen the marsh completely covered all the way up for several blocks to the golf course. It was very creepy. Well, the whole things was creepy and as bad as it was we were some of the lucky ones. We had no power for 7 days and lost all the food in the fridge. There was no gas to be had for a week or so but there wasn’t anywhere to go anyway. I was lucky enough to go to James & Dani’s for a nice hot shower when ours ran out- we ate at a diner near them. Everywhere you went was cash only so I guess that was lucky too since I had a bit of cash on hand and so did Bob. We ate at a restaurant every lunch and some dinners. There were interior places on the island that were just messed up from strong winds but here, just down the block, an enormous ancient fir tree, (think Rockafeller tree) fell over across the road and took out all of the power for blocks for many days. For the first few days no one even came to do anything. They were too busy helping people who had real serious flooding problems out on the Neck. It was pretty bad out there and only accessible by boat for a while. The Coast Guard station is out there so I guess they could get some help if serious help was needed.

Anyway, Many, many, old trees fell over and for a couple of weeks all you could hear was the sound of chain saws and trucks carting away all the debris.

   I’m back, as promised yesterday with the tale of the Closet of Shame. Several years ago, on this blog I recounted the embarrassing tale of my so-called walk-in-closet. I named it the Closet of Shame since at that time it contained shelves, bags, and boxes of fabric that I had collected. If I never bought another yard of fabric I could start sewing today(if only) and keep on going for a large number of quilts. However, as we all know, there is a moment in making quilts and wall hangings when you realize that it just needs something elusive to make it what you imagined and that requires you to go into dangerous territory to find it. You know what I mean…you enter the shop and suddenly bolts of fabric throw themselves off the shelf into your arms. What can a girl do?? It kind of reminds me of the same thing that happens when you have recipes you have come across in a new book or on line. As much stuff as you may have in the pantry or fridge, you never have the right stuff for the recipe. But I digress violently….

 

121216_05 My DIL Dani’s Grandmother passed away a few weeks ago and so I ventured into the closet to get out the black pants and shirt for the wake and funeral. As I lifted the hangers and turned around to exit-I was viciously attacked by the entire Closet Maid shelves, all of my hanging clothes, and a large collection of Roger’s Lionel Train collection. Seriously, the whole darn thing just fell on me with a whoosh. Mercifully the clothes covering me kept me from being knocked out by the Lionel trains. Also mercifully, the train collection fell on soft clothing and we didn’t lose any of the precious trains either. As for me-I just started to laugh. What else was there to do. I was stuck under piles of clothing and trains so I just sat down and laughed. Then I figured I better hold tight to the black clothing and find a way out. Since it was late at night I didn’t even go over and tell Bob. Luckily for me I have the best BIL in the world and when he saw my predicament he just got to work figuring out a way to fix things. The worst part of the whole thing was that I had to find a place to put all the clothes and trains for the time being. Here we had a whole house standing empty with miles of space and couldn’t use it yet because we didn’t have the certificate of occupancy. I did manage to lay down a soft blanket and put all the trains on the floor of my new sewing room since it was a weekend. By Monday Bob got things pretty well done and as for the clothing, it went on top of the already mountainous piles of stuff in my bedroom. Piles on the plastic tubs-piles on the floor, piles of bedding and other stuff. It was really just time to put on blinders and keep moving. 

As I sit here we have just finished dinner and are looking forward to having the house looked at by the permit people and the electrical permit people hopefully tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Oh! and speaking of electrical wiring-this morning before it was even light outside somewhere between 4-5 maybe, my smoke alarm went off. After I pealed myself off the ceiling I tried to wake up enough to figure out what to do. The screaming in my ear of that little bugger made me feel murderous so I got a little ladder and ripped that sucker out by the wires. I’ll grab on the the many electrician/worker bees to help me put in anew one. It was very old. Maybe had a short or something. Wow is the alarm loud at that hour!

121216_04This is where there was a salt marsh. It looks like Long Island Sound but it’s not.It was really deep and high.

Taking my Kindle up to read for a while before I fall asleep. Back soon.

5 comments:

Gerrie said...

You are baa-aack! Yay! Love the closet story.

Three Birds Inspired said...

Great attitude about the closet - when all else fails, laugh! I have issues with my smoke alarms because they are all connected so that when one goes off, they all go off. I have done some reading and it seems that lots of folks have problems with the alarms going off in the middle of the night for no reason. I yanked the one in my bedroom about a year ago and replaced it with one in the basement. There is absolutely nothing in the basement that could catch fire so I am not terribly concerned. When I investigated getting a replacement, I discovered that the company was sold to another company AND everything has a new wiring harness. Nice.

Rian said...

Welcome back! Happy New Year!

Debra Dixon said...

I'm sure all the piles everywhere is a nightmare now but imagine how spectacular it will be finished!

You are a trooper!

Janet said...

It's good to know you made it out of that closet! And living with piles of stuff everywhere must be a challenge but it looks like you're on the final part of this project and will soon be enjoying your new home surrounded by your family.