Day 5: On the Road Again (kinda)

I didn’t post yesterday for the third time in more than a year and it doesn’t feel good. Any routine I can maintain for myself and my family at this point is gold. We are safe, details to come. Actually I’m a little tired and if it’s okay with you I’m just going to write what I want to write today. I don’t know what we’re doing but we’re okay. It’s moment to moment.

The basics have become much less basic-seeming, less a given, more precious and luxurious.

Shelter (and heat for it) Food (and a way to refrigerate and cook it) Drinking water Bathing water Community Purpose Routine

I never thought about some of the things I’ve been thinking about, and dealing with personally or helping friends through these days. Eg:

Would you rather do without gas, electricity, or water?

If you lost everything, everything, what would you buy first? How would you buy it with no cash, no cards, and no ID? And no clothing to wear?

What would I do if I lived pretty month-to-month already and Iost my home and my workplace in one day? Who would house me? Who would set up a gofundme account for me and just send it out because every dollar would help?

As for us, our particular situation, as of last night, is we’ve accepted one of many guest room offers — from a local I didn’t even really know who is going out of town for a bit and has room for all of us plus the big 3: power, gas, & electric — and the bonus 2 — internet and access. Access, meaning, we can get in and out without scheduling a sheriff’s escort which is good, even though not home. And access meaning if school does open up next week we can get there too.

Last night at the school assembly, which was not actually at our school but some other school, a mother asked, “What do we tell our kids next time it rains?”

There were maybe 40 public safety officials, grief counselors, the principal, and other staff there and no one really seemed to have an answer, from what I can tell. Here’s something like what I’d tell Ax, after I edit it with Mike of course, “Bad things happen. A very bad thing happened. Nature is powerful but generally rain is not dangerous. I don’t know if that thing will happen again or not but right now we are okay and we are safe and I think that’s the way it’s going to be for a long long time. I hope it is. Now, unless you want to talk about it more, what do you want to play?”

I’m gonna keep going.