So we more or less dodged the Rita bullet.
Of course areas of Texas got it bad. The levy broke in NO and the 9th ward is back under water. There is certainly nothing good about Rita. Nevertheless:
The theme today is “things could have been much worse.” I don’t have a song. Sorry.

Just about the time I finished posting RITA I, Tom called and he had laid in some provisions to ride out the storm so to speak (“ride out the storm” being a figure of speech. There was no actual riding involved). Some steaks. Some things to drink. So at about 3 in the afternoon we were sitting on his porch like a couple of old coots watching the sky slowly rip itself apart. Occasionally there would be bursts of wind and rain that made it impossible to see across the street, but mostly it was blustery and enjoyably dramatic. We quoted some appropriate lines from King Lear, discussed matters of great and universal import and the afternoon passed.

As it got dark and intense we moved in, and decided to use whatever electrical power we had left on the DVD player, so we watched movies, ate, occasionally checked the weather radar on the internet, and eventually both fell asleep in our respective chairs during the second half of Lawrence Of Arabia. We both awoke to a blank TV screen (still with power) almost simultaneously and a bit disoriented at about 4 am, and although it was storming pretty heavily, I headed home.

Weaving my way through the fallen trees and other debris (almost identical to Katrina) I got home to discover that there was no power. Using my cell-phone as a flashlight (isn’t that what all Amish people do) I got some candles lit, and then blew them out and went to sleep.

Woke up to that distinct silence of no electricity. Power outages are not a unique experience by any stretch, but they are strange. The way the heat seems to slowly build up as the conditioned air slowly seeps out of the house. The way the silence seems so loud. Your relationship to familiar architecture is transformed as the connection between the inside and the outside of the house is recompiled. But the main thing that gets me about it is the fact that it could come back at any second. No warning, suddenly the computer monitor clicks and the ceiling fan starts to turn. Then it can go out just as suddenly without warning, and there’s nothing you can do.

So I get up and cook some eggs cause who knows how long the refrigerator will be out. And turning the gas knob to turn the burner off turns the power back on. Quick make coffee, sit down to eat and, bam, it’s gone again. And that’s how the day went. On for awhile off for awhile. It was different times for everybody. Different people on different rhythms.

There is definitely a different sense this time from Katrina. With Katrina people were much more willing to allow their lives to just stop. To not expect things to be working. With this one, there is a bit more of a sense that we want to get on with things. School has been cancelled for Monday, but whereas with Katrina there was surprise at the businesses that were open, today there was surprise at the places that are closed.

A couple grad students joined Tom and I in the evening to go looking for Mexican food (I had a hankering). Everywhere we went was unbelievably PACKED. Hour and a half wait etc. Tom said, “What is it about hurricanes that makes people want beans? You’d think it was windy enough!” Obviously we’ve reached a point of cultural transcendence. We ended up at a crowded rib joint.

I know that all over the region tonight are people holed up, trying to get through, but we saw an awful lot of people out who just wanted to get away from the fact that there was no power at home and spend some time where they could fool themselves into feeling normal. I hardly heard anyone talking about the hurricane.

Everyone knows there’s five more weeks of hurricane season…