Compass & Quill

I just spent the last hour writing a harsh retrospective on my experiences over the last week in dealing with Hurricane Isaac. After reading over it, I realized it would invite too many comments, and I neither have the patience nor the will to deal with that kind of drama. Let’s just say that I’ve sheltered in place for at least 12 hurricanes in my lifetime, and this was the lamest storm I’ve lived through, with damage in the metro area that says much more about the inefficiencies of our city and state government than the strength of the storm, itself.

Our power was out from Tuesday night through to a couple of hours ago, and it really makes no sense to me at all. A friend of mine called the storm “endless torrential drizzle” and that’s the best description I’ve heard. Yes, there’s flooding now in a lot of places, but it’s a result of a slow moving storm that dumped a shit ton of water on us – not because we had a strong, scary hurricane that left us shaking in our boots. For people like me, living on high ground in the metro area, it looked and felt like a very calm rain storm (think a little stronger than a Seattle afternoon). Still, no power, and no line crews for days. I left the city today to enjoy my inlaws’ electricity in the suburbs, and finally saw trucks going into the city. Having lived in eastern NC and in Chicago, both of which send electric crews out in the middle of natural disasters to fix electric lines, I’m still not sure why we didn’t get our power back for days when we were having a bit of rain.

But anyway, I’m over it. I’m also over New Orleans. If this is how the city deals with Category 1 storms, I’m really not feeling like sticking around to see the ineptitude that will follow a Category 3. Next time I’m taking the cats and leaving, with or without The Man. I have a feeling he’ll want to go, too, though.

So my diet has gone to shit over this week. Half of our food went bad, and the other half is still sitting in an ice chest, or maybe The Man has put it back in the fridge by now – I’m at his parents’ house in the AC, so no clue. I ate chips, dip, cheese, any free food that people would give me, and a huge hot plate from Rouse’s today. Starting tomorrow I’m going vegetarian, and closer to vegan if possible. It’s not like I have to eat my way through any leftovers before starting the plan. Hope to go back to yoga tomorrow, too. I need more calm in my life.